Personal auto and home rates harden in recent quarter

Home and auto rates remain on their upward trajectory, Applied’s Rating Index for Q2 2024 shows.  

“Both personal property and personal auto are experiencing increases year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, signifying continued hardening in the market,” Steve Whitelaw, senior vice president and general manager at Applied Systems says in a release.  

The index is based on more than 80% of the brokerage market and 675 insurer rating plan trends, the broker management software company says. 

Auto 

In personal auto, rates increased 13.3% in Q2 2024 from the year prior.  

No province was immune to this trend: Alberta (10.5%), Ontario (11.7%), Quebec (9.9%) and Atlantic provinces (14.7%) all saw sharp increases compared to the previous year. 

And against the previous fiscal quarter, all auto rates rose in the low single digits, with Ontario at the peak (4.5%). 

Perhaps of relief to auto insurers concerned about rate outlooks for the coming months, auto theft decreased nationally by 17% in the first half of 2024 compared to the year prior, Équité Association reported in its recent report on theft trends.  

Ontario and Quebec saw the most significant decreases in auto theft trends, with Ontario down 14% and Quebec down 36%. 

In 2023, auto theft cost the industry $1.5 billion in claims.  

Property 

Personal property lines in all provinces followed auto premiums along the same upward path. Compared to the same time last year, home rates increased 9.9% in the Canadian market. 

Personal property increases year over year were as follows across the board: in Alberta (5.8%), British Columbia (10.7%), Ontario (12.5%). Quebec (4.9%), Atlantic provinces (7.9%), and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (8.3%).  

However, rate increases were slightly more marginal for property than auto since the last quarter. 

Relative to Q1 2024, premium rates increased for Ontario (2.5%), Quebec (1%), and the Atlantic provinces (0.2%). 

Rates were otherwise flat in Alberta, and even decreased slightly in British Columbia (-5.2%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (-1.2%). 

In terms of property rate outlook, natural catastrophes in Q3 could wind up costing the industry billions in damages, thus further hardening rates.  

Though preliminary estimates remain to be seen, damages could surpass $1 billion from flooding in Toronto and southern Ontario in the second quarter.  

And wildfire season is underway across the country, with recent severe damages to Canadian resort town, Jasper, Alberta.  

Vehicles leave Churchill Falls, N.L. under a threat of a wildfire in a Wednesday, June 19, 2024 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Robert Dawe **MANDATORY CREDIT**