Catastrophe data company Perils has finalised its overall loss estimate of several hailstorms that hit the eastern states in January last year, raising the value of claims accepted by insurers to $1.89 billion.

The final estimate of the hailstorm catastrophe over three days from January 19-21 is based on detailed loss data from the majority of insurance providers in the Australian market.

Perils says the catastrophe and two other similar weather events that later struck Queensland took the combined insured losses from hailstorms last year to more than $3.5 billion.

“This release is the final report for one of the largest Australian hailstorm events in the last 30 years,” Perils Head of Asia-Pacific Darryl Pidcock said.

“Given its impact on the industry, we are convinced that the detailed industry loss footprint we have provided will contribute to a better understanding of hail risk in Australia.

“The need for detailed loss and exposure data for hail was further highlighted by the two significant hail events in Queensland that occurred later in the year. Together with the January event, these hailstorms have generated more than $3.5 billion in losses for the insurance industry in 2020.”

The loss estimate for the January hailstorms catastrophe covers property and motor hull lines of business. Perils has given a breakdown of property and motor losses by postcodes and classified the data according to residential and commercial lines. Business interruption losses where available are provided in the report.

Perils says the ACT bore the brunt of the damage, accounting for 56% of the overall finalised loss estimate. Victoria was next (25%), followed by NSW (15%) and Queensland (4%).

Across the affected areas, motor losses contributed 42% of the total industry loss and property lines of business 58%.