There are a number of policies now available in the UK to offset any potential drops in the equity of your home. Some insurers are now offering equity protection policies, in short these policies usually a one off payment will protect the policy holder from a drop in their properties equity. If the policy holder buys a property for say £180,000 and in three years they could only realise £175,000 from the sale of that property the insurance will pay the difference.
This is interesting because it essentially says that some large insurance companies are confident that they can make a profit from essentially betting that there will not be any substantial equity drops in the UK housing market in the short term. With the recent gains in UK house prices could this be another sign that the property market is at the start of a sustained recovery.