Concerning insurance trend among property owners

The vast majority of homeowners who did not insure their property said the cost was unaffordable or unjustifiable.

Kylie Porter, GW3 chief executive officer.

NORTHERN Australian property owners are choosing self-insurance over unaffordable paid policy insurance, a Mackay industry leader believes.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Northern Australia insurance inquiry second interim report, released on Friday, revealed the number of uninsured homes is “significant and growing”.

“I think people are actually choose self insurance over paid policy insurance and that’s incredibly concerning,” Greater Whitsunday Alliance CEO Kylie Porter said.

“If we were to have a major weather event in the next 12 months, you physically can’t have put away enough money to adequately be self insured if there is major damage to your property.”

According to the ACCC’s research, 95 per cent of homeowners who did not insure their property said the cost was unaffordable or unjustifiable.

The consumer watchdog’s investigation found that in 2018-19 the average premium for combined home and contents insurance across northern Australia was about $2500, almost double that of the rest of the country, having increased by 122 per cent over the past 11 years.

The GW3 chief executive officer said a number of key recommendations had been made and “if adopted would have a major impact on the affordability prospects of insurance premiums”.

“There is a recommendation for the state government to remove their stamp duty impost that they apply to the value of every insurance premium in Queensland,” Ms Porter said.

“That would have an immediate impact of reducing the premium value by about 10 per cent.”

Another important recommendation, Ms Porter said, was for a comparison website where people could “test the market”.

At the moment, she said, where was nowhere for people to go to, to actually compare the cost of their insurance premium based on their location

“That makes it incredibly hard to have full transparency and competitiveness in this market,” she said.