Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Quake risk assessments way to control insurance costs

Updated at 9:30 am on 24 September 2012

A global seismic safety expert says ensuring buildings have comprehensive earthquake risk assessments is a way to control rising insurance premiums.

Earthquake and structural engineering company Miyamoto International has teamed up with New Zealand project managers Impact to begin building assessments.

The partnership aims to help owners strengthen their buildings and get adequate insurance by assessing a building's vulnerability to future events, and how much it would cost to repair it.

Impact says the cost of insurance premiums has risen up to four times compared to the pre-Canterbury earthquake levels, and it's a structural change in the industry, not a one-off.

Miyamoto chief executive Kit Miyamoto, who has assessed properties in more than 100 pre-quake sites across the globe, says the global insurance companies want to know details about buildings to correctly assess the financial risk.

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