Why is my home insurance auto-renewal quote significantly cheaper than new quotes? And how can I haggle this down further?

[Finals1234]

Bizarrely, my house insure has come up for renewal. The auto-renewal quote has gone up to from £288 to £331.

So I have been shopping around looking for new deals, and bizarrely, my existing one is still tons cheaper (by about £200!) compared to any new deals out there. I have no idea why, I have been looking for like-for-like quotes and they are mostly showing in the region of £500-800.

I called the supplier and explained that I am likely to be having significant building works taking place this year, and it doesn't seem to be affecting my premium with them, which is an additional bonus.

I am wondering:
A - Have I missed something obvious?
B - How can I haggle this down to last years price when I don't have any quotes remotely near this price? I HATE haggling but feel this is obligatory for an auto-renewal.

Any words of wisdom would be great.

Can't offer any words of wisdom I'm afraid but both my and DHs car insurance auto renewal quotes have been the cheapest option out there this year, first time that's ever happened!

It s because people work at home more now since Covid and houses and not left empty so much. Same with cars, they've had a lot less to pay out in accidents etc due to lockdown.

Finals1234 just re-read your post thought you meant it was cheaper this year than last year. Anyway, it should be cheaper. Ask them how they have justified that price increase when they haven't had to pay out so much due to people working from home?

It has gone up since last year (which I as expected as standard auto-renewal behaviour!), but I was surprised to see it is still way, way cheaper that other quotes I got for like--for-like cover.

I don't want to pay the hike in fees, so I will tell them I don't expect for it to go higher for no reason. I HATE haggling, I am so bad at it. I don't know what reason I can give to fight the quote down when its already far cheaper than others.

I have always worked full time from home so I can't use the Covid homeworking angle (although that's a really good point).

If it's the cheapest I wouldnt necessarily haggle