Insurance is now one budget dollar in five
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The median BC strata puts 20 cents of every operating-budget dollar into insurance, about $1,100 per unit a year. The share is drifting down.
A BC strata corporation has to insure its buildings and common property for full replacement value, carry at least $2 million of liability cover, and review the policy every year. [1] The premium lands in the operating budget, and the budget is what sets the strata fee. Last week we split the whole budget dollar; this week we look only at the largest slice. We took the latest approved operating budget for each BC corporation in our sample, most of them for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, and asked how big the insurance line is next to everything else.
1 in 5 | ~$1,100 | 23% to 19% |
|---|---|---|
of each BC strata budget dollar goes to insurance | median insurance line per unit per year, BC | median insurance share, 2024 budgets to 2026 budgets, BC |
The typical budget: 20%, and a quarter of budgets above 25%
The median BC budget spends about 20% of its operating expenses on insurance, and the middle half of budgets sit between about 16% and 25%. Per door, the median line is about $1,100 a year, with the middle half between about $890 and $1,400. For two budgets out of three, the insurance line is larger than the contribution to the contingency reserve fund.
The spread matters more than the median. About one budget in sixteen keeps insurance under 10% of spending, and about one in three sits between 15% and 20%. At the other end, more than one budget in five puts a quarter or more of its spending into insurance, and about one in eleven puts in 30% or more. Two buildings with the same strata fee can be paying for very different things.
Small and low-rise buildings carry the biggest share
The per-door cost barely moves with building size, except at the ends. In buildings under 20 units the median insurance line is about $1,400 per unit; from 20 to 200 units it holds at about $1,100; at 200 units or more it is about $1,000. The share of the budget moves more, because small budgets have less else in them: about 23% in buildings under 20 units, 19% to 20% from 20 to 200 units, and 18% at 200 units or more.
| Category | p25 | Median | p75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 units | $1,100 | $1,400 | $1,700 |
| 20 to 49 | $900 | $1,100 | $1,400 |
| 50 to 99 | $830 | $1,100 | $1,300 |
| 100 to 199 | $930 | $1,100 | $1,400 |
| 200 or more | $830 | $1,000 | $1,200 |
Construction and height tell the same story. Per door, wood-frame and concrete buildings pay about the same, a median of about $1,100 each. As a share, wood frame is about 20% and concrete about 17%, because a tower's budget also carries elevators, staff and mechanical plant. The median share is about 22% in buildings of one to three storeys and about 17% to 18% from seven storeys up.
Building age runs the other way from what you might expect. Budgets for buildings completed in 2016 or later put a median of about 21% into insurance, against about 18% for buildings from before 1980. Per door the order flips: about $1,000 a year for the newest buildings and about $1,100 to $1,200 for those built from 1980 to 2010. A newer building is not paying more for insurance; it is paying less for everything else.
Victoria at 15%, Langley Township at 26%
| Category | Median insurance share |
|---|---|
| Langley Township | 26% |
| Surrey | 24% |
| Maple Ridge | 24% |
| Richmond | 23% |
| Langley | 21% |
| New Westminster | 20% |
| Burnaby | 20% |
| Coquitlam | 20% |
| Abbotsford | 20% |
| Kelowna | 18% |
| North Vancouver | 18% |
| Nanaimo | 17% |
| Vancouver | 17% |
| Victoria | 15% |
The share is highest where the stock is mostly wood-frame townhouses and low-rise: Langley Township at a median of about 26%, Surrey and Maple Ridge at about 24%, Richmond at 23%. It is lowest in Victoria at about 15%, and in Vancouver and Nanaimo at about 17%. Per door the order changes. New Westminster carries the highest median line at about $1,400 per unit, then Richmond at about $1,300, with Surrey, North Vancouver and Vancouver between about $1,100 and $1,200. Kelowna, Nanaimo and Victoria sit between about $840 and $910. Vancouver's low share on a middling per-door cost is the concrete-tower effect: a lot of insurance in dollars, inside a budget with a lot else in it.
It is coming down
The share has been falling with each budget year. Budgets for fiscal years ending in 2024 and 2025 put a median of about 22% to 23% into insurance, at about $1,200 per unit. Budgets ending in 2026 put in about 19%, at about $1,000 per unit, and the first budgets for fiscal 2027, shown for direction only, sit near 17%. Each corporation appears once, in its latest budget, so the years compare different groups of buildings rather than the same buildings over time; the direction holds across them all the same.
The insurance certificates that state a premium say the same thing. Policies renewing in 2024 and 2025 carry a median premium of about $1,000 per unit; those renewing so far in 2026 carry about $860. The budget line runs a little above the premium because it is set months before renewal and, in many buildings, also carries a deductible reserve and the broker's fee.
The context is the 2019 to 2021 hard market, when the province's financial regulator found premiums up about 40% province-wide and about 50% in Metro Vancouver in a year, and called the market unhealthy. [2] [3] Brokers' 2026 outlooks describe the opposite: premiums dropping, more capacity and rate relief expected through at least the first half of the year, with the caveat that buildings with claims or in higher-risk locations may not see the same terms. [4] [5] The budgets show that relief arriving one fiscal year at a time.
A newer building is not paying more for insurance. It is paying less for everything else.
What to do with this
If you are buying: find the insurance line in the budget and divide it by the number of units. Then read the certificate: the deductibles, the water deductible above all, decide what a claim costs you. [1]
If you are on council: the middle half is 16% to 25% of the budget and $890 to $1,400 per door. A line well outside that band is worth a conversation with the broker before the next renewal, in either direction.
If you want your area: insurance benchmarks by neighbourhood are on StrataStats.
See it for one building. A StrataReports building report shows the insurance line in the budget next to the certificate, the deductibles and the claims history in the minutes. Look at a sample report.
How we counted. Based on 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews. Figures come from the approved operating budgets in those samples, mostly fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with the insurance certificates used as a cross-check. Each corporation's latest approved whole-building budget is used. The insurance share divides the insurance line by all operating expenses, including the transfer to the contingency reserve fund; totals, subtotals and fund balances are left out. Per-unit values divide by the corporation's total unit count, so they are averages per door rather than any one owner's fee. Figures are medians and the middle half (p25 to p75), rounded to two significant figures. Cities and groups with too few budgets to summarise are not shown. No building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.
Further reading
Frequently asked questions
How much of a strata fee goes to insurance in BC?
In the approved operating budgets we read, the median BC strata puts about 20% of its operating spending into insurance, about $1,100 per unit per year. The middle half of budgets sit between about 16% and 25%.
What insurance does a BC strata corporation have to carry?
Property insurance on the buildings, common property and common assets for full replacement value, against major perils including fire, water damage and windstorm, plus at least $2 million of liability insurance. The coverage has to be reviewed every year and reported to owners at the annual general meeting.
Are BC strata insurance premiums going down in 2026?
Brokers' 2026 outlooks describe falling premiums and more competition among insurers, with relief expected through at least the first half of the year. In the budgets we read, the median insurance share fell from about 23% in fiscal 2024 budgets to about 19% in fiscal 2026 budgets.
Does the strata's insurance cover my unit?
The strata policy covers the building and common property, including the original fixtures in units. It does not cover an owner's contents, upgrades, liability or the strata's deductible, which is why owners carry a condo policy of their own.
What happened in a building, and whether it is normal
StrataReports reads the full document package of one strata or condo building and reports what happened in it. It then compares the whole building with similar buildings nearby, from finances and insurance to repairs, the condition of its components and disputes, and shows what is normal and what is not. Every finding links to its source page.