Investors savvy on flood cover
Where flood cover was a rarity in 2006, now more than three quarters of home policies contain this insurance, according to new data.
The Insurance Council of Australia revealed today that 78.1 per cent of home and contents policies now contain this measure, where only three per cent provided this in 2006.
"The publication of the flood insurance take-up-rates build on the Gillard Government's continuing efforts to make flood insurance simpler and more transparent through reforms such as standard definition of flood and the Key Fact Sheet regulations,” said minister for financial services and superannuation, Bill Shorten.
"The increasing take-up of flood cover is a sign that consumers are better informed about the availability of flood cover than ever before."
While most do include it as a standard inclusion, a number of policies include the option to ‘opt-out’ while some still offer no cover.
"The release of this data is a timely reminder that households need to assess their risks and examine their insurance needs, particularly now that we are coming into the wet season. People can and should shop around for the best deal," Mr Shorten said.
Currently, about seven per cent of properties have exposure to some flood risk, while 3,576,502 policies with flood cover are currently active.
Above 90 per cent of the market was analysed in each state to come up with these final figures.