Fears many Australians will abandon home insurance as premiums jump 50% in high-risk areas

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 03:37:58 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/14/fears-many-australians-will-abandon-home-insurance-as-premiums-jump-50-in-high-risk-areas>

"Home insurance premiums have climbed by 50% in high-risk parts of Australia as
global heating increases the frequency and cost of climate disasters, a new
report has found.

The Actuaries Institute’s research on home insurance affordability and funding
for flood costs, released on Monday, found median home insurance premiums rose
by 28% in the year to March, sitting at an average of $1,894 across all states.

For high-risk properties, including those in flood-prone areas, home insurance
premiums were up by 50%.

It’s the biggest rise in two decades, raising concerns among peak bodies that
households may abandon insurance altogether due to increasingly prohibitive
costs.

Nearly one in eight Australian households (1.24m) are now considered
“affordability stressed”, meaning they spend more than four weeks of their
annual income on home insurance.

A co-author of the report, Sharanjit Paddam, said those households spent about
$4,000 annually on insurance, more than twice the average amount.

The stressed households were also typically in a low socioeconomic bracket,
living in regional areas and less able to afford high premiums."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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