Awareness is growing, but most homeowners still haven't acted, and the cost to brokers' clients could be severe
Canadians know severe weather is coming for their homes. The problem is most of them are doing little about it.
New national research from Desjardins Insurance, based on a survey of approximately 4,000 Canadians, reveals a widening divide between climate awareness and meaningful preparation.
Nearly 70% of insured Canadians believe severe weather could damage their home, and 80% believe their vehicle is at risk. Despite this, only about one-third have already taken protective steps, and just 38% say they are likely to do so in the next five years.
For mortgage brokers, that gap is not an abstract policy concern. It is a material risk sitting inside clients' balance sheets, one that is becoming harder to ignore as property insurance costs escalate alongside insured losses that have broken national records two years running.
Insured damage from severe weather in Canada surpassed $2.4 billion in 2025. That's the tenth-costliest year on record, following a record $8.5 billion in losses in 2024.
Brokers who are not yet factoring climate exposure into conversations about property selection, borrowing capacity and long-term affordability are leaving clients exposed to a risk that is already repricing in real time.
Cost is the barrier, but information is the deeper problem
Two-thirds of survey respondents cited cost as the primary reason they have not upgraded their home, but nearly half said they would be willing to invest between $1,000 and $5,000 to protect their property from severe weather.
More striking still is the knowledge gap around government support. More than half of respondents said they were not aware of government programmes or incentives that could help them climate-proof their homes, despite the fact that federal and provincial subsidies exist for exactly that purpose.
The survey found that 82% of respondents said financial incentives would influence their decision to invest in protective measures, yet the majority had no idea those incentives were available.
That is precisely where brokers can add value. As Aren Mirzaian, CEO of MyChoice, has observed, "Affordability isn't just about what you pay for a home anymore, it's increasingly about what it costs to protect it."
Clients searching for a property in a flood-prone corridor or wildfire interface zone may qualify for federal adaptation grants or provincial retrofit subsidies that could offset the very upgrades an insurer would require before renewing their policy.
Regional divides and the mental health dimension
The Desjardins data also highlights sharp regional differences. Atlantic Canadians are both the most concerned and the most prepared, reflecting direct experience with frequent storms and coastal impacts.
Elsewhere, where residents have not yet been directly affected by a major event, the urgency is lower – even as underlying risk accumulates.
The link between climate anxiety and financial stability is direct: homeowners who feel unprepared for extreme weather events face compounding stress when they also carry significant mortgage debt and rising insurance premiums.
In fact, flood risks are sending home insurance costs soaring by as much as 20% in some Ontario cities, according to a joint study from digital broker MyChoice and real estate platform Wahi.
It found that in high‑risk urban markets such as Ajax – the study’s top‑ranked city for flood exposure – premiums jumped 26% to $1,290, even as they remained about 3% of a typical mortgage payment.
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