How Much Is Landlord Insurance? 2026 UK Cost Guide
The median UK premium, what moves the price by property type, age, region and tenant, and what optional add-ons cost — sourced from live provider pricing pages.
The short answer
The median UK landlord insurance premium is £284.75 a year for basic cover with no optional extras, according to Alan Boswell Group's own published 2026 quote statistics — but the “from” price every insurer advertises sits well below that, because it's built from the cheapest 10–15% of quotes, not a typical one.
What providers actually advertise
Every UK landlord insurer we checked leads with a low anchor price, each qualified by its own small print about which slice of customers actually pays it:
| Provider | Advertised “from” price | Basis stated on their page |
|---|---|---|
| CIA Landlords | £11.97/month | 10% of new customers, Jul–Dec 2025 |
| Just Landlords | £12.55/month | 10% of new customers, Jul–Dec 2025 |
| Simply Business | £14.25/month | 10% of customers, basic buildings + £2m liability only |
| AXA | £15/month | 10% of customers, Apr–Jun 2026 |
| Total Landlord Insurance | £139/year | Headline “available from” price |
| Alan Boswell | £185/year | 15% of customers, Jan–Oct 2025 |
Read literally, those anchor prices sit £100–£270 below Alan Boswell's own median of £284.75, which is the figure to budget around, not the “from” price on any one insurer's homepage. See the full comparison, with cover lists and review scores for all eight providers, on our landlord insurance comparison.
What actually moves your premium
Alan Boswell Group's own 2026 statistics, drawn from its own quote data (published 31 March 2026), break the median cost down by the factors that move it most:
| Factor | Cheapest band | Most expensive band |
|---|---|---|
| Property type | Tyneside flat, £187.53 | Purpose-built block of flats, £822.84 |
| Bedrooms | 1 bed, £224.00 | 10 bed, £787.00 |
| Property age | 1980s build, £230.65 | Pre-1850, £547.35 |
| Tenant type | Retired tenants, £264.02 | Company let, £464.49 |
| Region (terraced) | Hereford (HR4), £73.09 | Hampstead (NW3), £1,470.31 |
The same source names the underlying drivers directly: rebuild cost, the year the property was built, whether it's occupied or unoccupied, location, and the type of tenant occupying it. None of that is unique to Alan Boswell's book of business — the same factors show up in every insurer's own pricing questions — but the exact figures above are Alan Boswell's quote data specifically, not an industry-wide or government statistic, and we couldn't find a published Association of British Insurers average premium figure for landlord policies to compare it against.
Optional extras, priced separately
Several add-ons that get bundled into the headline price on some policies and sold separately on others, with figures we could verify from live provider pages:
- Rent guarantee — from £195 for 12 months (Alan Boswell)
- Legal expenses — roughly £60–£80 a year (Alan Boswell)
- Home emergency cover — from £155 (Alan Boswell)
- Excess protection — from £20 (Alan Boswell)
Other providers price the same extras differently or bundle some into the core policy — check what's included before comparing a headline number.
Worked illustration
These are illustrative only — not a quote — built from the published factors above, to show how they stack:
- A 3-bedroom, 1990s semi-detached house, let to employed tenants outside London: close to Alan Boswell's semi-detached median of £280 for basic cover, before any optional extras.
- The same property, but a converted block of flats built pre-1850 in a high-value London postcode: several hundred pounds more, driven by both the rebuild cost and the property-type premium the statistics above show.
- Add rent guarantee (from roughly £195/year) and legal expenses (roughly £60–£80/year) on either example, and the all-in cost rises by somewhere in the £250–£280 range on top of the base premium.
Tax: the premium reduces what you pay
Whatever the final premium, it's a deductible running cost of the letting business — see is landlord insurance tax deductible? for how much that's actually worth at your tax rate, and apportionment if the property is also partly your own home.
Alan Boswell Group: UK landlord insurance statistics 2026 (its own quote data, published 31 March 2026) · Alan Boswell: landlord insurance · Simply Business: landlord insurance, all read live 12 September 2026. We could not find a published Association of British Insurers average landlord-premium figure to cross-check the median against — the median and factor breakdown above are one broker's own published statistics, clearly attributed as such, not an official industry or government figure.
Quick answers
Alan Boswell Group's own 2026 quote statistics put the median at £284.75 a year for basic cover with no optional extras — that's the figure to budget around. Every insurer's advertised “from” price is lower because it reflects only the cheapest 10–15% of quotes, not a typical premium.
By Alan Boswell's own data, the biggest movers are property type (flats cost far more than terraces), rebuild cost, property age (pre-1850 properties cost more than 1980s ones), location, and tenant type (company lets and students cost more than employed or retired tenants).
Not necessarily on a like-for-like property — landlord policies cover risks (tenant damage, extended void-period cover, landlord liability) a standard home policy doesn't, so a direct price comparison between the two products isn't meaningful. A standard home policy also typically won't cover a let property at all once you declare it's rented.
Usually yes — it's commonly sold as an add-on rather than built into the base premium. Alan Boswell's own page prices it from £195 for 12 months; other insurers price and structure it differently, so check the policy wording as well as the price.
Yes — the premium is a normal deductible running cost of the letting business. See our full page on landlord insurance and tax for what it's actually worth at your rate.
General information, not financial advice — every figure above is an estimate from the numbers you enter, not a mortgage offer. Lenders apply their own criteria, fees and stress tests, which change. Read the full disclaimer.
Sources
The primary documents this page is built from. Links checked 5 September 2026.
- UK Landlord Insurance Statistics 2026 — Alan Boswell Group
- Landlord Insurance — Alan Boswell Group
- Landlord Insurance — Simply Business