An east coast low which hit Queensland and NSW in February caused insured property losses of $958 million, catastrophe data company Perils says.

The figure is up from an earlier estimate of $794 million given in March. The $164 million increase is due to the addition of $100 million in iinsured property losses and the inclusion of motor losses for the first time, which totalled $64 million or 7% of the total.

The February 5-13 event caused the third-largest Australian east coast low insurance losses in three decades, and followed bushfire and hailstorm catastrophes over summer.

An east coast low in June 2007 caused insured losses of $2.4 billion, using adjusted figures, while a similar event in April 2015 cost insurers an estimated $1.2 billion.

The February storms and flooding were triggered by a low pressure trough which drew in moisture from a warmer-than-usual Tasman Sea, particularly near Sydney. It caused a combination of very intense rainfall, flash and river flooding, strong wind gusts and storm surge.

NSW coastal areas accounted for 88% of the insurance losses.

The latest Perils report provides a detailed breakdown of property and motor losses by postcode, with the data further divided by residential and commercial lines and loss amounts split into buildings, contents and business interruption losses where available.

It also shows the damage as a percentage of sums insured, as well as data on wind gusts and rainfall.

Perils will provide a fourth update of its estimate of industry losses in mid-February.