Compulsory home insurance: what the new concept promises, and what our title-deed data says
A new concept for compulsory property insurance has been drawn up in Azerbaijan. In material published by navigator.az citing the newspaper Kaspi, Central Bank director general Vusal Gurbanov explains the goal: to assess catastrophic risks more accurately and ensure more adequate payouts. The core change is that the sum insured will no longer follow one standard for everyone but will be set by the property's parameters, floor area and location.
Where things stand today
Insurance expert Ilkin Najafov says market coverage is below 10%: «Of every hundred homes in Baku, not even ten are insured under the compulsory scheme». The reason given is an ineffective penalty mechanism: in motor insurance a 50-manat fine every 20 days keeps compliance high. He notes the cover itself is broad — fire, explosion, lightning, internal flooding or leaks from neighbours, malicious acts by third parties — and includes the main structures, doors and windows, ceiling, floor and interior finish. The main flaw of the old rules was the flat sum: a «70,000-manat one-room flat in Hovsan» and a «10-million villa in Ganjlik» both paid 50 manats for the same 25,000-manat cover.
The main obstacle: homes without a title deed
Property expert Elnur Farzaliyev notes that the law requires a document proving ownership in order to insure a property, while hundreds of thousands of properties in the country have no extract; obliging only documented homes would split the market in two. He also points out that over 60% of documented flats sold in Baku and Absheron in the past five years were bought with a mortgage or loan and are therefore insured for the term of the contract.
Listing data shows the scale too. As of 12 September 2026, among Prayk Apartments listings where the title-deed field is filled in, 20,850 have a deed and 11,217 do not — about 35% of those who fill the field are offering an undocumented home (a further 6,786 listings leave the field blank).
What it means for buyers and owners
- Buyers: a stated title deed is not an incidental detail — mortgages, insurance and any future sale hinge on that document. The filter carries this attribute; use it.
- Landlords: the expert's point matters — insured events happen more often in rented flats, and without cover the matter drags on to court.
- Sellers: stating the document status honestly in the listing saves negotiation time.
Source: navigator.az, 24 April 2026 (Kaspi newspaper material).