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TORONTO ― The cost of insuring a condo building is rising rapidly in Canada, and that could be bad news for owners’ resale values. Faced with increased climate-related disasters and rising reconstruction costs, some insurers are backing out of the condo market, and that in turn is causing premiums for condo building insurance to spike. Commercial insurance policies for condo buildings as a whole shouldn’t be confused with insurance policies for condo owners ― although those premiums are also on the rise. Watch: Canadians and Americans are now totally different, financially. Story continues below.

British Columbia condo buildings are facing insurance premium hikes of between 50 per cent and 300 per cent, Condominium Homeowners Association executive director Tony Gioventu recently said. On top of that, “deductibles are going from the conventional $10,000 or $25,000 to $100,000, $250,000 or $500,000,” Gioventu said in a Global News article. One core reason is an increase in unexpected weather-related events that have caused insurance payouts to spike, explained Pete Karageorgos, director of consumer and industry relations at the Insurance Bureau of Canada. “There are more and more severe weather events that are resulting in more insured losses, things from wildfires to flooding,” he told HuffPost Canada. He noted that B.C. has experienced large wildfires, while the 2016 fire in Fort McMurray, Alta., was a “record-breaking event.” The Ottawa region has seen two floods and two tornadoes in the past two years.