Is property insurance expensive?

We acquire property through hard work, which is why we should preserve it. Is insurance an expense or an investment? We believe you can answer this question for yourself. Participants of the conference gave some simple examples: for an apartment of about 50 m², insurance costs about RSD 6,000 per year, while the value of the policy for an agricultural homestead is nearly the value of the crops that are spilled during transport from the field, with the option of paying in interest-free monthly instalments.

The experience after the catastrophic floods from May 2014 showed that claims were paid to the insureds on the day when adjusters made on-site inspections. The total loss in the region amounted to about USD 3.1 billion, while 82 people died. Liabilities of insurers amounted to about USD 100 million, only about 4% of the total loss.

In Serbia, the ratio of claims to the insured property is lower, as only about 2% of property was covered with an insurance policy. The total loss was about EUR 2 billion, and tens of thousands of people lost their homes. In Serbia, floods are the biggest danger to the property we spend years creating – they account for 34% of all the natural disasters from the last 20 years.

Lack of awareness of citizens about what insurance against natural disasters offers them was mentioned as the main reason for the low level of insured property. This is where insurers should have the main role, with support of the state. The situation is better only in developed countries of Western Europe, where up to 75% of households are insured against these risks.

At this conference, Ivan Grujić, member of Executive board of DDOR osiguranje, talked about the experience of this company. Other participants in the conversation were representatives of companies Wiener Stadtische osiguranje, Milenijum osiguranje and Energoprojekt Garant, as a partner of the Europa Re project.