Public willingness to pay for seismic risk mitigation

Overview

Who should bear the cost of mitigating seismic risk – building owners or the public?

Are taxpayers willing to pay more to improve the seismic performance of buildings?

In this MBIE-commission study we surveyed over 2000 people across New Zealand to understand the public appetite for supporting seismic risk mitigation for different building types through increased tax contributions.

While most people believe that building owners should bear all or most seismic remediation costs, around half of those surveyed supported some tax funding for private apartments and facilities that benefit the wider public, including privately-owned medical facilities.

The study also found that the public considers protecting life safety to be the most important attribute of seismic building resilience, ranking it above damage reduction and the minimisation of building disruption.