Data from the Treasury revealed that a quarter of homes in high-risk flood zones are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in additional premiums.
In just 18 months, insurance premiums across New Zealand have risen by almost 30%, and more insurers are starting to price down to address levels due to more sophisticated modelling capabilities.
Actuarial consultancy Finity has monitored insurance premiums for the Treasury since late 2022.
Since October 2023, Finity’s monitoring has expanded to include 1,710 properties in suburbs around the country that are known to be flood-affected, either by river or surface flooding.
The report found that the suburbs with the highest risk of flooding and earthquakes had the lowest insurance availability, but that insurance was generally accessible.
Of the four underwriters involved in the Finity monitoring, which are IAG, Tower, AA Insurance and Vero, 93% of the homes in the seismic dataset were able to obtain an online quote.
In Canterbury however, nearly half the properties only had one quote.
In addition, 92% of properties with high flood risk were able to obtain online quotes from at least two underwriters. However, 25% of those properties received quotes that included an extra flood premium exceeding $250.
While most elevated flood premiums were less than $1,000 in the most extreme cases, the premium could reach $4,500.
The report found that suburbs with high seismic risk and high flooding risk had the lowest availability.
The average lowest online quote for the properties nationwide in April was $1,839, up 29% since monitoring started and 15% annually.
The regions with the most significant annual increases were Canterbury (28.5%), Tasman (23%) and the West Coast (22.5%).
