2023-09-22 10:42:08
An increase in claims and inflation… These are the two main reasons which should push the prices of car and home insurance to increase again next year, approximately as much as in 2023… or even slightly any further.
While the sector committed to Bercy a year ago to moderate its prices, by not increasing them faster than inflation, this agreement will officially end in December.
Price increases around inflation
Will insurers be able to make new commitments, as Bruno Le Maire recently asked in the columns of the specialist magazine The Argus of insurance?
“The equation could be difficult to resolve next year,” said the insurance comparator Assurland in a press release. If price increases could be of the same order as in 2023, inflation should start to decline, according to economists’ forecasts.
The sector “pays for inflation and the effects of climate change”, Franck Le Vallois, general director of France Assureurs, told AFP, specifying that the subject of price changes does not fall under the federation but at each company.
No insurer interviewed by AFP, however, wished to comment on the subject for the moment, with the exception of Adrien Couret, general manager of the Aéma group, who indicated at the beginning of September that we would have to wait to price increases which “will revolve around inflation”. Most insurers should reveal their prices by the end of the year.
Explosion in the cost of repairs
In auto insurance, the Assurland comparator expects increases of between 3.5% and 4%, more than the 2.5% to 3% observed in 2023. Predictions similar to those of the Facts & Figures firm, which expects +4%, after +2% to +3%, while the Addactis firm mentions an increase which could range from 4% to 5%.
In a study published Monday, Facts & Figures underlines that “the significant drop in the number of accidents in 2023 combined with relatively favorable weather to date (limited number of events such as hail, storms, flooding) makes it possible to absorb a part of the increase in both the price of spare parts and labor in garages.
According to the Automobile Safety and Repair Association, repair costs increased by 8.42% year-on-year in the second quarter. In addition to the increase in the price of parts, with for example +13.1% on average between 2022 and 2023 for a driver’s mirror according to Facts & Figures, garages have a greater need for electromechanic skills than simple mechanics, which increases the cost. Invoice.
As for the use of second-hand parts, it “continues to progress but too slowly,” declared Franck Le Vallois. In the first half of the year, 4.7% of parts replaced were “reused”, compared to 3.5% in 2022.
3 billion just for 2022
On home insurance, it is possible that the profession will seek to rebuild itself after a very difficult year in 2022 due to climate disasters which cost companies more than 10 billion euros.
Above all, drought, which causes damage to houses built on clay soil, is increasingly costly. While the average bill was 250 million per year over the period 2011-2015, it increased to 1.2 billion between 2016 and 2022, with at least 3 billion for 2022 alone.
If the score for insurers should be generally less steep this year in terms of climate disasters, compared to 2022, “we are on an upward trend”, recalls Franck Le Vallois.
According to Mr. Chartier-Kastler, in this context, insurers could increase their prices by 8% but will probably be content with an increase of 6%, after the 3% to 5% in 2023. Assurland, for its part, is expects +5%, as in 2023 according to its estimate, and Addactis for its part evokes an increase of 6.5% to 7.5%.
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