I read through multiple home insurance comparison sites such as MoneySmart and MoneyHero, and articles/sites such as those from 10life, spacious.hk, and even this old article in 2012 from Consumer Council, and still have no clue which insurance to get. There are too many "features'' offered by these insurance companies, and it just muddles the water. What it comes down to is really knowing what I want want out of the home insurance, and it comes down to 2 things:
- Third-party legal liability protection
- Insurance for my home content
I went through all the insurance company that offers home insurance: Zurich, FWD, Generali, Blue Cross, Dah Sing, QBE, AIG, Allied World, Prudential, HSBC/AXA, AXA, MSIG, AIA, Pingan, One Degree, Bank of China Group (BOCG), Sompo, Hong Leong and Allianz, and got their annual premium, third party legal liability protection amount and home content insurance amount and calculated the Legal Liability Insured per $ and Home content insured per dollar. I rank them all in this spreadsheet.
Legal Liability Insured per $
|
Rank |
Company |
Rate |
Coverage |
Insured per dollar |
|
1 |
AXA/HSBC 2 |
1680 |
20,000,000.00 |
11,904.76 |
|
2 |
Prudential Premier |
1360 |
15,000,000.00 |
11,029.41 |
|
3 |
Prudential Harmony |
990 |
10,000,000.00 |
10,101.01 |
|
4 |
One Degree Standard |
1025 |
10,000,000.00 |
9,756.10 |
|
5 |
Pingan |
1066 |
10,000,000.00 |
9,380.86 |
|
6 |
Dah Sing Plan C |
1280 |
12,000,000.00 |
9,375.00 |
|
7 |
Blue Cross Plan B |
980 |
9,000,000.00 |
9,183.67 |
|
8 |
One Degree Plus |
1342 |
12,000,000.00 |
8,941.88 |
|
9 |
One Degree Prestige |
1690 |
15,000,000.00 |
8,875.74 |
|
10 |
Generali |
888.89 |
7,500,000.00 |
8,437.49 |
Home Content Insured per $
|
Rank |
Company |
Rate |
Coverage |
Insured per dollar |
|
1 |
Generali |
888.89 |
1,000,000.00 |
1,125.00 |
|
2 |
Sompo 2 |
900 |
1,000,000.00 |
1,111.11 |
|
3 |
Prudential Premier |
1360 |
1,500,000.00 |
1,102.94 |
|
4 |
Sompo 1 |
1000 |
1,000,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
|
5 |
Pingan |
1066 |
1,000,000.00 |
938.09 |
|
6 |
Dah Sing Plan C |
1280 |
1,200,000.00 |
937.50 |
|
7 |
AIG Standard |
1280 |
1,000,000.00 |
781.25 |
|
8 |
One Degree Standard |
1025 |
800,000.00 |
780.49 |
|
9 |
Blue Cross Plan B |
980 |
750,000.00 |
765.31 |
|
10 |
Blue Cross Plan A |
1580 |
1,200,000.00 |
759.49 |
The AXA/HSBC Plan 2 offer was quite tempting, given its high legal liability total coverage and insured per dollar. This is especially true after reading unverified information from forums such as this one from baby-kingdom where the poster claimed “someone forgot to turn off the water, flood the elevators and have to pay 15 million Hong Kong dollars for damage”. However, the home content coverage is a little low at only HK$600,000, which doesn’t even make it to the top 10 for home content insured per $.
Did someone really pay HK$15 million for damage to the building’s elevator? Hard to say. Doing my own research, I found a couple of news articles that put claims of flood damage to elevator(s) at up to K$1 million for this case (2022) and HK$3.5 million for another case (2019). It is a good idea to take even news articles with a grain of salt these days, so if anyone in the elevator repair industry or home insurance industry knows what a “sensible” amount to insure for, please do share!
At the end of the day, I chose Generali, with annual premium at only HK$888.89, with the HK$7.5 million legal liability coverage (rank #10) and HK$1 million dollar home content coverage (rank #1).
For less than HK$200 extra, Pingan also seems like a decent choice for my situation, with annual premium at HK$1,066, you can HK$10 million legal liability (rank #5) and HK10 million home content (rank $5) insurance coverage.
For an extra few hundred dollars per year, Prudential Premier with annual premium at HK$1,360, with HK$15 million and HK$15 million is also a good choice if I move into a more upscale condo and I own more expensive stuff in my home.
