There was a fourfold increase in demand for DASK and home insurance compared to 2022.

In the month following the devastating earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, there has been a noticeable increase in demand for earthquake and home insurance. Aksigorta General Manager Uğur Gülen, noting that the disaster has heightened awareness of the importance of insurance, stated, “Compared to last year, we are facing a fourfold increase in demand for DASK and home insurance, particularly in the Eastern and Mediterranean regions and Istanbul. As a society living in an earthquake-prone region, this level of awareness must continue not only after disasters but at all times."

One month has passed since the earthquake disasters centered in Kahramanmaraş, which had devastating effects on 11 provinces in total. Evaluating the earthquakes from an insurance perspective, Uğur Gülen, General Manager of Aksigorta, said: "We have experienced a huge disaster. However, this region is not a region with low penetration in terms of insurance. Especially in industrial and industrial areas, insurance penetration is quite high, reaching 80-90%. Individual insurance penetration is, of course, a bit lower; I can say that it is on average for Turkey. There are over 5 million policies. We know that 3.5-4 million of these are life insurance policies. The penetration rate of TCIP is around 50%, while the penetration rate of home insurance is around 20%. There are close to 500 thousand policies in motor insurance, constituting 7-8 percent of Turkey's total. Earthquakes took place in a region that corresponds to 10 percent of GDP. I can say 10 percent of the economy. It affected Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, where the industry is highly developed, and Hatay, where SMEs are concentrated. Based on the reports received so far, we know that the damage amounted to approximately 90 billion TL. Almost all of this damage has been reinsured. As the insurance sector, we have passed a very good test, protecting both our customers and our agencies. We paid the claims quickly and we will continue to pay these claims by prioritizing them. The development that makes us happy to some extent at the moment is to see that our society has reached insurance awareness against another earthquake disaster.

Uğur Gülen stated that they evaluated this increase in policies specifically for Aksigorta and said, "Although TCIP production is closed in the eastern regions, we see that the written production has increased 2-3 times compared to February last year. Considering the expected Istanbul earthquake, I can say that there has been a 4-fold increase in this region compared to last year. Again, with the impact of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake, there was a 4-fold increase in demand for TCIP and home insurance in the Mediterranean region. A significant 63% of the total production comes from new policies. This shows that the awareness of the society to secure itself against earthquakes has increased 3-4 times compared to the previous years.

ADDITIONAL ASSURANCE FOR DWELLING INSURANCE DASK

Underlining that TCIP insurance is necessary but that this assurance is of a certain amount, Gülen said: "In addition to the TCIP policy, the increase in housing insurance is one of the most important factors indicating that insurance awareness has increased. It is very important to obtain home insurance in order to provide full assurance against disasters. In addition to being an additional coverage to TCIP, this policy is also a product preferred by tenants to protect their belongings. After a disaster, of course, we feel social anxiety. As a result, it is possible to say that there is an intense demand for housing and TCIP insurances. As a society living in an earthquake zone, this level of awareness should continue not only after disasters, but at all times."