Half of the destroyed buildings do not have insurance

More than half of the residences in 10 provinces affected by the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes in the Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of Kahramanmaraş, which caused many casualties and demolition of buildings, had no insurance. According to official data from the Natural Disaster Insurance Institute (DASK), 1,118,000 of the 2,175,000 homes in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquake did not have earthquake insurance, while only 1,570,000 homes were insured. The data shows that 48.6 percent of homes that are uninhabitable despite still standing, as well as those that have been demolished, do not have insurance.

DIYARBAKIR IS AT THE TOP

According to the data, only 113 thousand out of 210 thousand houses in Kahramanmaraş, which is the epicenter of the earthquake, have earthquake insurance. While the insurance rate in this province remains at 53.8 percent, this rate drops to 40.1 percent in Hatay, where heavy damage is experienced like Kahramanmaraş. While Diyarbakir was the province with the lowest earthquake insurance at 33.7 percent, Gaziantep was the province with the highest insurance at 65.4 percent. 219 thousand of 339 thousand houses in Gaziantep have earthquake insurance. Nationwide, the owners of 10 million 950 thousand homes out of 20 million 32 thousand homes had insurance. The insurance rate was close to 55 percent.

In the last 20 years, there have been 920 earthquakes in Turkey. A damage payment of 1 billion 446 million lira was made to approximately 105,000 insured houses that were destroyed or damaged in these earthquakes. The highest insurance payout was made in 2020, when 164 earthquakes occurred. Insurance payments of 969 million lira were made to beneficiaries for more than 60,000 houses damaged in these earthquakes. Last year, under the TCIP, 183 million liras were paid to beneficiaries for 17,438 damaged homes.

Those who survived the disaster insured

The TCIP data revealed that the insurance rate has also increased in cities that have recently experienced large earthquakes. While 54.7% of residences nationwide appear to be insured, this rate is 86.9% in Bolu, where major earthquakes hit, 86.2% in Düzce, 83.2% in Yalova , 79% in Sakarya, 71% in Van, 67.1% in Kocaeli and 64 percent in Bingöl. Among the regions, Marmara ranks first with an insurance rate of 63%, followed by Aegean with 56% and Eastern Anatolia with 50.3%. The Black Sea was the region with the lowest number of insured with 46.1 percent.