Australia’s largest strata insurer, CHU, has joined the cyclone reinsurance pool administered by the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC).

CHU’s residential and commercial strata portfolios, FLEX’s strata portfolio and CHU’s Build to Rent portfolio, have already gone live – which means eligible new business and renewals with an effective date of July 29, 2023, will participate in the pool.

“CHU welcomes measures that assist property owners with affordability and access to suitable insurance products,” said CHU CEO Kimberley Jonsson. “CHU understands the financial stress individual householders are under with rising inflation and cost-of-living pressures, and this is a positive step towards alleviating these pressures in some instances.”

Criteria for eligibility

The criteria for eligibility under the cyclone reinsurance pool for strata schemes are:

• residential strata schemes (including mixed-use schemes where 50% or more floorspace is used for residential purposes); and
• commercial strata schemes where the combined building sum insured and common area contents value does not exceed $5 million.

“It has been a long journey,” said Steve Tchepak, head of underwriting at CHU. “We knew the deadline for participation would be challenging. The amount of work required in reconfiguring pricing calculations, implications on reinsurance, and updates to systems was and continues to be substantial. We are pleased that any pricing benefits from the cyclone pool can now flow on to customers.”

CHU follows in the footsteps of Allianz Australia Insurance (Allianz) and Sure Insurance, which both joined the ARPC-administered cyclone reinsurance pool early this year.

CHU’s remaining portfolios of Community Association, Lot Owner Homes, Contents, and Landlords for strata will join the pool towards the end of 2023.