Are you considering moving to London or perhaps simply moving to a different borough? If so, have you taken a moment to have a look at how the move may affect your home insurance premiums? Believe it or not, your postcode CAN affect how much you need to pay to insure your home, sometimes fairly significantly and, as such, we wanted to take a look at the ten most expensive London boroughs for home insurance and asked our team of London mortgage brokers to share their findings.
When shopping around for home insurance, you’re always going to be met with different premium quotes from different insurers, however all will take into account certain factors when putting together a price, with these including the rates of burglary and flooding. Of course, this can also give an indication as to how ‘risky’ an area may be and could well be something you haven’t thought to consider previously.
Looking solely at London boroughs, those areas found to have the highest home insurance premiums back in 2012 were:
As you can see, a house on Fenchurch Street is likely to see home insurance premiums of £787 per year, a whopping £161 higher than the next on the list; Golders Green. Looking at average house prices, this equates to a premium of £1.49 per £1,000 house price on £526,868.
Of course, the cost of home insurance isn’t always going to be the deciding factor as to whether or not you move to an area, however it’s something which many people never even think to consider. You may be paying £300 in other parts of London, however a jump up to £787 is a huge difference and one which many can’t necessarily afford!
It always pays to do your research when buying a house and whilst most people only think to look at how much council tax they’ll pay and what their mortgage repayments are going to be, things such as home insurance premiums are one of the costs that could drop a bombshell should you face a high price without expecting it!
Looking a little further at what influences the price of home insurance premiums, we see:
- House Price
Houses which cost more will always come with a higher insurance premium anyway, given that it’ll cost more to repair or rebuild should the worst happen and a claim need to be made. By many, this is expected. - Flood Risk
What is the flood risk of a house you’re considering buying? A greater flood risk could mean far higher premiums given the fact that you’re statistically more likely to make a claim for water damage than in an area with a lower risk of flooding. - Crime Rates
What is the crime rate in the area? No one wants to be burgled, however this will increase premiums accordingly, again due to the fact that you’re more likely to make a claim whilst living there. You can research the crime rate in your area here.
Whilst we’re not suggesting you base a move decision upon the cost of home insurance, it’s one thing which many don’t factor in or consider and something which we believe should be looked at ahead of putting in an offer on a property.