Turkey: More than 50% of houses are now quake-safe
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Sep 2019
The number of earthquake-safe houses in Turkey has increased from around 500,000 in 1999 to more than 9.1m currently. With around 17.7m residential buildings in the country, the proportion of earthquake-safe homes has reached 51.6%, reported Insurance Gazette.
Making buildings earthquake resistant has intensified in the 20 years since the 17 August 1999 Marmara earthquake which killed about 17,000 people. The quake also led to the introduction of compulsory earthquake insurance in the country in 2000, but a large proportion of residential properties still remains uninsured.
According to the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool, buildings constructed after 2007 have the highest insurance coverage rate of 50.7%.
The proportion is 17.9% for buildings erected between 2000 and 2006. The insurance rate for buildings built between 1997 and 1999 was only 6.97%, while that for buildings built before 1975 is 4.5%.
Seismic maps show that 96% of Turkish territory lie in earthquake zones with different hazard levels and 98% of the total population live in these regions. M