How to Get Home Insurance: A Guide for New Homeowners
Key takeaways
You can get home insurance in Canada by gathering your home details, determining how much coverage you need, reviewing your options with a licensed advisor, and making an initial payment to activate your policy.
To get home insurance when closing on a house, you’ll need to:
- Gather information about your home’s age, size, construction, and electrical and plumbing systems.
- Determine your coverage needs.
- Request quotes from 3–5 trusted Canadian insurers.
- Review coverage options with a professional.
- Complete all paperwork and make your first payment.
When do you need to buy home insurance?
You should start shopping for home insurance as soon as your offer on a house is accepted. You must have active coverage before closing on a home.
Home insurance isn’t legally required in Canada, but you do need to buy it before you can finalize your mortgage and close on a house. To buy a home with a mortgage, you’ll need to:
- Buy home insurance before closing
- List your mortgage lender on the insurance policy
- Send proof of home insurance to your mortgage lender
If you’re not sure exactly what your lender’s requirements are for home insurance, ask your loan officer for details.
Expect the process of buying home insurance to take up to two business days. While getting home insurance quotes typically takes less than an hour, it may take longer for an advisor to review your application. PolicyMe’s online application takes about 10 minutes, and then you’ll speak to an advisor to finalize the details and activate the policy.
Step-by-step: What you’ll need to do to get home insurance
1. Assemble information about your home and property
This is the first step in the process, and the easiest to complete on your own without guidance from a professional.
Before you can request home insurance quotes and open a policy, you’ll need to gather a lot of information about the home you wish to insure, even if you don’t officially own it yet. Information needed for a home insurance quote might include:
- The year the home was built
- Total square footage (including square footage of basement and outdoor areas)
- The year the roof was last replaced
- Type of roofing materials
- Building materials used in the main structure
- Age, type, and condition of all home systems (e.g., HVAC, plumbing, electrical)
- Information regarding security systems, fire alarms, and more
That means gathering up home listings, inspection reports, and any other documents you’ve acquired throughout the buying process. If you already own the home and haven’t touched these documents in a few years, you might need to go into your files to assemble all the necessary data.
While you work on that, it’s time to create a home inventory of the personal belongings you want your insurance policy to cover. That includes furniture, appliances, electronics, sports equipment, clothing, jewellery, art, pet supplies, and more.
A home inventory serves two purposes when getting home insurance. First, it helps you highlight high-value items that might not be covered by standard contents coverage, which is usually set at a percentage of your overall coverage limit. An advisor or broker can help you determine if additional endorsements are needed to cover all your personal property.
Second, a home inventory prepares you to use your home insurance if you ever need to make a claim. Detailed records of the belongings your policy covers can help you and your insurance company reach a quick and fair settlement in the event of a loss.
2. Decide how much insurance to buy
Your home insurance policy will cover 100% of the cost to rebuild your home. Working with a professional insurance advisor or broker at this stage can help you determine what other coverage needs you have, and how it all fits with your overall finances. They’ll help you answer questions like:
- Do you need replacement cost coverage or actual cash value (ACV) coverage?
- Do you have any high-value personal property that requires special coverage?
- Should your policy cover the maximum number of perils, or only basic perils like fire and hail?
- How high should your personal liability limit be? Do you need additional liability coverage?
- Do you need flood insurance?
- Are add-ons for sewer backup and service line coverage necessary?
A licensed advisor can also help you decide whether to bundle your home and auto insurance policies. Bundling can reduce insurance premiums by as much as 20% (or more!), so it’s smart to consider shopping for both types of personal property insurance at once.
3. Request home insurance quotes from at least 3–5 insurers
Once you know what you’re looking for and have all the necessary documents, it’s time to request personalized quotes that can help you estimate pricing and identify the best coverage options for your home.
There are three basic ways to request home insurance quotes in Canada:
If you prefer to do things hands-on and have a little time to spare, you can request quotes individually from each insurer. You’ll need to make sure to request quotes for the exact same coverage to make a fair comparison, and the process can be time consuming.
Insurance brokers work for consumers, not for insurance companies, so they can find quotes and offer recommendations without bias towards any particular insurer. Working with a broker cuts down on paperwork and entitles you to expert advice from an industry insider.
Digital insurance platforms like PolicyMe combine traditional brokers’ expertise and access to personalized quotes with the efficiency of online shopping. You can fill out applications, customize coverage, and compare results quickly on your phone or laptop, but you’ll still get access to licensed advisors who can help you tailor your policy to your actual needs—or just confirm that you’ve made the right choices.
4. Review and fine-tune your coverage options
Once you’ve collected your quotes, it’s time to take a close look at all of your options.
Make sure you understand what you’re buying before you proceed. Basic home insurance coverage may seem standardized, but insurance companies offer many ways to customize, extend, and modify your coverage.
All home insurance policies include several basic components, including coverage for your home’s structure, detached structures, contents, additional living expenses during a covered loss, and personal liability. You may also have the option to add endorsements like sewer backup coverage, additional coverage for high-value personal property, overland flood insurance, identity theft protection, and more.
In addition to endorsements and add-ons, you can customize your coverage by:
- Setting your dwelling coverage and liability limits
- Adjusting your deductible—a higher deductible means lower rates, but will cost you more in the event of a claim
- Choosing between a policy that covers your property’s full replacement cost and one that only covers its actual cash value (ACV) minus depreciation
5. Make a payment and complete the paperwork
You can finalize your policy and activate your homeowners insurance by signing your insurance contract, making your first premium payment, and sending the proof of insurance to your mortgage lender. You’ll get instant access to a policy binder or declarations page that can serve as proof of insurance.
If you make your first year’s payment in full, you may be eligible for a discount on your policy. You can also get a discounted rate if you buy home insurance from a company you’ve already bought one insurance product from, such as auto insurance.
What you’ll need to get home insurance
To get home insurance, you’ll need personal information, details about your home’s age and construction, security information, and your mortgage lender’s name and address. This information helps insurance companies estimate the overall risk your policy presents.
How insurers determine home insurance pricing
Insurance companies base home insurance premiums on risk. To estimate your risk of filing a home insurance claim and the potential severity (or cost) of that claim, they’ll plug all the information you provided into their underwriting algorithms
On average, Canadian homeowners pay between $100 and $180 per month, or $1,200 and $2,160 per year, for home insurance. But prices are rising: from June 2025 to June 2026, homeowners’ home and mortgage insurance rates saw a 3.9% increase nationwide and a 1.8% increase in Ontario according to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reports a sharp upward trend in catastrophic losses over recent decades, leading to steeper home insurance rates.
When you apply for home insurance, your insurer’s underwriting team will take into account:
- Fire risk: How significant is the fire risk in your area, and how close is your home to the nearest fire hydrant and fire station?
- Theft and vandalism risk: What do property crime rates look like in your postal code? Do you have an alarm system in place?
- Severe weather risk: Do historical weather data show a pattern of severe windstorms, blizzards, and other covered natural disasters in your region?
- Personal risk: Do you have a history of multiple insurance claims?
- Claim severity risk: How much is your home’s estimated rebuild cost? What additional coverage options have you selected?
Large, expensive homes in areas subject to significant climate or crime risks carry the highest home insurance costs, while claims-free homeowners with smaller homes in safer areas may pay lower insurance rates.
“A lot of people struggle with the reconstruction cost of their house. They think that the market value of the house would be what they’re looking to insure the policy for, but the reconstruction cost of the house could be significantly lower than the market value of the house. An insurance company insures for the reconstruction cost, not the market value.” —Reza Aziz, RIBO-licensed insurance broker
What home insurance covers
In Canada, home insurance covers your home, its contents, and your finances if your property is damaged by a covered peril such as fire or theft or if you’re responsible for injury or property damage to others.
Core coverage included in all home insurance policies includes:
- Dwelling coverage: Covers your home’s physical structure against covered perils
- Other structures coverage: Covers detached outbuildings, fences, and garages
- Contents coverage: Covers your personal belongings such as clothing, furniture, and electronics
- Additional living expenses coverage: Covers living expenses (e.g., shelter and food) that go beyond your usual living costs if you're temporarily displaced from your home during covered repairs or a mandatory evacuation
- Personal liability protection: Pays for medical costs, repair bills, and your legal expenses if you’re legally responsible for bodily injury or property damage to others
You may also choose to add endorsements to your insurance policy to add, extend, or modify coverage. Three of the most common endorsements that add back coverage for perils excluded from standard home insurance are:
- Sewer backup coverage: Covers water damage caused by a sewer backup event, which would not be covered by standard home insurance
- Overland water coverage: Covers water damage caused by water entering the home due to overflow of freshwater bodies or heavy rainfall
- Earthquake coverage: Covers damage to your home and belongings caused by earth movement, including earthquakes and landslides
4 tips for choosing the right home insurance policy
It’s easier than you think to buy a home insurance policy that doesn’t serve your needs. Here’s how to make sure you’re properly covered.
- If possible, work with a broker. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) advises homeowners to work with a professional broker or licensed insurance agent to make sure they understand their coverage and can make informed decisions about limits, deductibles, exclusions, endorsements, and more.
- Always compare multiple insurers. While it might be tempting to go with the first quote that sounds affordable, especially if you’re wrapping up a lengthy home-buying process, it’s worth your time to compare offerings from multiple insurers.
- Don’t just look at the price. Affordability is a major priority for most homeowners buying insurance, and that’s understandable. But equally important is your insurer’s ability to communicate clearly, handle claims efficiently and fairly, and back your home with financial stability.
- Ask questions before you finalize your policy. Not sure what your home insurance covers and what it doesn’t? Ask your agent or advisor. Confused about how claims will work under your new policy? Ask that, too. You should feel confident about what your policy offers and where your coverage ends before you sign on the dotted line.
FAQ: How to get home insurance
This article is for general information only and is not insurance or legal advice. Examples and any sample quotes or rate ranges are illustrative and do not constitute an offer or guarantee of coverage, price, or eligibility. Actual coverage, discounts, and premiums depend on your individual circumstances and the insurer provider; if there is any discrepancy, your policy and insurer documentation govern. For advice about your situation, speak with one of our licensed insurance professionals.