My home insurance had expired and I was shopping around for a package. I had earlier purchased a home insurance package by AIA that costs me $169 for coverage of $16,000 in terms of home contents and $80,000 for building. It was sourced from an AIA agent whom I had bought an enhanced shield plan for myself and my daughter.

Let Foxkeh do the walking

However, when it was time to renew my home insurance, I decided to shop around using my Mozilla Firefox browser to check out at least 2-3 other competing offers on the internet.

The first I found was NTUC Income. They offered a competitive package which costs around $121 and covered about $60,000 for home renovation and furnishing and $50,000 for contents.

This was much better than AIA which covered much lower for home contents which is actually the most important thing as I learnt from the Moneysense website that for an executive condominium under strata title, the Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) or committee had to insure the building and common property by law.

Thus, private apartment owners who are under MCST only have to buy mainly renovation and home contents protection.

Google is your friend

I subsequently did a Google search for home insurance, Singapore and found both DBS Home shield (underwritten by MSIG) as well as AXA. DBS home shield was also more expensive at $119 but it covered up to $90,000 for renovation coverage and $40,000 for contents.

AXA was competitively priced with their Smarthome Essential packages. Their classic package covered $100,000 for Fixtures, Fittings and Renovation and $25,000 for home contents at annual premium of $82.93.

So if you take a quick computation on a premium cost per $10,000 insured (for home content + renovation), here are the statistics:
- AIA $17.61 per $10,000 (renovation + contents)
- DBS $9.23
- AXA $6.63

If I use home contents are the main protection needed, then the cost per $10,000 insured (for home content only) would be:
- AIA $105.71
- DBS $30
- AXA $33.17

Thus, it can be seen that while AXA is not the lowest by both computations, it is quite competitive and even on an absolute amount, the premium is lowest for comparable coverage.

The reality is that I don’t think I’ll need to make a claim but the whole idea of insurance is to pay a little money to mitigate the risk of big unforseen happenings that cause loss/damage to your home.

Going forward, I’ve decided to take on AXA as it is the lowest meeting requirements. It doesn’t have to be Singapore’s absolute lowest, but so long as I’ve compared to at least 2 others, I feel I’m at least paying a competitive rate.

That is something I learn from the way the public sector procures goods and services, lowest quote that offers value-for-money and meets requirements.

If you are staying in HDB, you can buy HDB fire insurance from HDB who negotiates for fixed rates with big insurers.

Do you have fire/home contents/renovation insurance?

How do you shop for your home insurance package?

Share with Panzer in the comments section.

Be well and prosper.

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