Tower: NZ’s Best Home and Contents Insurance 2024

Over the past few years, the cost of home and contents insurance has spiked. Due to elevated construction costs, extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle, and insurers’ reassessment of risk, insurance premium price rises have outstripped general inflation.

So if you’re looking for the best deal on your home and contents policy, it’s never been more important to shop around and compare insurers.

And to assist Kiwi consumers make the right decisions about their home and contents insurance, each year, Canstar compares and analyses all the main insurance players in the New Zealand market, to assess which provide the best value products and levels of customer service.

And Canstar is proud to announce Tower is the winner of its Home and Contents Insurer of the Year Award 2024.

Tower: Insurer of the Year Award | Home & Contents

Canstar’s Insurer of the Year Award is based on a sophisticated ratings methodology that compares costs and features across a range of insurance policies. The award is unique because it also factors in feedback from over 2500 Kiwi insurance customers about how satisfied they are with their insurers.

This year, our expert panel’s research covered 15 products from 11 providers, across three types of insurance:

• Home & contents insurance
• Home only cover
• Contents only cover

And for the customer service element of the award, policyholders were asked to rate their satisfaction with their insurer across five key areas:

• Communication
• Comprehensiveness of cover
• Cost
• Customer service
• Value for money

Awarding Tower the top Home & Contents Award, Canstar’s research panel noted the outstanding value offered by Tower’s insurance products, especially its Standard and Plus policy options, which feature comprehensive insurance cover at affordable prices.

Our team also noted Tower’s strong performance when it comes to events cover – including floods, storms and earthquakes – which is particularly relevant for many Kiwi households.

What’s on offer from Tower?

Tower offers its customers three levels of award-winning cover across its contents, home and home & contents policies: Premium, Plus and Standard. It also offers discounts of up to 20% if you purchase multiple policies.

What’s covered by Tower’s home insurance?

Premium cover: The highest level of protection for your home in the event of sudden and accidental damage, such as fire. Benefits include temporary accommodation up to $30,000, gradual damage from water leaks up to $3000, and extended carpet replacement.

Plus cover: Benefits include temporary accommodation up to $25,000, and gradual damage from water leaks up to $2000.

Standard cover: Benefits include temporary accommodation up to $15,000, and gradual damage from water leaks up to $1000.

All of Tower’s home insurance policies cover:

• Full replacement up to the insured sum should your house be destroyed.
• Full replacement for fire. If your home burns down, Tower will rebuild it, even if it costs more than your sum insured. Excludes fires following natural disasters.
• Natural disaster damage. If your home suffers natural disaster damage, which is more than the EQCover limit, Tower will pay the difference up to the sum insured.
• One event/one excess. This means if you need to make a claim on more than one of your Tower house, contents or car policies at the same time, you’ll only pay one excess.
• Garden retaining walls and landscaping
• Keys and locks

What’s covered by Tower’s contents insurance?

Premium cover: Replace lost, damaged or stolen goods with equivalent value items, including unlimited cover for mobile phones, up to $30,000 for jewellery, and up to $10,000 for home office and sports/leisure equipment, prescription glasses/contact lenses and $10,000 student cover.

Plus cover: Includes up to $15,000 for jewellery, up to $5000 for home office, sports/leisure equipment, and prescription glasses/contact lenses; $5000 student cover and up to $1000 per mobile phone.

Standard cover: Includes up to $1000 for jewellery, sports/leisure equipment and prescription glasses/contact lenses; $5000 student cover and up to $500 per mobile phone.

All of Tower’s home contents policies cover:

• Replacement or repair of possessions, up to limits in your policy and your chosen sum insured
• Natural disaster cover
• Transit insurance when moving
• Keys and locks
• Spoiled frozen or chilled foods
• Legal liability
• One excess

View Home & Contents Insurer of the Year Award

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.