The figures from the specialist firm Facts & Figures are in the same vein: they report an increase of 4 to 6% in automobile insurance and 10 to 12% in multi-risk home insurance. “It’s not to make more money,” says Adrien Couret, CEO of Aéma (which oversees Macif, among others), “it’s to keep up with the increase in what we reimburse” for claims.
New and used car parts, building materials for housing, labor for both: the various reference sources report a general increase in costs this year. And climate disasters, including intense rain events causing rivers to overflow and floods in the North, the East, Charente-Maritime and the Alps, have multiplied this year.
Christmas present
The significant increase in home insurance rates next year is not a surprise: it has been public since December 28, 2023. A decree published in the Official Journal explained that the additional premium that finances the natural disaster regime will be increased from 12% to 20% for home insurance.
This general increase, applicable from January 1, 2025, aims to get a structurally deficit system back on track and threatened by the increase in cracked houses due to the shrinkage and swelling of clays (RGA). Requested by professionals and endorsed by the public authorities, this increase “represents an average annual increase of 17 euros” for an individual, calculates the president of France assureurs Florence Lustman.
This increase in rates expected next year follows a year 2024 of already significant increase for policyholders. The comparator Assurland estimates that home insurance has already increased by an average of 7.2% this year, something never seen since 2010, with an average contract price of 243 euros.
Risk of desertion
Behind these averages, observed this year and estimated for the next, are hidden sometimes significant disparities between insurers and types of contracts. Some insurance companies will probably push the increase in multi-risk home insurance rates for houses and pavilions, which are more exposed to climate risk than apartments, to more than 15%, estimates the president of Facts & Figures, Cyrille Chartier-Kastler.
However, “France is not yet a country where there is a significant refusal of insurance for climatic reasons”, underlines Adrien Couret, “but we must not delude ourselves, it will come”. “We must not rule out reductions in coverage and a more massive disengagement of insurers in certain areas deemed to be at risk”, estimates Aurélien Vernet, director of studies at Xerfi, in a note on Tuesday, citing as an example the risk of submersion for the seaside towns of the Normandy coast.
