May 3, 2011 | Author

Author Julie Hanson

The cost to insure your home and its contents is steadily on the rise. Since January 2010 we have seen a national average rise of just six per cent or 2.5 pence per day, however new data from price comparison site Money Supermarket has shown that in some areas prices have rose by an astonishing 46 per cent.

This is the sad truth for residents of Dorking in Surrey where their home insurance premiums have now risen from an average of £119 to £174 over the last 14 months. That is an increase of 15 pence per day.

Greater London seems to have been hit hardest with five areas in the top twenty.

Julie Owens, head of home insurance at moneysupermarket.com said: “Unfortunately for consumers, things look set to get worse with the increase in prices unlikely to slow down in the coming years. As our research shows, some areas have been harder hit by rising premiums than others; unfortunately, postcodes can dramatically affect how much people pay for their home insurance premium.”

It is not just the South that has been hit, homeowners in Edinburgh and Glasgow have seen similar rises by 45 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

The home insurance winners

There are some areas that have come out well from this latest data. Most notably are Highbridge near Weston Super-mare and surprisingly Liverpool. From the analysis of 3.4 million quotations these areas have seen a 15 per cent and 14 per cent reduction respectively.

So why are some areas being hit harder than others?

Insurers will take into account a number of factors when working out your overall premium. For example if your property is located in an area that is at risk to flooding or even fraudulent claims then this will be reflected in your home insurance premiums.

Julie Owens continued “Insurers use postcodes as a part of the overall risk factors when calculating premiums so unfortunately, postcodes can dramatically affect how much people pay for their home insurance premium.”