PERILS, the Zurich-based catastrophe insurance data provider, has disclosed its fourth and final industry loss estimate for the Australia East Coast Severe Convective Storms (SCS) of late October 2025, placing the loss at AUD 1.620 billion.
The estimate is based on loss data collected from the majority of the Australian insurance market, and covers property and motor lines of business.
The SCS affected Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria from 26 October to 1 November 2025.
During this time, eastern Australia experienced a prolonged period of SCS activity, with the greater Brisbane area in South East Queensland the hardest hit on 26th October.
South East Queensland and New South Wales were respectively impacted by more moderate storm activity in the following days, causing additional damage.
PERILS also estimated that 87% of the total industry losses were property losses, while 13% were attributed to motor losses. The event mainly affected the state of Queensland, which contributed 94% of the total industry loss, while New South Wales added 4.5% and Victoria stood at 1.5%.
The final figure compares to the third loss estimate of AUD 1.501 billion issued by PERILS on 30 April 2026, six months after the event.
PERILS’ second estimate placed the loss at AUD 1.512 billion, issued three months after the event, while the initial estimate for the event was AUD 1.108 billion, issued six weeks after the event.
Darryl Pidcock, Head of Asia Pacific & Cyber, PERILS, commented, “As Australia experiences the peak storm season, this event is a reminder of the widespread damage that severe convective storms can cause, especially along the east coast of Australia. We continue to observe various factors driving industry losses such as an increase in vulnerable assets, especially with the growth of solar panel installations in Australia, and the impact of a warming climate.
“Australia is currently experiencing El Niño conditions which typically bring drier and hotter conditions to eastern Australia. Notwithstanding, the threat of convective storm activity is still very real as recent storm and flash flooding activity reminds us, especially during spring into early summer.”
He continued, “We have observed more modest loss development in the last six months as insurers settled claims, with an 8% increase since our previous loss report, which is within expectations for this type of event. We would like to thank our insurance partners for their continued support providing timely and quality data.”
