Construction Insurance Market Update

The construction insurance market is in a state of transition from a market that has seen generally stable or declining pricing for over a decade to one in which prices are generally rising. This is being driven by:

• Changing underwriter appetites.
• A reduction in available capacity from specialist construction insurers.
• A series of losses.
• Insurance market conditions more generally.

Pricing trends in Canada have increased rather dramatically over the past couple of years, following well over a decade of soft market conditions.

This has led to a level of uncertainty. To bid effectively for a project, you have to be relatively certain in your budgeting. Recently, it is not uncommon for the price for coverage to be in excess of 20% more than budgeted for when construction companies bid for a tender and signed a contract.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also complicated matters. Aside from stop work orders that delayed projects and created the need for coverage extensions, clients were also facing supply chain issues.

Below Ryan Matheson (National Construction Placement Leader, Canada) and Alistair Urquhart (Global Head of Construction Placement) provide an overview of the insurance market conditions which are being faced by the construction industry, within the region and globally, how they expect them to change and what companies can do to minimize the effect of the changing market.

Please download the documents to access more in depth analysis of the insurance market conditions for the construction industry.