What would it cost to rebuild your home?
Buildings insurance covers the cost to rebuild your home — not what you'd sell it for. Insure for the wrong figure and a claim can be cut down. Get a rough rebuild cost from your home's size, type, age and region, and check your cover. Free, no sign-up.
A rough planning guide, not a professional rebuild-cost (RICS / BCIS) assessment or insurance advice. Period, listed, large or non-standard-construction homes should get a proper assessment — try the free ABI / BCIS calculator. Your policy wording and any underinsurance ("average") terms govern a claim. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
Rebuild cost is not the market value.
The single most common buildings-insurance mistake is insuring for what the home would sell for. Buildings insurance covers the cost to rebuild from scratch — the structure, demolition and site clearance, and the architects' and surveyors' fees. It leaves out the land, which is why for most homes the rebuild cost is lower than the market value.
For some homes it's the other way round. Period, listed, stone-built or otherwise non-standard properties can cost more to rebuild faithfully than they'd fetch on the open market — so insuring for the sale price would leave you short.
Why being short bites. If your sum insured is below the true rebuild cost, insurers apply the "average" rule: even a small, partial claim is scaled down by the same proportion you were under-insured. Insure 70% of the rebuild cost and a £20,000 claim can be paid at around £14,000.
This tool gives a rough figure from typical regional rebuild rates per square metre, adjusted for the property type and age. It's a sensible starting point and a sanity check on your policy — not a formal valuation. Re-check it after an extension, a loft conversion or a major refit, because each pushes the rebuild cost up.
Keep your home's numbers in one place.
Stead stores your home's details, documents and renewal dates — and the app version of this tool pre-fills from your property and reminds you to check your sum insured when your insurance renews.