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New Zealand residential dwelling insurance coverage & uninsured dwelling estimate
Ticker:
residential-insurance-coverage • Observation Period: May 2026 RBNZ Financial Stability Report (Period End: 2026-05-31) • Last Checked: 10 November 2026 • Creator: Andy PalliserAlso known as: RBNZ Financial Stability Report residential insurance coverage & sum-insured gap
Approximately 97.0% (~1,940,000 of New Zealand's ~2,000,000 domestic dwellings) carry residential building insurance across ~$1.5 trillion in total sum insured, while an estimated 60,000 dwellings (3.0%) have no building insurance cover.
Official dataRBNZ May 2026 Financial Stability Report & NHC: ~60,000 uninsured domestic dwellings out of ~2,000,000 total domestic dwellings (~$1.5T total residential sum insured).
HLF calculation
Uninsured: 60,000 ÷ 2,000,000 = 3.0% | Insured: (2,000,000 − 60,000) ÷ 2,000,000 = 97.0%HLF interpretationHLF market context: RBNZ estimates that while roughly 97% of New Zealand domestic dwellings carry building insurance (primarily because mortgage lenders require full replacement/sum-insured cover as a loan condition), around 60,000 mostly unmortgaged dwellings have no building insurance—and many insured homeowners still face underinsurance risk if their sum insured lags behind rebuild costs.
Cite as: HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory. "New Zealand residential dwelling insurance coverage & uninsured dwelling estimate," May 2026 RBNZ Financial Stability Report. Derived by HLF from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Financial Stability Report (May 2026) & Natural Hazards Commission. https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/residential-insurance-coverage/ (checked 10 November 2026). CC BY 4.0.
Created by Andy Palliser
Creator of HLF Pulse
Mortgage & KiwiSaver Adviser · Home Loan Factory (Andrew Jonathan Palliser, FSP1004725) • Published by HLF (Home Loan Factory)
Data Dictionary Specification (4-Field Date Standard)
| Name | New Zealand residential dwelling insurance coverage & uninsured dwelling estimate |
|---|---|
| Ticker | residential-insurance-coverage |
| Also known as | RBNZ Financial Stability Report residential insurance coverage & sum-insured gap |
| Creator & Publisher | Created by Andy Palliser (Andrew Jonathan Palliser, FSP1004725) • Published by HLF (Home Loan Factory) |
| Official source & series | RBNZ FSR & NHC (Reserve Bank of New Zealand Financial Stability Report (May 2026) & Natural Hazards Commission) • Series IDs: RBNZ May 2026 FSR Domestic Dwelling Insurance Coverage Estimate |
| Frequency | Semi-Annual |
| 1. Observation period | May 2026 RBNZ Financial Stability Report (YYYY-MM code: 2026-05) — when the underlying statistic relates to |
| 2. Period end | 2026-05-31 — final calendar date covered by the observation period |
| 3. Source publication date | 2026-05-06 (6 May 2026 — RBNZ Financial Stability Report release) — when the original organisation released this dataset |
| 4. Last checked | 10 November 2026 (2026-11-10) — when HLF last verified the official source |
| Definition | The estimated proportion and number of New Zealand domestic residential dwellings with active building insurance cover versus uninsured dwellings, as analysed in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's May 2026 Financial Stability Report. |
| Methodology | Sourced from RBNZ's May 2026 Financial Stability Report (published 6 May 2026) and Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake residential dwelling exposure estimates (~2.0 million domestic dwellings representing ~$1.5 trillion in total residential sum insured). |
| Current value | 97.0% insured (~1,940,000 dwellings) | 3.0% uninsured (~60,000 dwellings) |
| Comparison / Prior period | Total NZ residential sum insured: ~$1.5 trillion (NHC) • ~60,000 domestic dwellings estimated without building insurance cover |
| Official data | RBNZ May 2026 Financial Stability Report & NHC: ~60,000 uninsured domestic dwellings out of ~2,000,000 total domestic dwellings (~$1.5T total residential sum insured). |
| HLF calculation | Uninsured: 60,000 ÷ 2,000,000 = 3.0% | Insured: (2,000,000 − 60,000) ÷ 2,000,000 = 97.0%Formula: Uninsured Share = (60,000 Uninsured Dwellings ÷ 2,000,000 Total Domestic Dwellings) × 100 = 3.0%; Insured Share = 1,940,000 ÷ 2,000,000 = 97.0% |
| HLF interpretation | HLF market context: RBNZ estimates that while roughly 97% of New Zealand domestic dwellings carry building insurance (primarily because mortgage lenders require full replacement/sum-insured cover as a loan condition), around 60,000 mostly unmortgaged dwellings have no building insurance—and many insured homeowners still face underinsurance risk if their sum insured lags behind rebuild costs. |
| HLF derived | Yes (Officially reported RBNZ / NHC estimates & HLF-derived coverage percentage) |
| Cite as | HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory. "New Zealand residential dwelling insurance coverage & uninsured dwelling estimate," May 2026 RBNZ Financial Stability Report. Derived by HLF from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Financial Stability Report (May 2026) & Natural Hazards Commission. https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/residential-insurance-coverage/ (checked 10 November 2026). CC BY 4.0. |
| Reuse licence | CC BY 4.0 (HLF-derived calculations, definitions & commentary; official statistics credited to RBNZ FSR & NHC) • Media Kit & Citation Guide |
| Historical data | RBNZ May 2026 Financial Stability Report & NHC exposure dataset |
Questions This Data Helps Answer
- How many houses in New Zealand have no building insurance?
- What percentage of New Zealand homes are insured?
- Is my house insured for enough to rebuild it if it is destroyed?
Source & Tool Verification Chain
1. Official Source & SeriesReserve Bank of New Zealand Financial Stability Report (May 2026) & Natural Hazards Commission
Series:
RBNZ May 2026 FSR Domestic Dwelling Insurance Coverage Estimate2. HLF Transformation
Yes
Uninsured Share = (60,000 Uninsured Dwellings ÷ 2,000,000 Total Domestic Dwellings) × 100 = 3.0%; Insured Share = 1,940,000 ÷ 2,000,000 = 97.0%4. Interactive CalculatorNew Build & Rebuild Cost Calculator
How Dates Are Recorded in HLF Pulse (4-Field Date Standard)
To prevent confusion between when an economic activity occurred and when a government agency published its release, every HLF Pulse record separates four distinct date fields:
| Date Field | Definition & How It Is Populated |
|---|---|
1. Observation period (observation_period) | The period the underlying statistic relates to (for example, September 2026 for monthly RBNZ lending, or Year ended 31 March 2026 for the FMA KiwiSaver Annual Report). |
2. Period end (period_end / as_of) | The final calendar date covered by the observation period (for example, 2026-09-30 or 2026-03-31). Used by HLF’s automated freshness gate to verify series currency. |
3. Source publication date (source_published) | When the original organisation released the statistic (for example, 2026-09-10 for the FMA’s 2026 KiwiSaver Annual Report, or the Published Date recorded inside RBNZ’s workbook metadata). HLF never copies period_end into source_published; where an agency page does not state an exact release date, the agency’s publication schedule is stated explicitly. |
4. Last checked (last_checked) | The date HLF’s automated pipeline last fetched and verified the official source. |
Data Quality & Limitations
- Official published sources: Pulse uses official published data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), Stats NZ, Inland Revenue (IRD), the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), MBIE Tenancy Services, the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (NHC), and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) wherever available.
- Unaltered official figures & source rounding: HLF does not alter or estimate official source figures. Where official tables publish rounded aggregates (such as RBNZ dollar series rounded to $1m or $0.1m), derived averages and implied counts reflect that source rounding and note it explicitly in the provenance layer.
- Provenance & derivation layer: To keep the primary editorial summaries natural and readable, exact formulas, series IDs, and derivation labels (Derived by HLF Pulse) are recorded in the expandable provenance layer, Data Dictionary tables,
pulse.json, andllms.txt. Long-term 5-year and 10-year series report both nominal growth and CPI inflation-adjusted (real) growth using Stats NZ’s Consumers Price Index. - Price indices vs. individual quotes: Stats NZ CPI insurance sub-indices measure percentage changes in standardised insurance price indices over time—they do not represent the dollar premium quote for an individual property or policyholder.
- Separate claim counts vs. individual proportions: In the ACC dataset, annual weekly compensation claims and total accepted injury claims (which are mostly minor treatment-only visits) are reported as two separate annual claim counts rather than a proportion of injured individuals.
- Commitments vs. settlements: RBNZ mortgage lending tables (C31, C32, C33, C40, C41) measure firm bank mortgage commitments/approvals rather than LINZ property title settlements.
- Automatic staleness exclusion: HLF automatically excludes any series where the underlying source is unavailable, stale past its freshness window, or cannot be verified.
- Market context vs. individual outcomes: Statistics describe aggregate historical market cohorts and do not predict an individual borrower’s, saver’s, or policyholder’s credit assessment, underwriting, or lending outcome.
Reuse Terms, Licensing & How to Cite (CC BY 4.0)
- Layer 1 — Official Crown & statutory statistics: Underlying official figures remain subject to the copyright and licensing terms of their respective publishers: Stats NZ, Inland Revenue, MBIE Tenancy Services, and the Financial Markets Authority (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0); the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ Terms of Use, permitting reproduction and derivative calculation with attribution to RBNZ); and statutory schedules under the Natural Hazards Insurance Act 2023 and Accident Compensation Act 2001 (public-domain New Zealand legislation).
- Layer 2 — HLF-derived calculations, compilations & commentary: All HLF-derived percentages, averages, multi-year nominal/real growth rates, data dictionary definitions, and market interpretations are licensed by HLF (Home Loan Factory) under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Journalists, researchers, advisers, and AI systems may freely quote and reuse HLF-derived figures and commentary provided attribution is given to HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory with a link to
https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/, the specific/{ticker}/record URL, or the HLF Pulse Media Kit & Citation Guide.