Not only do we strive to provide you great information regarding life insurance on this blog, but we also give you tips about personal finance and how to save money in every experiences. Today we’re going to try combining the insurance world with personal finance world by bringing you a guest piece regarding Home Insurance.

Last month, price comparison site Money Supermarket.com released an index on home insurance which gave an insight on three key issues when it comes to insuring your home and its contents. These were:

• How your postcode effects your home and contents insurance premium
• The types of claims people are making and when
• Peoples hoarding habits when it comes to items of value

The index revealed a very slight decrease in the cost of home insurance over the last year but according to Julie Fisher, head of the home insurance channel at the price comparison site, the outlook is bleak for the home insurance market.

“The threat of flooding continues to loom large over many UK properties, and coupled with incidents like the recent spate of riots across the UK it is clear there are many influencing factors impacting the cost of home insurance – let alone hikes to the cost of raw materials that impact on the rebuild value of a property and therefore buildings insurance.”
Julie continued “Although it’s doubtful the percentage rise in house insurance premiums will match that of car insurance premiums, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to ‘double digit’ percentage increases overall in the near future”.

Are you a winner in the home insurance postcode lottery?
The postcode lottery relates to how an insurer works out your premium. The area you live in has a direct correlation to the cost of your annual premium.

Insurers will work out your premium based on the risk surrounding your property. So if your street is a known crime hotspot or is prone to flooding then you will almost certainly suffer from a higher premium than those in much safer postcodes.

Even those people who live in more affluent areas can suffer from higher premiums due to the higher property prices and generally their higher value items within the property which could make them a target for burglars.

The index paid particular attention to channel island neighbours Jersey and Guernsey. Residents in Guernsey saw a massive increase of 32 per cent to the cost of their premiums while neighbours Jersey celebrated a 13 per cent reduction in their premiums.

To see if you are a winner or a loser in the postcode lottery, take a look at the following infographic.

(click to learn more from an infographic)

When and what types of claims people are making
The infographic also details the types of claims people are making and at what point in the year they are most common.

With buildings insurance ‘man made accidental’ damage was by far the most popular claim and as expected, weather related claims occurred most frequently during the winter.
As for contents insurance related claims ‘man made malicious’ was much more prevalent. After the riots seen across the country during the summer Julie Fisher believes we will see much higher premiums as a result.

“There is no doubt that after the Summer 2011 riots we will see an impact on the claims made for both buildings and contents insurance, and on resulting premiums.  While the impact was felt and seen in localised areas, it will be interesting to monitor the overall effect on the industry.”

‘Hoarding’ habits
Finally the index brought to light peoples ‘hoarding’ habits when it comes to their most valuable possessions.

Due to the current difficult economic times we are in, it seems people are keeping hold of their antiques and collections in a bid that their value will increase once we enter less troubled times.
Some are going even further and investing in buying gold and antiques in a bid that their value will increase, rather than opting for more traditional savings methods.
With the Bank of England base rate seemingly stuck at 0.5 per cent, savers are not getting much of a return on their money.

Gold has been increasing in value at a high rate over the years and people are keeping hold of their gold rather than selling it. This is backed up with a 10 per cent increase year on year in the value of gold people are insuring.

Interestingly stamp collections topped the list as the most valuable possession and as the infographic shows, over £188 million worth of jewellery was insured in spring 2011.
Money Supermarket spoke to customers at the Portobello market in London about their buying habits and why there is now such a keen interest in antiques and curios from both people young and old.

Video from the Money Supermarket Index