Improperly reported water damage, a high insurance deductible in the face of a climate disaster, hacked tax data: protecting a property goes beyond just installing an alarm or signing a standard contract. The threats facing a home in 2024 are as much physical as they are financial and digital, and the appropriate responses require precise arbitration.
Home Insurance: Balancing Coverage Against Rising Premiums
We see it every year when we receive the billing schedule: multi-risk home insurance premiums are on the rise. France Assureurs indicates that in 2025, the average premium excluding taxes reaches 323 euros per year, representing an increase of about 7 to 8% year-on-year. Over the period 2024-2026, the cumulative increase in premiums approaches 30%.
The paradox is that the frequency of compensated claims is decreasing (about 9% less compared to 2024). The rise in premiums is mainly explained by the increasing average cost of each claim, driven by climate events and the revaluation of reconstruction materials.
In light of this situation, reviewing your coverage and deductibles every year is no longer optional. Useful information for comparing coverage suitable for each type of property can be found on the Protect Habitation website for real estate, particularly for assessing options related to climate risks or fire.
The main risk remains underinsurance. When the reconstruction cost of a house increases but the guaranteed capital has not been re-evaluated, the compensation only covers a fraction of the loss. Checking the declared value of your property at least once a year helps avoid this trap.
Digital Protection of Real Estate: Tax Data as a Target
In 2026, a cyberattack targeted the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP), exposing the data of property owners. This type of incident changes the game: protecting your property also means protecting the information associated with it.
A hacker who gains access to your tax identity, your property’s address, and its cadastral value has enough information to commit identity theft or sales fraud. Opinions vary on the actual extent of the risks, but several concrete precautions can reduce exposure:
- Activate two-factor authentication on your impots.gouv.fr account and on any online space related to the management of your property (property manager, insurance, bank)
- Regularly monitor the cadastral situation notices to spot any unsolicited changes to the property
- Never send tax documents (property tax notice, scanned title deed) via unencrypted messaging, even to a notary or real estate agent
An identity theft related to real estate data can block a sale for months. The time required to correct a corrupted cadastral file often exceeds the timeframe of a typical transaction.
Prevention Work: What Really Protects a Home Against Claims
When we talk about protecting a property, we often think of insurance. But prevention work reduces both the risk of claims and the amount of premiums. Some insurers offer premium reductions for homes equipped with specific devices.
Climate Risk: Acting Before the Disaster
Episodes of hail, storms, and flooding increasingly weigh on the average cost of home claims. For a house, the most effective interventions concern the roof and openings.
Replacing old tiles with hail-resistant materials, installing solid shutters instead of blinds, and adding backflow preventers on pipes in flood-prone areas: these investments can cost hundreds of euros but prevent damages that can amount to thousands.
For an apartment, the scope for action is more limited. One can work on the sealing of joinery and check that the property manager has updated the building’s insurance contract, particularly the natural disaster coverage.
Fire Safety: The Blind Spots of a Rental Property
A landlord is obligated to provide decent housing, which includes safety. But beyond the mandatory smoke detector, checking the condition of the electrical panel remains the most cost-effective preventive measure. An electrical diagnosis older than six years on a rental property should be redone, especially if work has been carried out in the meantime.
Sale with Redemption: Protecting Your Property in Case of Debt
The sale with redemption is a little-known mechanism that allows an indebted owner to temporarily sell their home while continuing to occupy it, with an option to buy back within a defined period. This arrangement avoids foreclosure and provides time to restructure debts.
In practical terms, the owner sells their property to an investor, receives the sale price to repay their creditors, and then pays a monthly occupancy fee. If they manage to restore their financial capacity (new loan, sale of another asset), they buy back the property at the initially agreed price.
The redemption only works if the property’s value significantly exceeds the amount of the debts. The operation involves a notary and fees (sale deed, occupancy fee), which reserves it for situations where the real estate asset is genuinely threatened by a foreclosure procedure.
This type of arrangement also concerns self-employed individuals and executives whose business debts jeopardize their primary residence. Since the transition to a single window for businesses, the automatic protection of the primary residence of sole proprietors exists, but it does not cover all legal forms or types of claims.
Protecting a property involves multiple simultaneous fronts: adjusting insurance coverage each year, securing tax data, and investing in the physical prevention of the home. None of these actions alone is sufficient, but combined, they significantly reduce the financial exposure of the owner in the face of the uncertainties of 2024 and beyond.
