Canada’s Top Home Insurance Insurers

Meanwhile, the work-from-home trend has led to some interesting dynamics regarding the repurposing of office buildings. “While some businesses are planning to make work-from-home more permanent and others are simply reducing their square footage, the office market is similarly being retrofitted for residential use,” reports HUB International. “Whether it’s a downtown high-rise or an old two-storey Art Deco office building renovated into condos, shrinking office space in highly populated areas will give way to a rise in residential properties.”

Climate change has likewise had a major impact on the home insurance market. In 2020, extreme weather events, ranging from the Fort McMurray flooding to the Calgary hailstorms, led to $2.4 billion worth of damages in Canada, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification, as well as $270 billion globally, according to Munich Re. And HUB International predicts that rates will rise between 15% and 25% or higher in areas exposed to catastrophes such as earthquakes, flooding, hail and windstorms. Whether from wind, hail, fires or flooding, Mother Nature is bound to be back in 2021 with increasing risks for homeowners.

Meanwhile, condo and multi-family home insurance rates are also rising due to an increase in the frequency and severity of claims in the sector; a rise in repair, rebuilding and property maintenance costs; and general hard market trends.

“Following an increase in claims and resulting payouts, many insurers are retracting coverage altogether or increasing costs by as much as 300%,” reports Ratehub.ca’s Tyler Wade. “Unfortunately, a building could lose its insurability and ask unit owners to assume responsibility of the damage and repair bills.”

According to HUB International, “an uptick in claims in the apartment and condominium market due to fires, water escape, wind/hail and flooding have reduced the number of insurance carriers willing to write this class. For this reason, moving into 2021, multi-family residential can expect to see another 20% to 50% increase, along with further increased deductibles in their general property coverage. Residential apartment and condominium properties looking to weather this storm will need to show underwriters what type of controls they have implemented to prevent common, high-frequency and -severity water and fire claims.”

Together, these trends should keep home insurance providers busy in the coming year.

5-Star Excellence Awards

• 
  Aviva
   
  
• 
  Portage Mutual
   
  
• 
  SGI CANADA
   
  

• Aviva Ovation
• Chubb
• Intact
• Red River Mutual
• Saskatchewan Mutual Insurance
• Wawanesa

Methodology

HOW WE CHOOSE THE BEST

Determining Canada’s top insurance products takes a keen understanding of the market offerings – that is why IBC has enlisted the help of thousands of brokers to determine the 2021 Product Awards. Our research team started with one-on-one interviews with the industry's most elite brokers, followed by surveying thousands of brokers within IBC’s network. Throughout the fifteen-week research process, insurers were measured on the strength of their relationships with brokers, ability to handle claims, underwriting expertise and, most importantly, the strength of the individual products they provide.