Home insurance comparison for expats
By Linus Palmqvist, Head of Operations Reviewed by Simon Nilsson Last reviewed Six insurers, side by side, on the things you can check: what each is built for, how they deal with you from abroad, satisfaction, and the catch.
We can set up every insurer except Línea Directa, which you contact directly.
No insurer is the winner. Cover depends on the plan you buy and price on your quote, so we do not rank those. We compare the facts that sit at insurer level, and we flag the catch instead.
We read each insurer's own official pages, policy wordings and product documents, not just the marketing.
We compared what is an insurer-level fact: whether the policy and service are in English, what the product is built for, and independent satisfaction.
Coverage depends on the tier you buy and cost on your quote, so we flag the main catch instead of scoring those.
Where we could not confirm something, we say so plainly instead of guessing.
No insurer is the overall winner. Every line is a fact you can check, not a score we invented, and the right choice depends on your home, how you use it, and the cover you pick.
"Full English policy" means the binding contract is published in English, not just the sales page. For each insurer we show one thing that stands out and one catch. Cover and price depend on the plan and your quote, so we do not score them.
The OCU 2025 figure is a member satisfaction survey of 4,538 users from January 2025, not a measure of claim quality, and the sample sizes vary a lot, from around 22% for Mapfre down to about 2% for Zurich. Source: OCU, "Los seguros de hogar mejor valorados de 2025".
Each "Read guide" link opens our plain-English guide for that insurer, with plan details, the main catch and contact routes. We can set up every insurer except Línea Directa, which you contact directly.
The comparison narrows the field. These four decide whether the policy you pick is good value or an expensive surprise, and they come down to your own home.
A main home, a place you rent out and a holiday flat carry different risks, and the policy has to say which one it is. The wrong label is the quickest way to have a claim turned down.
A cheap policy with a high excess, the part of a claim you pay yourself, or a low contents limit can cost you far more the day you actually claim. The price on the quote is only half the story.
Some entry plans leave out water damage, liability or simple theft and let you add them back. A short plan name does not tell you what is covered.
Insure what it would cost to rebuild, not what you paid. Set it too low and a claim can be cut back to match.
Tell us about the home and how you use it. We compare the insurers we can set up on the policy language, the use and the catch, then get it right with you, in English.
Still have questions?
Written by
Head of Operations at Settlewell
Linus moved from Sweden to Málaga in 2021 and set his own home up here, so most of this he has already done the hard way once. Before Settlewell he spent years at Workwide, the cross-border recruiter that has helped over 10,000 people into jobs abroad, latterly as its Head of Recruitment and Operations. He speaks Spanish, lives in Málaga with his partner, and spends his days on the phone to Spanish providers.
We compared these insurers on the things that are insurer-level facts: whether the policy and the service are in English, what each product is built for, and independent satisfaction. Cover depends on the tier you buy and cost on your quote, so we flag the main catch instead of scoring those. Settlewell is free to use. Insurers pay a commission when you set up a policy through us. This is general information, not advice on your own policy.
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