Allianz’s Direct Home and Landlord insurance are now available in new areas across northern Queensland and Western Australia.
The expansion of the product follows the firm’s move to join the Federal Government-backed cyclone reinsurance pool from January 1, 2023.
With the expansion, thousands of Northern Australian policyholders living in high-cyclone risk areas will benefit from lower home and contents insurance premiums.
“At Allianz, we believe that the accessibility and affordability of insurance is critically important. Given the increasing severity and/or frequency of extreme weather, coupled with rising inflation, the need for premium relief in communities exposed to cyclones and associated flooding is timely,” Allianz Australia managing director Richard Feledy said.
The cyclone reinsurance pool aims to lower insurance premiums for home, strata, and small business policyholders with high cyclone and related flood risk by reducing the cost of reinsurance for insurers.
Early this year, Allianz announced that it will join the cyclone reinsurance pool as an insurer customer for its home insurance business, making it the first major insurer to enter the scheme.
“Allianz welcomes the additional investment the federal government is making through the Disaster Ready Fund to enhance the resilience of communities to natural catastrophes, and we also look forward to continuing to engage with the government through the recently established Hazard Insurance Partnership and other avenues,” Feledy said.
“Allianz’s participation in the CRP has enabled us to expand the sale of household insurance directly to customers in Northern Queensland and Western Australia and inject more competition into those markets. Allianz has put in place an accelerated program of work to transfer our householders portfolio to the CRP as soon as possible and looks forward to extending the benefits of the CRP to our small business and residential strata portfolios in the future.”
Allianz is reminding existing policyholders that they are not required to take any action to benefit from the insurer’s participation in the cyclone reinsurance pool.
It added: “Renewal notices for existing policyholders with premiums that reflect the impact of the cyclone reinsurance pool (CRP) started being sent to customers from mid November 2022 for policy periods that commenced from January 1, 2023.”
