Building your dream home isn’t enough, it needs insurance too
HYDERABAD: Owning a home is the biggest aspiration of most people and when that dream is realised, it is prudent and wise to insure it. But how aware are home buyers and owners about home insurance in our country? While home insurance is one of the most important insurance policies, it is also the most ignored one, observe insiders from realty and insurance sectors, highlighting the need for creating awareness about it.
“Traditionally, home insurance was considered as an unnecessary expense by homeowners. But of late homeowners are realising its importance and opting for it. Though more awareness needs to be created about home insurance policies, there has been an upsurge in the purchase of home insurance. Home is the single largest investment and the most precious asset for any individual or family and any damage, due to unfortunate events like a flood, storm, earthquake, fire, burglary etc., would have a very high impact on an individual or family’s finances and savings.
Therefore a home insurance policy can be very handy to manage the financial losses incurred, in case of any such unfortunate events,” said Anurag Rastogi, Member of Executive Management, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, explaining about the importance of home insurance. Besides home, a home insurance policy can also insure the articles inside the house like furniture, fixtures, electronic appliances and others, which may be expensive. Almost all the general insurance companies are offering home insurance today and the cover can be customised as per policy holder’s needs and preferences, thus ensuring safety.
According to the observation of industry representatives, all the homes which are bought using home loans are insured and a basic home insurance policy can be bought for a nominal price. Policyholders have to shell out more if they want to increase the amount of cover and the number of items to be insured.
“In the present times, not just homes but even household items, appliances and valuables in the home are bought on EMIs. So any damage or theft to them will have a debilitating impact on a family. Also, in view of the increasing uncertainties and risks like fire accidents, home insurance is not an option but rather a necessity in today’s world. While most of the homes bought from reputed construction companies and builders will have home insurance, individuals constructing independent homes on their own also should compulsorily take home insurance, to secure themselves in times of any untoward incident,” stressed K Sreedhar Reddy, Treasurer, Telangana Real Estate Developers Association.