Conceptual · General Insurance

Bharat Griha Raksha.

India's Standard Home Insurance — One Policy, Every Insurer, Identical Terms.

Published as on 22 July 2026

Bharat Griha Raksha — literally "India Home Protection" — is the standard home insurance product IRDAI has required every general insurer to offer since 1 April 2021. Identical wording everywhere, so the only thing that varies is the premium. It covers your building on reinstatement (rebuild) value against fire, flood, earthquake, storm, riot and impact, and automatically covers home contents at 20% of the building sum insured, up to ₹10 lakh, with no item-by-item declaration. Two features set it apart: the average clause is waived so that under-insurance up to 85% does not cut your claim, and the sum insured escalates automatically by 10% each year. As personal cover, the premium bears 18% GST and earns no tax deduction — but for most Indians it is the cheapest way to protect their single largest asset.

Since Apr 2021

IRDAI Standard Product

20% (≤₹10L)

Auto Contents Cover

85%

Under-Insurance Waived

18% GST

Tax · Not Deductible

Executive Summary · Page 2

Executive Summary · 6 Findings

India insures a smaller share of its homes than almost any large economy, even as floods, cyclones and quakes level thousands of them every year. IRDAI's answer was to stop letting insurers write bespoke, incomparable policies and instead mandate one standard product. Bharat Griha Raksha does one thing well: it protects the roof over your head — and what sits under it — on the honest basis of what it costs to rebuild, not what it fetches on the market.

Covers what the policy is and why IRDAI created it, exactly what the building, contents, in-built benefits and personal-accident add-on cover, the key consumer protections (under-insurance waiver to 85%, reinstatement value, 10% annual escalation), the main exclusions, how it compares to older insurer-specific policies, what it costs including 18% GST, why it is not tax-deductible, whether it is mandatory for a home loan, the claim and grievance process, and six questions Indian homeowners ask.

Key Findings

One standardised product, mandatory since April 2021.

IRDAI notified Bharat Griha Raksha on 4 January 2021 and required every general insurer to offer it from 1 April 2021. The wording is fixed — no insurer may alter it — so cover from New India Assurance, HDFC ERGO, SBI General or Bajaj Allianz is identical. The only variable you shop on is price.

The building is insured on what it costs to rebuild.

Cover is on reinstatement value — carpet area times the local construction-cost rate — not market or resale price. A 60 sq m flat at ₹18,000/sq m gives a ₹10.8 lakh building sum insured, before fixtures. Claims are settled at current rebuild rates with no depreciation deducted.

Contents are covered automatically — no list required.

Home contents are insured at 20% of the building sum insured, capped at ₹10 lakh, with no need to declare individual items. A ₹25 lakh building means ₹5 lakh of automatic contents cover. Declare more for high-value goods; jewellery and art need the separate Valuable Contents add-on.

Under-insurance is waived up to 85% — a rare protection.

In most policies, if you insure for less than full value your claim is cut proportionately by the average clause. Bharat Griha Raksha waives this: even if your declared sum insured falls short, cover of at least 85% of value means your claim is not reduced. A 10% automatic annual escalation keeps pace with rebuild inflation.

18% GST applies — and no 80C/80D deduction.

Premiums are affordable, often a few hundred to low thousands of rupees a year, but carry 18% GST. As personal household cover for a self-occupied home, the premium is not tax-deductible under any section — the September 2025 GST exemption for life and health insurance did not extend to home insurance.

Not legally mandatory — but lenders and prudence both push for it.

No RBI rule forces home insurance, yet most banks require the mortgaged property to be insured. Crucially, IRDAI bars a lender from forcing its own insurer on you — bring your own Bharat Griha Raksha from any registered insurer. Terms run 1 to 10 years; each property needs its own policy.

At A Glance

Metric	Value	Detail
Regulator	IRDAI	Standard product
Mandatory from	1 Apr 2021	All general insurers
Building basis	Reinstatement	Rebuild cost
Auto contents	20% (≤₹10L)	No declaration
Under-insurance	Waived ≤85%	No average clause
Annual escalation	10% p.a.	Automatic
Tax	18% GST	No deduction
Policy term	1–10 years	Per property

Exhibit 01: What a ₹25 Lakh Building Insures

Component	Cover	Basis
Building	₹25,00,000	Reinstatement
Auto contents	₹5,00,000	20% of building
Personal accident	₹5,00,000	Per person, add-on
Jewellery	Nil	Needs add-on

*Illustrative, FY 2025-26. Contents cover is automatic at 20% of the building sum insured, capped at ₹10 lakh. Personal accident and valuable-contents (jewellery, art) are optional add-ons. Actual premiums and sums insured vary by insurer, location, construction and declared value.

The Opening · Page 3

The Opening

For most Indian families, the home is the single largest thing they will ever own — and, until recently, the thing they were least likely to insure. Home insurance penetration in India has long been among the lowest in the world, even though the country sits squarely in the path of floods, cyclones and earthquakes. The problem was never only price. Older home policies were bespoke to each insurer, written in incomparable language, and impossible for an ordinary buyer to judge. IRDAI's fix was structural: mandate a single standard product that every insurer must sell on identical terms.

"A standard product removes the one thing that paralyses home-insurance buyers — the fear of comparing apples with oranges. When the wording is fixed by the regulator, the only honest question left is which insurer will cover your rebuild cost for the lowest premium."
Standardisation as Protection

The core idea. Bharat Griha Raksha insures the building on reinstatement value — the cost to rebuild it as it stands, at today's construction rates — rather than its market price, which is dominated by land and location the policy is not there to replace. On top of the building sits an automatic contents cover of 20% of the building sum insured, up to ₹10 lakh, requiring no inventory. It is deliberately simple so that ownership, not paperwork, is the barrier removed.

The consumer-friendly edge. Two features do the heavy lifting. The policy waives under-insurance up to 85%, sparing homeowners the usual average clause that shrinks payouts when the sum insured falls short. And it escalates the sum insured automatically by 10% a year, so cover keeps pace with rising rebuild costs without the owner having to remember to top it up.

The Honest Boundary: Bharat Griha Raksha is NOT a market-value payout on your flat — it rebuilds the structure, it does not refund the land or the address. It is NOT a jewellery or fine-art cover unless you buy the valuable-contents add-on. It is NOT tax-deductible for a self-occupied home. It IS the cheapest, most transparent way to protect the physical asset and its contents against the perils that actually destroy Indian homes.

Structure

Part I

What the Policy Is, Why IRDAI Created It & Who Can Buy

Part II

What It Covers, What It Excludes & How It Compares

Part III

Cost, GST, Tax, Home Loans & the Claim Process

Part IV

The Verdict: Protect the Asset, Then Grievance Redressal

Buy If

✓ You own or rent a completed home

✓ You want fire + natural-disaster cover

✓ You value simple, comparable terms

✓ You have a home loan on the property

Mind The Limits

✕ No market-value payout on the flat

✕ Jewellery needs a paid add-on

✕ No 80C/80D tax deduction

✕ Under-construction homes excluded

Part I

What the Policy Is, Why IRDAI Created It, and Who Can Buy It

The standardisation that made home insurance comparable for the first time; the low-penetration, high-vulnerability problem it was built to solve; and the simple rule on who is eligible — owners insure the building and contents, tenants insure the contents.

Part I · Page 4

A Regulator-Mandated Standard

Milestone	Date	Effect
Notified	4 Jan 2021	IRDAI announces product
Mandatory	1 Apr 2021	All insurers must offer
Wording	Fixed	No insurer may alter

Before 2021, every insurer wrote its own home policy, so comparing cover meant comparing incomparable documents. By fixing the wording, IRDAI turned home insurance into a product you can shop on price alone — the protection is identical whichever insurer issues it.

Why It Was Created

Low Cover, High Exposure

India has one of the world's lowest home-insurance penetration rates, yet floods, cyclones, earthquakes and fires destroy thousands of homes annually. Confusing, insurer-specific policies deterred buyers. A single standard product — same terms, same definitions, same structure — removes the friction and makes protection accessible to the ordinary homeowner.

Who Can Buy It

Buyer	Can Insure	Notes
Homeowner	Building & contents	Or either alone
Tenant	Contents only	Not the structure
Landlord	Building + loss of rent	Owned, let out

Ownership decides eligibility. A homeowner can insure the building alone, the contents alone, or both. A tenant, who does not own the structure, insures only what is theirs — the contents. Each property needs its own policy; one policy cannot span two addresses.

Reinstatement, not resale. The building sum insured is carpet area × local construction-cost rate — the cost to rebuild, not the market price. For a 60 sq m flat at ₹18,000/sq m, that is ₹10.8 lakh before fixtures. Get the rate from a local engineer or the insurer's calculator, because the land and location that dominate resale value are exactly what this policy does not — and need not — insure.

Part II

What It Covers, What It Leaves Out, and How It Beats the Old Policies

The four sections of cover — building, contents, in-built benefits and personal accident; the exclusions every buyer must know; and the standardised features, from the under-insurance waiver to reinstatement value, that make it a better deal than the insurer-specific policies it replaced.

Part II · Page 6

The Four Sections of Cover

A · Building

The structure — walls, roof, floors, staircase, fixtures — against fire and explosion; flood, earthquake, landslide, subsidence, cyclone, storm and tsunami; riot, strike, malicious damage and terrorism; and impact, tank/pipe bursts and sprinkler leakage. Settled on reinstatement value, no depreciation.

B · Contents

Furniture, appliances and household goods automatically covered at 20% of the building sum insured, up to ₹10 lakh, with no declaration. Declare high-value items for more; jewellery, silver and art need the optional Valuable Contents add-on with a valuation certificate.

C · In-Built Benefits

Included free: architect and surveyor fees, debris-removal cost, and loss of rent / alternative-accommodation rent for up to three years if the home becomes uninhabitable after an insured event.

D · Personal Accident (Add-On)

Optional ₹5 lakh per person if an insured peril that damages the home also causes death of the policyholder or spouse. If the policyholder dies, cover continues for the spouse to policy expiry.

Key Exclusions

What Is Not Covered

Wilful or intentional damage; war and allied perils; nuclear and radioactive contamination; pollution unless caused directly by an insured peril; mysterious disappearance of contents; wear and tear, gradual deterioration and mechanical/electrical breakdown; and pre-existing damage. A pipe that bursts suddenly is covered; one that seeps for months is gradual deterioration and likely is not.

Standard vs Older Home Policy

Feature	Bharat Griha Raksha	Older Policy
Terms	Standardised	Varies by insurer
Under-insurance	Waived ≤85%	Average clause cuts claim
SI basis	Reinstatement	Market or rebuild
Auto contents	20% (≤₹10L)	Not always
Compare	Price only	Hard — terms differ

The under-insurance waiver is the standout gain. In an older policy, insuring a ₹40 lakh rebuild for ₹30 lakh could see a claim cut by a quarter under the average clause. Here, cover of at least 85% of value means the claim is paid in full, and a 10% automatic annual escalation keeps the sum insured current.

Part III

What It Costs, Why It Isn't Tax-Deductible, and How a Claim Works

Affordable premiums and the 18% GST that rides on them; why a self-occupied home earns no 80C or 80D deduction; the truth about home-loan "mandates"; and the six-step claim process, starting with the 30-day notification clock.

Part III · Page 8

Cost, GST & Tax

Cheap Cover, 18% GST

Premiums are designed to be affordable — basic building-only cover can start from a few hundred rupees a year, with a metro 2BHK typically in the few-hundred-to-low-thousands range. Multi-year terms (up to 10 years) usually carry a discount. All of it bears 18% GST: the September 2025 GST exemption for life and health insurance did not extend to home insurance.

No 80C / 80D Deduction

For a self-occupied home the premium is not tax-deductible in either regime — there is no dedicated section. The only exception: a property rented out or used for business, where the premium is a property/business expense under Section 30 or 37. Decide on protection value, never on tax.

Mandatory for a Home Loan?

Question	Answer
Legally required?	No RBI rule
Bank practice	Usually insisted on
Forced insurer?	Barred by IRDAI
Your right	Bring your own policy

How a Claim Works

Notify within 30 days

Submit the claim form within 30 days of first noticing the loss; waiting risks rejection.

Report to authorities

For theft or malicious damage, file an FIR before contacting the insurer.

Surveyor visit

A licensed surveyor assesses on-site; do not start major repairs before the visit.

Submit documents

Policy, photos, repair estimates, and (if relevant) FIR and an uninhabitability certificate.

Assessment & settlement

Verified against covered perils and settled on reinstatement value — no depreciation — to your bank account.

Reinstatement in practice: because settlement is at current rebuild rates without depreciation, a 15-year-old roof destroyed by cyclone is paid at what a new equivalent roof costs today — not its depreciated value. That, combined with the under-insurance waiver, is why the payout tends to match the real repair bill.

Part IV

The Verdict

Protect the roof over your head. On honest terms.

Part IV: The Verdict · Page 10

30-Second Summary

Bharat Griha Raksha is IRDAI's standard home insurance — mandatory across every general insurer since 1 April 2021, with wording no insurer may change. It covers the building on reinstatement value against fire, flood, earthquake, storm, riot and impact, and automatically covers home contents at 20% of the building sum insured, up to ₹10 lakh. Its two stand-out protections are the waiver of under-insurance to 85% and a 10% automatic annual sum-insured escalation. Add-ons cover personal accident and valuables.

The premium is affordable but bears 18% GST and earns no tax deduction for a self-occupied home. It is not legally mandatory, though most lenders require it — and you are free to bring your own policy from any registered insurer. Claim within 30 days, let the surveyor assess, and settlement follows on reinstatement value with no depreciation. For the vast majority of Indian homeowners, this is the simplest, cheapest, most transparent way to protect their largest asset.

"The right question was never whether home insurance is worth a tax break — it is not deductible, and that is beside the point. The question is whether you can absorb the cost of rebuilding your home after a fire or a flood. If the answer is no, a few hundred rupees a year for standardised, reinstatement-value cover is among the easiest financial decisions you will make."
The Final Orientation

The Bottom Line: Insure your home on reinstatement (rebuild) value, not resale — the sum insured is carpet area times local construction cost. Take the automatic 20% contents cover, and declare jewellery and art separately through the valuable-contents add-on or lose them in a claim. Prefer a multi-year term to avoid lapses, and lean on the 10% annual escalation to keep pace with rebuild inflation. If you have a home loan, buy your own policy rather than the one the bank bundles. Ignore the absence of a tax deduction — the protection is the point.

ADWIZR · July 2026

Decision Rules

Use Correctly As

✓ Rebuild-cost cover for your home

✓ Fire + natural-disaster protection

✓ Automatic contents + declared add-ons

✓ Your own policy against a home loan

Don't Expect It To

✕ Refund your flat's market value

✕ Cover jewellery without an add-on

✕ Give an 80C/80D deduction

✕ Insure an under-construction home

Three Misconceptions

What Homeowners Get Wrong

(1) "My bank's loan insurance covers my house." A Home Loan Protection Plan is life cover for the borrower, not property cover. (2) "The sum insured is my flat's value." It is the rebuild cost, not market price. (3) "My jewellery is included in contents." Only via the valuable-contents add-on with a valuation certificate.

If a Claim Is Denied

Three-Tier Grievance Path

Level 1: the insurer's Grievance Redressal Officer. Level 2: IRDAI's IGMS portal (igms.irda.gov.in). Level 3: the Insurance Ombudsman, for claims up to ₹50 lakh; beyond that, a Consumer Court under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Rebuild

SI basis

Reinstatement value

85%

Under-insurance

Average clause waived

18%

GST

No tax deduction

Homeowner FAQ

Questions Indian Homeowners Ask

Six questions, answered directly.

Homeowner FAQ · Page 12

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1 Can a tenant — not a homeowner — buy this policy?

Yes. Tenants can buy the policy for home contents only. Because the structure does not belong to them, they cannot insure the building, but their own belongings — furniture, appliances, electronics — are covered under the contents section. The policy explicitly recognises both homeowners and tenants as eligible policyholders, so renters can protect what they own even inside someone else's flat.

Q2 Does Bharat Griha Raksha cover earthquake damage?

Yes. Earthquake is an explicitly listed natural catastrophe, alongside flood, cyclone, storm, landslide, subsidence and tsunami. This matters for India: Seismic Zones III, IV and V cover large parts of the country including Delhi NCR, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the entire Northeast. Unlike many standalone fire policies, seismic cover here is built in, not a paid rider.

Q3 Is home insurance mandatory if I have a home loan?

Legally, no — the RBI has issued no rule making home insurance compulsory for borrowers. In practice, most banks and housing finance companies require you to insure the mortgaged property as a loan condition, to protect their collateral. But under IRDAI rules the lender cannot force you to buy from its group insurer or preferred partner. You are free to bring your own Bharat Griha Raksha from any IRDAI-registered general insurer — always compare before you accept a bundled policy.

Q4 Is the premium tax-deductible?

For a self-occupied home, no. Personal home insurance premiums earn no deduction under Section 80C or 80D, in either the old or new regime — there is no dedicated section for them. The only exception is a property that is rented out or used for business, where the premium can be claimed as a property or business expense under Section 30 or 37. The 18% GST on the premium is also non-recoverable for an individual. Decide on protection value, not tax.

Q5 Does the policy cover jewellery stolen from my home?

Only through the optional Valuable Contents add-on. Jewellery, silverware, paintings and artworks are excluded from both standard contents and the automatic 20% contents benefit. To insure them you must buy the valuable-contents rider at inception, declare the items, and support the value with a valuation certificate. A post-theft claim for undeclared jewellery will not be payable, so declare high-value items up front.

Q6 Is a 10-year policy better than annual renewal?

A multi-year term (up to 10 years) usually costs less than ten consecutive annual premiums and removes the risk of a lapse leaving you uninsured. The offsetting concern — that rebuild costs rise over a decade — is largely handled by the policy's automatic 10% annual sum-insured escalation, which lifts your cover each year. For most homeowners a longer term with the built-in escalation is the more convenient and cost-effective choice.

Key Terms & Definitions

Bharat Griha Raksha

IRDAI's standard home insurance product, offered on identical terms by every general insurer since 1 April 2021. It covers the home building on reinstatement value plus automatic contents, against fire, natural catastrophes, riot, and accidental perils. The name means "India Home Protection".

Reinstatement Value

The basis on which the building is insured: the cost to rebuild the structure to its original condition at today's construction rates, with no deduction for depreciation. It is distinct from — and usually lower than — market or resale value, which is driven largely by land and location.

Under-Insurance Waiver

Relief from the usual average clause. If the declared sum insured falls short of full value, a claim is normally cut proportionately; Bharat Griha Raksha waives this where cover is at least 85% of value, so the claim is paid in full.

Automatic Contents Cover

Home contents insured at 20% of the building sum insured, capped at ₹10 lakh, with no need to list individual items. General household goods are covered automatically; jewellery, art and other valuables require a separate add-on.

Sum-Insured Escalation

A built-in feature that increases the sum insured automatically by 10% each year, so cover keeps pace with rising construction costs without the policyholder having to remember to top it up mid-term.

Insurance Ombudsman

An independent authority that resolves individual policyholder complaints against insurers, for claims up to ₹50 lakh. It is the third tier of grievance redressal after the insurer's officer and IRDAI's IGMS portal; larger disputes go to Consumer Court.