Compare home insurance
Protect your home and possessions from as little as £180 a year[1]
What does home insurance cover?
Home insurance protects you from things like fire damage to your home, or theft of your belongings. It'll pay out to replace your property or repair your house if something unexpected happens.
It comes in two parts – buildings insurance and contents insurance – which can be bought individually or together as a single policy.
Buildings insurance
Buildings insurance covers damages to the structure of your home and its permanent fixtures and fittings. This includes things like your windows, flooring, walls and roofs. Garages, sheds and fences may be covered too.
It'll cover you for unexpected damages like fire, storms and floods, but not for damages caused by poor workmanship or general wear and tear.
Contents insurance
Contents insurance covers you for the loss, damage, or theft of your personal possessions and valuables. This includes things like your electricals, appliances, furniture and jewellery.
Individual items are only covered up to a certain amount. You'll see this called a 'single item limit', and it's usually £1,000. If you have possessions worth more than the single item limit, list them separately on your policy.
Combined insurance
A combined buildings and contents insurance policy covers the structure of your home and your belongings.
If you need both, then taking out one policy with the same provider usually works out cheaper.
It can make things simpler if you need to make a claim too. For example, if there’s a fire it’ll be far easier reporting it all to one insurer instead of two.
Looking for something else?
If you need something more specific than standard buildings and contents insurance, there are plenty of different types of home insurance available.
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Renters insurance
Renters insurance is home contents insurance, but for tenants. Renters don’t need buildings insurance – that’s the landlord’s responsibility.
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Landlord insurance
If you let a property, you’ll need the right insurance to look after the occupiers of the property - and the building itself.
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Unoccupied home insurance
If your property is left unoccupied for an extended period of time, you may need specialist unoccupied home cover..
How to keep the cost of your policy down
Shopping around for quotes every year isn't the only way to save.
Our home insurance expert, Ryan Fulthorpe, has five more tips that could help keep costs down:
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Improve your home security
Get insurer-approved locks for your home, as well as smoke and burglar alarm systems
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Look out for admin costs
Check for hidden expenses on home insurance. A more expensive policy could work out cheaper when admin fees are factored in
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Don't over-insure
Overestimating the value of your contents and the rebuild cost of your home will increase your premium. But if you're in any doubt, it's better to overestimate than underestimate
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Only pay for what you need
You'll be offered a variety of optional extras when you apply for home insurance. Remember the best home insurance policy for you is one that offers the cover you need at an affordable price
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Pay annually
With monthly payments, you'll have to pay interest and sometimes a finance arrangement fee, so it'll be more expensive
How much does home insurance cost?
The average price paid by our customers for a combined home insurance policy is just under £180 a year.*
Individual cover is cheaper, but you won’t get the same amount of cover as you would with a combined policy.
Your own quotes will depend on how likely the insurer thinks you are to make a claim, the value of your building or contents and the level of cover you choose.
Insurers use a whole host of factors to price your insurance - home security, risk of flooding and subsidence could all increase or decrease the cost.
Find out more about the costs of home insurance >
Over 900 home insurance customers rated us on average[2]
4.7 out of 5
on Trustpilot
Reviews from our customers
Here’s what some of our customers had to say about our service:
Quick simple got the cover I wanted at a very good price
Very easy to complete the online application with all relevant information and then clearly see the most competitive prices.
Excellent service every time.
Absolutely excellent very cheap insurance
Customise your policy with optional extras
You can add upgrades to your home insurance policy if you need them. You’ll have to pay extra for them, so think about whether they’re worth the extra cost.
Accidental damage cover
This'll cover you for claims due to accidents in the home like a spilt glass of wine on a rug or a smashed window. Damage caused by children is usually included, but rarely pets and amateur DIY.
More about accidental damage cover >
Home emergency cover
This’ll protect you against things like boiler breakdowns, electrical failure and blocked drains. It’ll cover the cost of calling out an approved tradesman to get your services up and running again, as well as any replacement parts needed.
Legal expenses cover
Help for the costs of being sued and/or making a claim against someone else. Personal injury claims and property disputes with neighbours are times you may need to use it.
More about legal cover and home insurance >
Personal belongings insurance
Standard contents insurance will only cover your items while they’re in your house. If you want cover when you're away from home, you’ll need personal belongings insurance.
Frequently asked questions
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Home insurance isn’t compulsory, but it’s a good idea to have some protection in place. Think about whether you could afford to replace your home or possessions if something happened.
If you have a mortgage, your mortgage provider will insist on having buildings insurance as a condition of the loan.
Insuring your belongings is a more personal decision. Again, you’d have to find the money to replace your things if something happened and you didn’t have contents insurance.
If you rent your property, you won’t need buildings insurance - that's your landlord's responsibility.
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You can buy home insurance up to 29 days before you want the policy to start.
But our research shows that the later you leave it, the more you’re likely to end up paying.
The cheapest time to buy your next buildings and contents insurance policy is 27 days before your existing policy ends.[4]
It’ll cost around 27% less than it would to buy it the day before your existing policy renews.
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Each provider will list their own exclusions in the policy documents, but most will exclude:
- Damage as a result of shoddy workmanship
- Wear and tear or age
- Mechanical breakdown
- Losses caused by negligence - like leaving the door unlocked and getting burgled
- Building work and renovations you didn’t tell the insurer about
- Anything not described correctly on your policy – like not declaring an area of flat roof
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You can, but you’ll need to tell the insurer about any building work or home renovations that are underway or planned to take place during the policy period. Insurers need to know about:
- Structural alterations to the layout of the property, such as building an extension
- Major structural renovations like rewiring or re-plumbing the property
- Loft, cellar, basement or integrated garage conversions
If you don’t tell your insurer about structural building works, and something goes wrong, it’s very unlikely your insurer will help you with any of the costs, and your policy could be invalidated.
You don’t need to tell them about simpler refurbishment works, though. Things like redecorating or fitting a new bathroom or kitchen are fine to do without telling your insurer.
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Insurance for properties with subsidence history can be difficult to find, so you’ll likely need to go with a specialist provider. Most policies will cover loss and damage caused by subsidence, however, they may not cover the cost of preventing further subsidence from occurring.
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If your home is at high risk of flooding, it's worth looking into flood insurance. Flood Re may be able to help you find affordable home insurance, even if there’s significant risk of flooding.
Page last reviewed: 08 Septrember 2021
Next review due: 08 December 2021
[1]The average price paid for home insurance annually through GoCompare in March 2021, by type.
[2]Based on Trustpilot: Our average rating of 4.7 out of 5 is from 915 people who left a review for home insurance comparison only. Last checked 07 September 2021.
[3]As of June 2021, there are 68 active home insurers on the panel at GoCompare
[4]Median best annual buildings and contents insurance premium returned from all customers quoting between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2021 through GoCompare.
^Based on independent research by Consumer Intelligence during 01 May to 31 May: 51% of consumers could achieve a saving of up to £107.99 with Gocompare.com buildings and contents insurance based on a comparison of 36 companies.