New Zealand’s insurance market is often viewed from offshore through the prism of catastrophe risk. Earthquakes, floods and severe weather dominate perceptions of the country’s exposures. But for brokers, the more consequential story right now is commercial opportunity. Despite that natural hazard backdrop, the market's soft phase in key segments, with easing rates, strong underwriting appetite and a growing agency presence, is creating unusually favourable conditions for brokers targeting SME clients.
That is the backdrop to one big broker's recent momentum across the Tasman. For Steadfast-owned Community Broker Network (CBN), its local progress suggests more than just one business executing well. It points to a market where broker opportunity is increasingly concentrated in commercial lines, where entrepreneurial firms have room to grow and where local presence matters more than scale alone.
“CBN New Zealand has been absolutely rocketing along,” said the firm's CEO Richard Crawford (pictured).
The pace of that growth is striking.
“We started with a small-ish enterprise that’s almost doubled in size in seven months," he said. "We had 19 network members; we’ve now got 31 and five in the queue."
That growth looks like more than a short-term bounce. Crawford said New Zealand feels like a market entering a new phase, helped in part by larger players restructuring and creating gaps for other entrepreneurial operators to fill.
“I think New Zealand’s on the verge of some real positive change, part of it inflicted by the industry because Aon and others are restructuring and leaving the market, but that just creates the opportunity for young entrepreneurs,” he said. “It feels like we were [in Australia] 10 years ago or more and it has given us a lot of energy because it’s very exciting to see business in its infancy and going really well.”
That matters for brokers because it suggests the opportunity is not only cyclical but structural. Crawford described New Zealand as being on the wave of “an AR-led or young, small broker-led revolution." CBN’s first New Zealand summit, which drew 30 partners, underlined the level of market interest.
The clearest reason for the commercial opportunity could be the shape of the market itself. In New Zealand, personal lines remain highly concentrated, leaving a bigger share of broker opportunity in SMEs, rural business and commercial risks than in Australia.
“Principally for us it’s the small business lines: bizpacks and related things like liability products and farm; that’s our heartland,” said Crawford.
New Zealand is dominated by two insurers in the domestic sector leaving only about 15% of that business to brokers. In Australia, Crawford said about one third of his brokers' business is from domestic clients.
New Zealand pushes intermediaries much more decisively towards business packs, liability and rural lines. Those are classes where advice, insurer access and placement skill still matter, and where networks such as CBN are naturally positioned.
The market cycle is also helping. By 2025, commentary from both New Zealand and broader regional market sources pointed to easing conditions, with abundant capacity, softer pricing and more active competition. Scott Eccleston, Marsh’s head of risk management in the Pacific, said in October 2025 that there was "an abundance of capital" coming into the local market and that competition would continue well into 2026.
Crawford also suggested that the soft market has moved the local insurer focus away from nat cats.
“You would think that it would be a lot more complex because of the catastrophe circumstances, but with the market’s softness in places, premium rates are coming off and there’s plenty of interest," he said.
The CEO said these commercial opportunities are encouraging the emergence of "lots of underwriting agencies."
That combination of softer pricing, broader capacity and more of an agency presence could be very meaningful for brokers. It gives them more options for clients, more leverage in placement and more room to compete for SME business. Industry commentary in New Zealand has also pointed to growing broker opportunity in softer conditions as underwriters and agencies compete more aggressively on commercial risks. For Steadfast, that creates fertile conditions in exactly the lines where Crawford says CBN is strongest.
But capacity and market structure are only part of the story. In Crawford’s view, success in New Zealand is tied closely to having people on the ground, particularly in the SME market. That point comes up repeatedly in broker conversations: relationships matter disproportionately in an economy dominated by smaller, often family-run businesses that want accessibility, familiarity and local knowledge from their broker and insurer partners.
Asked whether a physical presence in-country is particularly important, Crawford was unequivocal.
“Absolutely,” he said.
