December 2018 Sydney hailstorms property losses A$798m ($550m) - PERILS

The final estimate of the property insurance market loss for the December 2018 Sydney hailstorms is A$798m ($550m). This is according to PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organisation providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data.

The figure is PERILS’ fourth and final property loss estimate for the hailstorms. The estimate also includes the property losses from the storm activity in south-eastern Queensland on December 21 and 22 2018.

This compares to the third loss estimate of A$766m which was issued by PERILS on 20 June 2019, six months after the event. In line with the PERILS event definition, the loss estimate covers the property line of business only. PERILS estimates that this makes up slightly more than half of the overall loss comprising claims from all lines of business.
Commenting on the estimate, Darryl Pidcock, head of PERILS Asia-Pacific, said: “This is the first Australian hail event for which a market loss footprint, based on loss data collected from affected insurance companies, is available at a postcode level and by property lines of business. The combination of this loss information with PERILS property market sums insured allows users of our data to determine damage degrees as a percentage of sums insured.

“Furthermore, the correlation of these damage degrees with provided hail metrics, based on radar measurements by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, enables the validation of vulnerability functions used in Cat models. As such, we believe that the Sydney Hailstorms loss footprint will ultimately contribute to a better understanding of hail risk in Australia.”
PERILS also said that the Queensland Hailstorms of November 17 2019, as well as the November 2019 bushfires, will not exceed PERILS’s loss capturing trigger of A$500m property insurance market loss and the company will therefore not provide loss data for these events. Given that the bushfires continue to cause damage, PERILS will continue to monitor developments.

In Europe, insured losses from the tidal floods in Venice and other coastal parts of Italy in November 2019 are unlikely to exceed the PERILS loss capturing trigger of €200m, mainly due to the fact that losses from sea water flooding are generally not covered by flood insurance in Italy.

As regards the flooding in England in November 2019, as well as flash and river floods throughout Italy, PERILS’ insurance surveys conducted with its data providers have shown that the property insurance market losses in each of the two territories are expected to remain below €200m and PERILS will therefore not report on these events.