When you’re deciding where to live there are lot of factors to consider, proximity to friends and family, job opportunities, quality of schools, % of pubs per capita and of course cost of living.
With a big chunk of that monthly pay cheque going towards rent or a mortgage we know it can differ quite significantly from city to city, but what about your home contents insurance?
That’s one of the fun questions which keep us up at night here at Urban Jungle so we decided to find out.
Let’s look at the numbers
We started digging deep into our data. We looked at a sample dataset of nearly 3,000 quotes for a typical 2-bed flat, in 10 of the UK’s largest cities plus London).
Surprise, surprise, London is among the most expensive cities to insure your home, but it might be surprising that Manchester puts up a good fight!
Want cheap home insurance? It’s time to move to Edinburgh or Cardiff which are the cheapest on average.
Cities ranked by average
| Ranking | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Edinburgh |
| 2 | Cardiff |
| 3 | Glasgow |
| 4 | Bristol |
| 5 | Sheffield |
| 6 | Liverpool |
| 7 | Birmingham |
| 8 | Bradford |
| 9 | Leeds |
| 10 | East London |
| 11 | South London |
| 12 | Manchester |
| 13 | North London |
| 14 | West London |
Is that the whole story?
The data geeks among you will have already spotted that the average isn’t everything. How much does it vary within it a city?
Well let’s find out by looking at the cheapest postcodes within each city…
Cities ranked by price in cheapest district
| Ranking | Postcode District | City | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BS37 4 | Bristol | +3 |
| 2 | G65 0 | Glasgow | +1 |
| 3 | EH14 4 | Edinburgh | -2 |
| 4 | S35 2 | Sheffield | +1 |
| 5 | L38 1 | Liverpool | +1 |
| 6 | N18 2 | North London | +7 |
| 7 | CF14 6 | Cardiff | -5 |
| 8 | SE13 6 | South London | +3 |
| 9 | LS1 1 | Leeds | - |
| 10 | B43 7 | Birmingham | -3 |
| 11 | E1W 9 | East London | -1 |
| 12 | BD13 5 | Bradford | -4 |
| 13 | M34 3 | Manchester | -1 |
| 14 | W9 4 | West London | - |
Edinburgh has to give up it’s top spot to Bristol, but Cardiff stumbles all the way back to 10th, with North London being the biggest winner and now coming in at place 6.
Living in CF11 6 might be more expensive than you think.
This big movement seems to suggest that within certain cities there’s quite a big difference in price depending on which postcode district you live in.
How much difference could where I live make to my home insurance?
Quite a lot it turns out.
We calculated the difference between the cheapest and most expensive district within a city.
Even in Cardiff, which has the smallest range of prices, it might cost £52.58 more to live in CF24 5, than in CF14 6. In North London, that rises to £387.89 difference between N18 2 and N6 5.
Cities ranked by price difference between postcode districts
| Ranking | City | Price difference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cardiff | £52.58 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | £83.62 |
| 3 | South London | £93.74 |
| 4 | West London | £94.43 |
| 5 | Bradford | £102.23 |
| 6 | Glasgow | £102.80 |
| 7 | Birmingham | £113.95 |
| 8 | Sheffield | £154.84 |
| 9 | Manchester | £186.76 |
| 10 | East London | £198.90 |
| 11 | Leeds | £213.53 |
| 12 | Liverpool | £261.87 |
| 13 | Bristol | £305.30 |
| 14 | North London | £387.89 |
This seems to suggest that the area within a city you live might have an even bigger impact on the cost of your home contents insurance than the city itself. Mind blowing, right?
We suggest that when you’re moving house you try to take into account all of the costs of living in the area, so you can plan accordingly.
Urban Jungle is not a financial advisor and information in this article should not be taken as advice or recommendation.
