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Understanding your Sum Insured.

Understand what your Sum Insured is, why it matters, and how to calculate it accurately.

What is your Sum Insured?

When you take out house insurance, you’ll need to set your Sum Insured. This is the amount it would cost to rebuild your home to the same quality and is the maximum to be paid (with any applicable excess(es) deducted from that amount) if your house is damaged by an insured event. It needs to cover materials and labour, as well as other costs like demolition, debris removal, professional fees, consents and other related fees.

Keeping it up to date.

It’s your responsibility to set and review your Sum Insured to make sure it’s enough to rebuild your home. Although it will be adjusted automatically at renewal, this won’t reflect any changes you’ve made to your property or the actual change in rebuild costs. You know your home best, so it’s important to keep it up to date. You can review and update your Sum Insured at any time in Westpac One® digital banking.

What Sum Insured is

  • The estimated maximum amount it would cost to rebuild your home if it was damaged, including any additional or recreational features that would increase the rebuild cost of your house. These include swimming pools, solar panels, outbuildings and retaining walls.
  • An amount that covers materials and labour as well as costs like demolition, removal of debris, consents, and other fees.
  • An amount you need to choose and review regularly.  You can update your sum insured in Westpac One digital banking.

What Sum Insured isn't

  • It's not the rateable value (RV) or capital value (CV) of your home.
  • It’s not the market value or the price you paid for your home.
  • It's not the value of the land.

Why an accurate Sum Insured is important

  • If your Sum Insured is too low, you may not be able to repair or rebuild your home to the same size and quality. You could also find yourself paying for some of the repairs or rebuild yourself. So, it’s really important to get it right.

Working out your Sum Insured.

It’s important to regularly review your Sum Insured and the Cotality Sum Sure calculator is a good tool to estimate your Sum Insured amount. You just need to enter your address and check the property details that the calculator prepopulates. 

A range of factors are relevant when estimating your Sum Insured, including: 

  • Fixtures and fittings (i.e. baths, toilets, ovens, heat pumps)
  • The floor area of your home
  • The number of bathrooms
  • Fixed floor coverings (like carpet)
  • Demolition costs
  • Council consents and other professional fees
  • Labour costs
  • Land slope
  • Construction materials
  • Quality of materials and finish
  • Number of levels
  • Your home's design: (e.g. villa, bungalow, contemporary or one-off architecturally designed)
  • Outbuildings such as detached garages and carports, granny flats
  • Driveways, decks, paths and fences
  • Underground and overhead services
  • Rising building costs (i.e. inflation).

Make sure you include any additional or recreational features, such as swimming pools, solar panels, outbuildings, retaining walls and tennis courts.

How to calculate your Sum Insured.

Use an online calculator

The Cotality Sum Sure calculator is quick and straightforward to use and it gives you an estimate of what it may cost to rebuild your home. Enter your address, check the property details, and update anything that’s incorrect to make sure the estimate reflects your home accurately.

It uses data from third-party sources across New Zealand, like local councils, and includes construction costs, professional fees, demolition, debris removal and GST, with adjustments for regional price differences. The estimate is a guide only and it doesn’t allow for future increases in building costs, so you may want to add an allowance when setting your Sum Insured.

 

Ask a professional.

You may want to get a professional, such as a registered property valuer or a quantity surveyor, to assess your property if, for example, you have a house that is high value, unusual, or doesn’t appear in the Cotality Sum Sure Calculator. Construction Cost Consultants can provide residential valuations at a competitive price for Westpac customers.

Alternatively find other registered professionals such as:

Cotality Sum Sure calculator – helpful information.

  • If your address can’t be found and it includes a unit number (e.g. 23a), try different variations (e.g. 1/23, 23/1).
  • If you still can’t find your address, the Cotality Sum Sure calculator may not have details of the property, it may be a new subdivision, or the calculator isn’t suitable for the property at that address.
  • Don't worry if the photograph doesn’t match your house. The photograph might be different (e.g. your house is brand new, or there is an old photo, a boundary photo or street front photo) but the property details are based on the address not the photo.
  • The calculator assumes an average floor area for any garages, sheds or pool houses, so if you have a particularly large, detached building you might want to select a Sum Insured higher than the estimate the calculator provides.
  • The calculator uses typical building costs for standard finishes to provide an estimate. If your home has significant special features and fittings, was built to a superior standard, is very large, or has a high value, consider using other options to establish a better estimate of the rebuilding cost, such as a registered property valuer or quantity surveyor, or select a Sum Insured higher than the estimate the calculator provides.

Factors such as the slope (steepness) of your land and the style and quality of construction are important to get right when using the calculator.

Things you should know.

The Cotality Sum Insured calculator gives you an estimate of your home’s Sum Insured. You can change this amount if you don’t think it reflects your needs. This information is general only and is not a recommendation or financial advice. If you want advice about the right amount of cover, contact a registered valuer or quantity surveyor.

This calculator information doesn’t provide any advice or opinion on the extent or adequacy of the sum insured or the cover provided by insurance.  This is general information and not financial advice, and it doesn’t take into account your particular situation. You must make your own decision on the Sum Insured appropriate for your circumstances.

The Cotality Sum Sure calculator is an independent tool. Westpac and Tower cannot see the information you enter or the estimate it provides. If you want to update your home’s Sum Insured, go to Westpac One or contact us. You are responsible for making sure your Sum Insured is enough.

The Cotality Sum Sure calculator estimates the reconstruction cost of your home using information supplied by Cordell - Australia and New Zealand’s leading provider of building cost information. Cordell is a Cotality business. By providing information about your home, the calculator will provide an estimated reconstruction cost, including an allowance for professional fees, demolition, removal of debris and GST. The Cotality Sum Sure calculator takes the answers you input (or confirm, as applicable) and analyses them against construction industry data collated by and based on CoreLogic NZ Limited trading as Cotality (Cotality) research to generate an estimated reconstruction cost of the improvements on your property. Use of the Cotality Sum Sure calculator and any estimated reconstruction cost provided by it may not be appropriate for you and you will need to assess this given your knowledge of your property. A number of terms and conditions apply to the estimated reconstruction cost.

Cotality, Tower Limited (or a relevant related company, as the case may be), Westpac Banking Corporation ABN 33 007 457 141 and Westpac New Zealand Limited (Westpac) (or a relevant related company, as the case may be) do not warrant the accuracy, currency or completeness of the estimated reconstruction costs and exclude liability for all loss or damage however arising (including through negligence) in connection with your use of the estimated reconstruction cost. Access to the Cotality calculator is provided for your assistance only. Westpac accepts no responsibility for the availability of the Cotality Sum Sure calculator.

Please read the policy wording to understand the terms, conditions, excesses, limits, sub-limits and exclusions that may apply. Cover is subject to the current underwriting criteria. Claims payments are subject to cover and approval.

Westpac general insurance products are arranged by Westpac New Zealand Limited (Westpac) and underwritten by Tower Limited (Tower). None of Westpac Banking Corporation ABN 33 007 457 141 (incorporated in Australia), Westpac, or any member of the Westpac group of companies guarantee the obligations of, or any products issued by, Tower or any member of the Tower group of companies. Westpac will receive commission payments as a result of the arrangement of Tower policies.

Westpac accepts no responsibility for the availability or content of any third-party websites and makes no representation as to the accuracy or currency of the materials.