IN SPITE of several natural disasters to have hit Slovakia during recent years, only one third of the population has home insurance. As many as 72 percent of people in Hungary have home insurance, and about one half in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, according to a survey conducted by Generali PPF Holding in nine countries in central and eastern Europe. The situation is worse in Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria, the SITA newswire wrote in April.
The survey also highlighted differences among the countries in insurance policy prices. Slovenians pay €167 per year, which is the highest, while the value of the coverage is the highest in the region, exceeding €150,000. On the other hand, fewer Bulgarians opt for home insurance, with an average annual insurance policy of €30 and average insurance value at around €23,500.
“With the exception of some small countries, the number of households covered with insurance has been growing in the region,” Jiří Střelecký, the head of Product Competence Centre Generali PPF Holding said as cited by SITA.
Slovaks are in a similar position to Poles, who pay annual insurance premiums of about €65, but the insurance value is €8,500 higher in Slovakia, reaching €48,500. Romanians pay more in premiums, €69, while Hungarians and Czechs pay even more for insurance policies, €100 and €112, respectively, while their insurance values are also higher, at €74,000 and €80,000, respectively.
However, the survey shows there has been a shift in Slovaks’ attitudes toward insuring their homes: between 2011 and 2012 the number of insured homes increased by 33.8 percent, which was the biggest increase in the region.
