Zurich-based catastrophe data company Perils has finalised its insured loss estimate of the central Queensland hailstorms in April last year at $839 million, up 39% from its previous calculations.

Perils says the figures cover the property and motor hull lines of business and is derived from detailed loss data collected from the majority of the Australian insurance market.

A spokesman for road body RACQ Group, which has an insurance arm, told insuranceNEWS.com.au a total of 3582 claims have been lodged to date.

About 2597 of the claims are for home-related damage and 985 for motor, the spokesman said.

Perils says the hailstorms were an unusual event for the region, given the extreme size of hailstones that rained down on Rockhampton and the surrounding areas at that time of the year. Insurers also faced several challenges dealing with late and significant claims development.

The event was also different from most other hailstorms in that motor losses contributed only 4% of the total industry loss, while 96% were due to losses in property lines of business.

“During 2020, the industry experienced a number of challenging events such as the Australian bushfires, hailstorms in January and October as well as an East Coast Low event,” Head of Perils Asia Pacific Darryl Pidcock said.

“Whilst the Central Queensland hailstorms were not as significant in industry loss terms as other events, the event has presented the industry with challenges dealing with significant claims being lodged some months after the event.

“Lessons gained from these losses include the effect of local building regulations to better understand potential exposures and how these can be captured in models.”