A study of home insurance quotes from Moneysupermarket.com on the home contents insurance industry has revealed that people in Britain are keeping antiques and collections worth an average of more than 6,000 in their homes throughout the recession, boosting their insurance premiums in the process.
Stamp collections were found to be the most valuable household hoard, reaching an average of 6,138, while the average insured art collection is worth 4,209. Gold is another material that appears to be in abundance on home insurance policies, with an average of more than 3,500 in thousands of homes in Britain. Medals weighed in at an average total of around 4,500 in value.
The head of building and contents insurance at MoneySupermarket, Julie Fisher, commented: “This ‘hoarding’ is an interesting phenomenon seemingly borne out of our current difficult economic times. Perhaps many are shunning more traditional savings routes, buying gold and antiques rather stashing their money in the bank. It seems we are all looking at our possessions and scrutinising their proper value, keeping and insuring things that we may have thrown away or sold.
“Also, with the price of gold hitting close to a staggering high of $1,900* an ounce, it’s interesting that many homes in Britain are holding onto their gold, rather than selling it for cash as many have done in the past.”
Julie Fisher added: “The era of ‘Rule Britannia’ is alive and well but whether people have inherited valuable heirlooms, or have scoured shops and markets to unearth valuable retro treasures, it’s crucial to understand how underestimating the overall value of home contents could leave you underinsured and severely out of pocket.”
Based on figures in spring 2011, laptops were found to be the most common item to appear in insurance quotes, with 42 per cent of all individually insured items. The personal value of bicycles is also on the rise at 22 per cent of that list.
The Channel Islands has the most valuable stash of specified items at 4,288. In terms of frequency of appearance on home insurance quotes, laptops and bicycles were the most common, with the former making up 42 per cent and the latter 22 per cent of the specified items.
The Monitor also found that the average buildings and contents insurance premium in Britain has fallen by 0.4 per cent from June 2010 to May 2011 to 152.44, with homeowners in Jersey seeing the greatest fall.
Contents insurance can protect you if your home is broken into and your belongings stolen.