Parts of north Queensland have been inundated by flooding after heavy rain lashed the region in the last week, resulting in the deaths of two people and evacuation of hundreds of others.
Floodwaters are beginning to recede in some areas with residents now taking stock of the damage to their properties and homes.
Insurance Australia Group had received 192 claims since January 26, while Suncorp registered 665 claims from customers, with almost 500 homes impacted till 8am on Wednesday, mostly in the Townsville suburbs of Garbutt, Kirwan and Burdell.
Suncorp expects more claims to come through from Ingham and Cardwell residents as they return to their homes in the coming days.
A customer support team is on the ground at Townsville stadium with mobile hubs available from Thursday.
"Our assessing teams are already deployed and ready to start the rebuild in those communities," Suncorp Executive General Manager of home claims and customers, Alli Smith said.
Northern Australia residents pay the highest insurance premiums in the nation across home, strata and small business.
Higher premiums has led to people in flood-prone communities opting to self insure.
Self-insurance allows people to retain money they would've spent on annual premiums and choose what they want to insure.
An August 2024 senate inquiry in NSW investigating the impact climate change was having on insurance premiums and availability heard how a Lismore resident decided to self-insure after a flood in 2007 and was able to quickly get back on his feet following a 2022 natural disaster.
Other residents in flood-prone communities were forced to foot the repair bills to their homes rather than rely on an insurance payout.
Premiums in north Queensland increased by seven per cent in 2022-2023 to $2918, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In 2021, storm-affected premiums in north Queensland were three times the price of the rest of Australia.
Insurers have blamed the increasing size of payouts for the higher premiums in flood prone communities.
About $17 billion has been paid in claims from 13 disasters since the Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020, the Insurance Council of Australia said.
Flooding in 2022 resulted in nearly 30,000 claims over losses which cost the industry almost $6 billion, the biggest single payout in Australian history.
Insurers paid out $2.2 billion in extreme weather claims in 2023/24, according to Insurance Council data released in August.
Flooding is the nation's most expensive weather emergency, with about 1.2 million properties facing varying levels of flood risk. There were 10.8 million dwellings across Australia as of 2021, according to the census that year.
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