Home insurance in Northern Ireland is getting cheaper faster than anywhere else in the UK. The steepest fall is in the district hardest hit by the 2023 floods.
The average annual home insurance premium in Northern Ireland fell 5% to £455 in the third quarter of 2026, a drop of £24, according to price comparison site CompareNI.com. That was the largest quarterly fall of any UK region, ahead of the East of England (3.4%) and London (1.9%). Premiums fell in every Northern Ireland district.
The biggest fall came in Newry, Mourne and Down, where the average premium fell 18.7% from £819 to £666. The district remains by far the most expensive in Northern Ireland, partly because of the severe flooding that hit the south-east in autumn 2023 and caused an estimated £40 million of damage. Premiums there are still about 70% higher than three years ago.
Lisburn and Castlereagh is now the cheapest district, after a 10% fall to £394. The gap between the most and least expensive districts narrowed from more than £400 last quarter to about £270.
Northern Ireland remains the most expensive region in the UK. Its average premium is 78% higher than London’s £256, more than twice the UK average of £185, and more than three times the North East of England’s £134. CompareNI attributes the gap with Great Britain to a combination of risk and market issues: higher repair costs driven by labour shortages and material costs, and fewer providers. IB UK reported in August that the gap is structural rather than cyclical.
The recent fall also needs to be set against the rises before it. Northern Ireland premiums are still £135, or 42%, higher than in Q3 2023, when the average was £320. They rose 52% in the following 12 months and peaked at £504 in Q2 2025.
“While it’s positive to see premiums here falling faster than anywhere else, households in Northern Ireland are paying almost two and a half times the national average,” said Ian Wilson, managing director of CompareNI.com. He said the average household is still paying around £135 more than three years ago.
Wilson advised households to make sure the value of their home and contents is accurate so they are not over-insured, to pay annually rather than monthly where possible, and to shop around rather than auto-renew.
For brokers, the higher repair costs that CompareNI identifies point the other way on sums insured. With premiums falling, clients may be tempted to trim cover. Where rebuild and repair costs are pushed up by labour and material shortages, checking that sums insured are adequate protects against a shortfall at claim time.
