Turkey: Private housing with quake insurance creeps up to 42.1%
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2016
The proportion of residential properties covered by compulsory quake insurance currently stands at 42.1%, according to the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) which released the data in conjunction with the 17th anniversary of the 17 August Marmara earthquake in 1999 that killed around 17,000 people.
This percentage means that around 7.43 million of 17.66 million residential properties in the region are covered by earthquake insurance, the TCIP data show.
The data also indicate that the TCIP has yet to reach its target. In 2014, TCIP Chairman Mr Selamet Yazici had said that the hope is that by this year, the number of houses with the mandatory earthquake insurance would reach 10 million. In August 2014, residential properties with mandatory earthquake insurance numbered 6.5 million, or 37% in terms of the total number of dwellings.
Adoption has been slow even though such cover is compulsory and despite steps implemented by the government to promote earthquake insurance. For instance, the Catastrophe Insurance Code which came into effect in August 2012 makes earthquake insurance compulsory for water and electricity subscription applications. Previously, the government had already made it mandatory for home owners to take up earthquake insurance in title deed transactions or real estate loans.
TCIP was established in 2000, in the aftermath of the Marmara earthquake, to provide, implement and manage compulsory earthquake insurance in the country. The goal is to reduce the government’s fiscal exposure to natural disasters arising from government-funded reconstruction of private property.