What Alberta condos budget for insurance

The median Alberta condo corporation budgets about $910 per unit a year for insurance, about one operating dollar in six. Only the reserve fund transfer is bigger.

An Alberta condominium corporation has to insure its buildings and the units in them for their full replacement value, against the perils the regulation lists, with the deductible left to the board and its insurer. [1] The premium that buys that cover lands in the operating budget, and the budget is what owners pay for through their monthly contributions. We took the latest approved operating budget in 150+ samples drawn from our pool of Alberta condo reviews, most of them for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, added up every insurance line in it, and divided by the number of units. Then we read the deductibles off the insurance certificates in the same samples.

$910 a door, one budget dollar in six

The median Alberta corporation budgets about $910 per unit per year for insurance, and the middle half of corporations sit between about $760 and $1,100. The whole line at the median corporation is about $72,000. As a share of the operating budget it is about 16% at the median, with the middle half between about 12% and 21%. About three corporations in ten put a fifth or more of the budget into insurance, and about one in eight keeps it under a tenth.

The per-unit figures cluster tightly. About one corporation in twelve budgets under $600 per unit; a little over one in four sits between $600 and $800; another one in four between $800 and $1,000; about three in ten between $1,000 and $1,500; and about one in fourteen at $1,500 or more. Nearly every budget carries the line: all but about one corporation in thirty.

Second only to the reserve fund

Set insurance next to the rest of the budget and it is the second largest line. The median transfer to the reserve fund is about $1,500 per unit a year; insurance follows at about $910, then energy at about $890, which in Alberta mostly means the gas that runs the boilers. Water and sewer come in around $480, administration and management around $380, grounds and snow removal around $320. In about one budget in four, insurance is larger than the reserve contribution.

The line is not always one line. About one budget in four carries a separate provision for deductibles and claim expenses, at a median of about $160 per unit, on top of the premium. About one in five budgets a line for the insurance appraisal, the periodic valuation that sets the replacement cost the policy has to cover, at about $14 per unit.

Calgary budgets more than Edmonton

The median Calgary corporation budgets about $930 per unit, with the middle half between about $760 and $1,200. The median Edmonton corporation budgets about $810, with a tighter middle half from about $750 to $1,000. The bottom of the band is the same in both cities; the difference is at the top, where Calgary has more corporations above $1,000 a door. Insurance is also a slightly smaller share of the budget in Calgary, about 15% against 17%, because the whole budget runs higher there.

The Calgary premium has a weather history behind it. The hailstorm of 5 August 2024 produced nearly $2.8 billion in insured damage and over 130,000 claims, and the industry counts five of the ten costliest disasters in Canadian history in Alberta, all since 2016. [2] A corporation renewing in 2025 or 2026 was pricing that record into its budget.

Insurance is the second largest line in the Alberta condo budget, and in one budget in four it is the largest.

The deductible is the owner's line

The budget line is the corporation's cost. The deductible is what the corporation, and often one owner, pays before the insurer pays anything, and it is on the certificate, not in the budget. Taking the latest policy for each corporation, mostly 2024 and 2025 renewals, the median Alberta water-damage deductible is $50,000. About two policies in five carry $25,000, a little under half carry $50,000, and about one in twenty carries $100,000 or more. The cities split here too: the median Calgary policy carries a $25,000 water deductible and the median Edmonton policy $50,000. The general property deductible follows the same pattern, $10,000 in Calgary against $25,000 in Edmonton, and so does sewer backup, $25,000 against $50,000. Flood sits at $50,000 in both.

Since January 2020 the regulation has let a corporation recover its deductible from the owner of the unit where the damage started, up to $50,000, without proving negligence, with exceptions for construction defects, the corporation's own acts and normal deterioration of common property. [3] [4] The median Alberta water deductible, in other words, is exactly the cap. The corporation has to give owners its standard insurable unit description, which sets what its policy rebuilds, and to tell them the deductible on request. [1] So the premium above sits in the fees, and the deductible sits, potentially, on the owner's own condo policy.

What to do with this

• If you are buying: the budget tells you the premium per unit; the insurance certificate tells you the deductibles. Ask for both. Then check that your own condo policy covers a deductible assessment up to the corporation's water deductible, which at the median is the full $50,000 cap. [4]

• If you are on the board: the middle half of Alberta corporations budget $760 to $1,100 per unit and 12% to 21% of the budget for insurance. A separate deductible provision, which one budget in four already carries, keeps a claim from landing on the reserve fund.

• If you are comparing with BC: on the latest approved budgets the BC median is about $1,100 per unit and about 20% of the budget; Insurance is now one budget dollar in five has the full picture. BC carries earthquake cover; Alberta carries hail.

How we counted. Based on 150+ samples drawn from our pool of Alberta condo reviews. Figures come from the approved operating budgets in those samples, mostly for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with Calgary and Edmonton making up most of them. Each corporation's latest approved whole-building budget is used, and every expense line categorised as insurance (premiums, deductible provisions, appraisals and combined insurance lines) is summed before dividing by the corporation's total unit count. Shares divide the insurance total by the budget's operating expenses. Deductibles come from the insurance certificates in those samples, the latest policy per corporation, mostly 2024 and 2025 renewals. Figures are medians and the middle half (p25 to p75), rounded to two significant figures; cities with too few corporations to summarise are not shown. BC figures quoted for context come from our earlier BC post and use the same method. No building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.

Further reading

1. Alberta's new condominium regulations: insurance, LawNow Magazine, 2 July 2020

2. August hailstorm in Calgary results in nearly $2.8 billion in insured damage, Insurance Bureau of Canada

3. Insurance deductible chargebacks for condominium unit owners after January 1, 2020, Parlee McLaws LLP

4. Understanding insurance deductibles, Canadian Condominium Institute, North Alberta Chapter