Rebuild costs: Surveyor 2021 Vs BCIS 2022

Kimbo1451

I'm just about to renew my house insurance, however the rebuild cost estimate has gone up by £128,000 in one year. We moved into the property last year, so I used the surveyors report to give the rebuild cost to my insurers. Having gone to renew, my insurers have highlighted that the rebuild costs have gone up, and having used the BCIS calculator, it estimates an additional £128,000 (for a basic rebuild) compared to my surveyors report from last year. Have costs gone up that much? What is more reliable to use? 

Sandtree

You haven't said what the 2021 survey was to know if its doubled or gone up 1%. Building costs have gone up very significantly in recent years due to material shortages driving up prices

There is a public basic version of the calculator available at https://abi.bcis.co.uk 

Kimbo1451

Homebuyers survey estimated the rebuild cost as £300,000 in 2021. I used the calculator on BCIS recently which came up with the figure of £428,000, which is also the estimated cost my insurers have suggested. 

user1977

I wouldn't have thought it would make much difference to the premium (the vast majority of claims aren't for anything near a full rebuild), so may as well go for the more generous estimate.

Sandtree

Kimbo1451 said:

Homebuyers survey estimated the rebuild cost as £300,000 in 2021. I used the calculator on BCIS recently which came up with the figure of £428,000, which is also the estimated cost my insurers have suggested. 

According to BCIS 2021-2022 saw a 25.2% increase in build costs but there are notable regional variations too. Yours is on the high side but if your talking more than 12 months then it'd be above the BCIS average on average anyway. Could be the surveyor was a little conservative thinking previous year increases due to supply issues wouldn't stick and BCIS are being toppy thinking they will continue to rise. 

Building sum insured doesn't tend to make the greatest of differences until you start exceeding the max allowable sum insured on the low quality basic policies but then it may be questionable if you want that sort of policy with such a home.