Safeguarding Your Priceless Abode

A home insurance can protect the insured financially against all calamities.

- Anagh Pal

With cyclones like Fani destroying the strongest of buildings, it leads us to think of the urgency to insure our biggest asset, our home sweet home. And why not? If our health, gadgets and other amenities are expensive and irreplacable, so is the building which is housing us.

According to Anurag Rastogi, Chief Actuary and Chief Underwriting Officer, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, “The penetration of home insurance is abysmally low in India, at about only one per cent, whereas developed countries have penetration as high as 90 per cent. Most customers purchase home insurance policies only when there is a bank requirement against the home loan taken. This apathy towards home insurance is coming out of mainly two reasons, a casual attitude towards risk protection and very low awareness of the products in this segment.”

However, having one’s home insured is very important because it is one of life’s biggest investments and most home buyers spend a huge amount of their savings to purchase a house or go for a home loan. Natural calamities like cyclones, floods, earthquakes and also incidents like fire, riots and so on can destroy homes, leaving behind a substantial damage to be incurred. “A home insurance that covers the structure as well as its contents, protects an individual homeowner financially from all such calamities at a minuscule cost,” said Rastogi.

Even if you are staying on rent, home insurance is important.