How Much Is Landlord Insurance In The UK?
The median cost of landlord insurance in the UK is £285 a year for buildings-only cover, which works out at about £24 a month. Most landlords pay somewhere between £188 and £364, depending on the property.
The single most useful thing to know is that premiums track rebuild value almost in a straight line. Budget roughly £110 a year for every £100,000 it would cost to rebuild your property.
Then adjust for where the property is, who lives in it and what extras you add. For the wider market picture, see our UK landlord statistics.
This page breaks the price down by property type, rebuild value, postcode, tenant type and add-on. It also covers the parts of the premium nobody explains, like tax, excess and what happens after you claim.
Landlord insurance costs £285 per year on average, but your actual premium depends on property type, rebuild value, location, and tenant profile.
Shopping around and comparing quotes is the single most effective way to reduce what you pay.
- What is the average cost of landlord insurance in the UK?
- What affects the cost of landlord insurance?
- How much does landlord insurance cost by region?
- How much do landlord insurance add-ons cost?
- How does tenant type affect landlord insurance premiums?
- Can you reduce the cost of landlord insurance?
- Is landlord insurance a legal requirement?
- How will the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 affect landlord insurance?
- What does landlord insurance cover?
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is the average cost of landlord insurance?
The median landlord insurance premium in 2026 is £285 a year for a standard buildings-only policy with no optional extras. Half of landlords pay less than that and half pay more.
What does that work out at per month?
£285 a year is roughly £24 a month if you pay annually. Paying by monthly instalment usually costs more, because most insurers charge interest on the balance.
Comparison adverts often quote monthly figures around £14, which reflects the cheapest end of the market rather than the typical policy. The median is the more honest number to plan around.
Why median and not average?
A handful of very expensive policies, mainly blocks of flats and high-value London property, drag a simple average upwards. The median sits in the middle of the range and better describes what a normal landlord pays.
Every figure on this page is a median annual premium taken from quote data across the UK market. If you want the definition of the product itself first, start with what landlord insurance is.
How much does landlord insurance cost by property type?
Individual homes cost between £188 and £364 a year to insure. Blocks of flats cost two to three times more, because one policy covers the whole building rather than a single home.
Hover, tap or arrow-key a property type. Eight of the ten sit between £188 and £364. Whole-block policies then jump to £714 and £823, because one policy covers the entire building rather than a single home.
| Property type | Median annual premium | Share of quotes |
|---|---|---|
| Block of flats (purpose built) | £823 | 1.8% |
| Block of flats (conversion) | £714 | 8.5% |
| Detached house | £364 | 6.5% |
| Bungalow (detached) | £311 | 2.4% |
| Individual flat (conversion) | £284 | 1.4% |
| Semi-detached house | £280 | 19.9% |
| Terraced house | £269 | 49.1% |
| Individual flat (purpose built) | £255 | 6.3% |
| Bungalow (semi-detached) | £252 | 1.6% |
| Tyneside flat | £188 | 0.8% |
Median annual premium for a standard policy with no optional extras. Medians are used rather than averages because a small number of very high-value policies pull the mean upwards. Share of quotes covers the ten property types listed and sums to 98.3%; the remaining 1.7% sits across less common property types. Blocks of flats are insured as a whole building, so are not directly comparable with the individual-home figures above them. Bars are scaled to £900. Source: UK landlord insurance quote-panel analysis, 2026.
Why do blocks of flats cost so much more?
A block policy insures the entire structure, every flat inside it and the communal areas. The rebuild value is far higher and one incident can affect several homes at once.
That is why an individual purpose-built flat costs £255 while a purpose-built block costs £823. They are the same kind of building priced two entirely different ways, and if you own the freehold you need block of flats insurance rather than a single-property policy.
What about houses in multiple occupation?
Shared houses sit outside the standard property types because the risk is driven by how the property is let, not how it is built. Most insurers price HMO insurance separately, and mixed-tenant HMOs are the most expensive tenant category in the data below.
How does rebuild value change the price?
Rebuild value is the strongest single predictor of your premium. Budget roughly £110 a year for every £100,000 of rebuild cost.
Hover, tap or arrow-key a point. Premiums track rebuild value closely, at around £110 a year for every £100,000 of rebuild cost, holding steady across the whole range from £150,000 to £750,000. The £285 median premium corresponds to a rebuild value of roughly £300,000.
| Rebuild value | Estimated annual premium | Per £100,000 of rebuild |
|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £167 | £111 |
| £200,000 | £190 | £95 |
| £300,000 | £281 | £94 |
| £400,000 | £404 | £101 |
| £500,000 | £542 | £108 |
| £750,000 | £830 | £111 |
Estimated annual premium for buildings-only cover, plotted against rebuild value on a true-to-scale axis. The intervals between values are uneven, so evenly spaced points would distort the curve. These are estimated premiums rather than medians, so they describe the shape of the relationship rather than what any single property would be quoted. No official statistics publish insurance pricing by rebuild value. Source: UK landlord insurance quote-panel analysis, 2026.
Why the rule of thumb works
Across the whole range the cost per £100,000 of rebuild value stays between £94 and £111. That consistency is what makes the estimate reliable enough to plan around.
The £285 median premium corresponds to a rebuild value of roughly £300,000. If your rebuild figure is well above or below that, expect your premium to move with it.
Why rebuild value is not market value
Rebuild value is what it would cost to demolish and rebuild the property from scratch. It excludes the land, which is often the larger part of what you paid.
Insuring for market value means paying for cover you cannot claim, and it is one of the most common ways landlords overpay. Your mortgage valuation or a chartered surveyor will give you the right figure, and landlord building insurance is priced on it.
How much does location change the price?
Location moves the price more than any other single factor. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive postcodes is more than £1,390 a year, a twentyfold difference.
Hover, tap or arrow-key a postcode. Location moves the price further than any other single factor: the same cover costs twenty times more in Hampstead than in Hereford, a difference of £1,397 a year.
| Postcode | Area | Median annual premium |
|---|---|---|
| NW3 | Hampstead, London | £1,470 |
| SW11 | Battersea, London | £1,210 |
| NW6 | Kilburn, London | £1,157 |
| SW14 | Mortlake, London | £1,130 |
| SW6 | Fulham, London | £1,096 |
| LN6 | Lincoln | £92 |
| DE13 | Burton upon Trent | £78 |
| HR4 | Hereford | £73 |
Median annual premium for a standard policy with no optional extras. These are the five most expensive and three cheapest postcodes from a fuller ranking, not a distribution, so the gap between the two groups reflects the postcodes not shown rather than an absence of properties priced in between. Bars are scaled to £1,500. Source: UK landlord insurance quote-panel analysis, 2026 [CONFIRM PROVIDER BEFORE PUBLISHING].
Why London costs so much more
Rebuild costs are higher in London, and so are theft, escape of water and subsidence claim rates. The five priciest postcodes in the country are all London ones.
What drives the cheapest postcodes
Rural and northern postcodes combine lower rebuild costs with fewer claims. Flood exposure is the exception that can push a rural premium up sharply, and you can check any property’s long term flood risk in England before you buy.
How does tenant type affect the premium?
Retired tenants are the cheapest to insure at £264 a year. Mixed-tenant HMOs are the most expensive at £555, more than double.
| Tenant type | Median annual premium | Share of quotes |
| Retired | £264 | 3.0% |
| Employed | £276 | 73.4% |
| Housing benefit | £288 | 7.3% |
| Self-employed | £340 | 0.7% |
| Student | £372 | 8.2% |
| Unoccupied (no tenants) | £372 | 1.5% |
| Company let | £465 | 0.9% |
| Mixed tenants (HMO) | £555 | 2.5% |
Why students and shared houses cost more
More people in a property means more wear, more accidental damage and more chance of a claim. Student lets also stand empty over the summer, which raises the theft and escape of water risk.
Does letting to housing benefit tenants cost more?
Only slightly. Housing benefit tenants sit at £288 against £276 for employed tenants, a difference of £12 a year, though fewer insurers will quote at all, which is the real reason landlords look for DSS landlord insurance.
What if the property is empty?
An unoccupied property costs £372 to insure, the same as a student let. Most standard policies restrict cover after 30 or 45 days empty, so a long void needs unoccupied property cover.
What do landlord insurance add-ons cost?
Add-ons vary widely by insurer, from around £12 a year for basic contents cover up to roughly £195 for rent guarantee, so check each one against your own quote. Adding all four common extras roughly doubles a median policy.
| Add-on | Typical annual cost | What it covers |
| Landlord contents (£10k) | £12 | Your furniture, appliances and fittings |
| Landlord contents (£20k) | £16 | Higher limit for furnished lets |
| Accidental damage | Built into rate | Tenant damages the building structure |
| Legal expenses (£50k) | £60 | Eviction proceedings, disputes, liability defence |
| Home emergency | £155 | Boiler failure, burst pipes, electrical breakdown |
| Rent guarantee (£12k to £50k) | £195 | Lost rental income if the tenant stops paying |
Which extras earn their place?
Contents cover at £12 a year is the clearest value on the list, even for a part-furnished let. Legal expenses at £60 has become more useful since possession moved to a grounds-based process.
Rent guarantee is the most expensive extra and the one worth thinking hardest about. It pays out if your tenant stops paying, and rent guarantee insurance typically covers up to 12 months of lost rent.
Related: What Is Landlord Home Emergency Cover?
What else is built into the price?
Around £30 of a £285 premium is Insurance Premium Tax. Your excess, your sum insured and your claims history all move the rest.
How much of your premium is tax?
Insurance Premium Tax is charged at the standard rate of 12% on landlord policies. On a £285 premium that is about £30.50.
It is included in the price you are quoted rather than added at checkout. The current IPT rates are published by HMRC.
How does your excess move the price?
Your excess is what you pay towards any claim before the insurer pays the rest. Raising the voluntary part from £100 to £500 lowers the premium, because you are carrying more of the small claims yourself.
Only raise it to a level you could pay tomorrow without difficulty. An excess you cannot afford turns a covered loss into an uncovered one.
What does underinsurance cost you?
If your sum insured is lower than the true rebuild cost, most insurers apply the average clause and reduce any payout by the same proportion. Insure for £150,000 when the rebuild cost is £200,000 and a £20,000 claim could pay out £15,000.
Related: What Does Landlord Insurance Cover?
What happens to your premium after a claim?
A claim usually raises your premium at the next two or three renewals, and repeat claims of the same type raise it most. The size of the increase depends on the claim type more than the amount.
Which claims are most likely?
Escape of water is the most common landlord claim by a wide margin, and the average payout has more than doubled since 2020. Storm damage is the second most frequent.
A single escape of water claim can cost more than 25 years of premiums on a median policy. That is worth remembering before deciding a low-cost policy with restricted cover is the cheaper option.
How do you estimate what you will pay?
Start from the median for your property type, adjust for rebuild value, then add the extras you actually need. That gets most landlords within about £50 of a real quote.
The three step method
Step one, take the median for your property type from the table above. A terraced house starts at £269.
Step two, adjust for rebuild value using £110 per £100,000. If your rebuild figure is £150,000 rather than the £300,000 the median reflects, expect to come in below the starting figure.
Step three, add the extras. Contents at £12, legal expenses at £60 and rent guarantee at £195 are the common ones.
Where the estimate goes wrong
Postcode is the variable that breaks the method. A London property can sit four or five times above the national median regardless of type or rebuild value.
Portfolio landlords are the other exception, because multiple properties on one policy are priced differently from single lets. Portfolio landlord insurance is usually cheaper per property than insuring each one separately.
Is landlord insurance getting more expensive?
Household premiums across the wider market have been broadly flat over the past year, but the cost of claims has risen sharply. That gap is what keeps upward pressure on landlord premiums.
What the market data shows
The nearest official benchmark is the Association of British Insurers’ household premium tracker. It put the average combined home policy at £383 between April and June 2026, £9 lower than the same quarter a year earlier.
Landlord policies are priced separately from owner-occupier cover and are not included in that figure. They face the same underlying cost pressures, though.
Why claims costs are pushing prices up
UK property insurers paid out a record £6.1 billion in claims during 2025, driven by storms, flooding and subsidence, according to figures published by the ABI. Rebuilding costs and labour rates have risen alongside them.
Escape of water is the biggest single driver. The average payout on that claim type has more than doubled since 2020.
How can you bring the cost down?
Insuring for the correct rebuild value, raising your voluntary excess and paying annually are the three changes that move the price most. Shopping around at renewal beats all of them.
What moves the price most
Approved security helps, and so does avoiding over-insuring. Deadlocks to BS3621, an alarm and security lighting all reduce the assessed risk.
Loyalty does not pay in insurance, and renewal quotes are rarely the best available. There is more detail in our guide on how to get cheaper landlord insurance.
Is it cheaper to pay annually or monthly?
Annual payment is almost always cheaper, because monthly instalments carry interest. The gap has narrowed, though: the FCA’s premium finance market study found the cost of paying monthly has fallen since the Consumer Duty came in, saving consumers around £157 million a year.
Check the APR on the quote rather than assuming. Some insurers now offer 0% instalments, which removes the penalty entirely.
How did the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 change insurance costs?
The Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and its first major changes took effect on 1 May 2026. The main insurance consequence is that possession takes longer, which makes rent guarantee and legal expenses cover more valuable.
What changed on 1 May 2026
Section 21 no-fault evictions were abolished and all assured tenancies became periodic from day one. Rent increases are limited to once a year, rental bidding is banned and rent in advance is capped at one month, as set out in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
A landlord ombudsman and a national property portal are expected later in 2026. Neither changes your premium directly, but both add to the cost of getting possession wrong.
What it means for your cover
Grounds-based possession takes longer than Section 21 did, so arrears run for longer before a property can be recovered. That is the case for rent guarantee cover, and for legal expenses cover to fund the proceedings.
Regulation is also changing who stays in the market. The government’s English Private Landlord Survey found 31% of landlords planned to reduce the size of their portfolio within two years, including 16% who planned to sell all their properties.
If you let short term through a platform, standard policies usually exclude it and you will need Airbnb and short let cover instead.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
About £24 a month if you pay the £285 median annually and divide it across the year. Paying by monthly instalment usually costs more, though some insurers now offer 0% options.
The median is £285 a year for buildings-only cover in 2026. Most individual homes fall between £188 and £364, while blocks of flats run from £714 to £823.
Location is the usual reason, followed by rebuild value. A London postcode can sit four or five times above the national median on its own.
No, but your mortgage lender will almost certainly require buildings cover as a condition of the loan. Letting without it also leaves you personally exposed to liability claims.
Yes, generally. Landlord policies carry property owners’ liability and the risk profile of a tenanted property, which standard home insurance does not price for.
Around £195 a year for cover between £12,000 and £50,000. It is the most expensive common add-on and has become more relevant since possession moved to a grounds-based process.
No. Landlord contents cover protects your furniture, appliances and fittings only, so your tenants need their own policy for their possessions.
Insurance Premium Tax is charged at 12%, so about £30.50 of a £285 premium. It is included in the quoted price rather than added separately.