Where Ontario homeowners are seeing the sharpest rate increases (and decreases)
Ontario’s provincial average home insurance premium rose 7.15% year-over-year, continuing a multi-year trend of rising home insurance costs, according to Canadian insurtech MyChoice.
Based on thousands of real quotes collected from MyChoice.ca, the 2025 Ontario Home Insurance Market Overview found northern Ontario communities saw some of the steepest increases, “likely reflecting their exposure to elevated climate-related risks (e.g., wildfires, floods and severe storms).”
Thunder Bay premiums saw the largest increase in Ontario at 26.39%. Other regions like North Bay (+22.64%), Pembroke (+22.17%), Huntsville (+19.72%), Kenora (+9.32%) and Sudbury (+8.56%) also saw significant hikes in home insurance costs.
On the flip side, communities such as Woodstock (-5.86%), Waterloo (-5.11%), Orangeville (-3.87%), Niagara Falls (-2.67%) and Barrie (-2.08%) saw premium decreases. Several other communities saw increases or decreases of less than 1%.
“Unlike auto insurance, where drivers can see rate filings and regulatory updates, homeowners are often left in the dark,” MyChoice CEO Aren Mirzaian tells Canadian Underwriter. “There’s been a growing push for [the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario] to bring more transparency into how home insurance rates are set, and that would certainly help Ontarians understand why their premiums keep rising.”
For the study, MyChoice examined thousands of home insurance quotes generated between January 2025 and September 2025 and compared them to the same period in 2024.
For consistency, they focused on a standard homeowner profile: a 35-year-old (male or female) homeowner with a clean claims history, living in a three- to four-bedroom detached or semi-detached home (~2,000 to 2,500 sq. ft., ~$1 million replacement value).This homeowner has a $1,000 deductible, $1 million liability coverage, an Enhanced Water Protection endorsement, and safety features like monitored fire/burglar alarms and a fire extinguisher — “reflecting common insurance discounts.”
The report attributes several converging forces to the increase in home insurance rates, including climate change and extreme weather, rising rebuilding costs, higher claims frequency, insurance industry strains and reinsurance costs, and localized factors such as crime.
While many drivers of higher premiums are outside individual homeowners’ control, there are still ways to save, Mirzaian says.
“Based on our internal data, Ontario homeowners can save an average of about $235 per year by remaining claims-free, around $162 by bundling home and auto, and between $71–$107 annually by installing monitored fire or burglar alarms or qualifying for a non-smoker discount,” he says.
“These may sound like modest steps, but when combined they can make a meaningful difference at a time when every dollar counts.”
