Home insurance quote jumped by 54% this year, is this normal ?

A lot of companies have raised the rebuild cost of policies in line with inflation and other factors so check your rebuild cost here https://scsi.ie/consumer/build/calculator/ My insurance went up 30% but they were adding way too much for my rebuild costs so I got it back to near enough the same as last years policy. Make sure you ring around or do online quotes to get the best deal though, don't just stay with the same company if they are over the odds.

Cost of claims are well up, given labour and materials prices going up. Also as referenced previously, SCSI rates are reflective of this so sums insured for Buildings are going up. For example a bungalow rebuild has gone up by 12% from 2022 to 2023 in the region I live in.

Dont cut the sum insured short though. Most policies have Average (or proportionate settlement) & if you have any decent claim the arse will be cut out of it if you’re substantially underinsured.

I used this site and my quote also went up about 30% this year. Went through about 5 other providers and all were much higher.

If the site on which your house is built has a relatively high value, the rebuild cost could be less than the sale value of the house. The opposite can be the case in less desirable suburbs, depressed towns or in remote parts of the country. In those places, the sale value could be less than the rebuild cost because of low demand.

To answer your question, as a 'rule of thumb', I would completely ignore the sale value of your house, it has very little to do with the rebuild cost. The size of your house clearly has a bearing on it's sale value but the principal determining factor is 'location, location, location'. Whereas the rebuild cost is determined by the cost of labour and materials and the availability of a builder to take on the job. All of which are going to be pretty much the same within a specific geographical area.

AXA with their renewal was still just about the cheapest. Tried BOI and was about €80 more.

Called AXA this morning and they knocked another 50 off, so happy with that.

For several years now, I have tracked the rate (per €1,000 rebuild) I am being quoted by the various companies when I shop around for my renewal.

Here is the lowest rate I was quoted for the past three years. This is the annual premium divided by the rebuild cost in €1,000s ......

2021 71.7c

2022 70.0c

2023 71.2c

Which says that, for a given level of cover, home insurance is not going up in price. If your premium is rising, it's probably because your insurance company has raised the level of cover. But if you get a renewal quote with a higher premium, even though the level of cover is the same or has not increased by the same % as the premium, they're screwing you.

Given scarcity of labour and material inflation it's very possible.

I was stung by Zurich with a 33% increase in my home insurance quotation. I am shopping around but I haven't found a better quote yet. Most of the increase is due to inflation in construction costs. Zurich added 25% to the cost of rebuilding our house based on SCSI figures i.e. two years' inflation.

I could save about €50 if I upped my excess from €250 to €500 but that means I wouldn't make a claim for anything less than €1,000 because I don't want to lose my no claims bonus.

Does anyone know of any insurer seriously competing for this business at present?

Thanks for the tip but, sadly in my case, Zurich have applied a value consistent with SCSI estimates which have increased drastically in the last few years.

With all the talk about construction cost inflation, I don't think anyone in the media has highlighted this inflationary impact.

Ah shure, never mind, it only costs an extra couple of hundred Euro a year for every household in the country!

I saw a number of articles like that - "be sure to up your insurance cover or you'll regret it".

I'm making a separate, though related, point: inflation in construction is not just an issue for those building or buying new properties. It will add to inflation in the broad economy and hit householders in their pockets i.e. we will pay more for the same thing.