Dubai: Inquiries on home or contents insurance to cover emergencies such as fires have surged over the past few days following The Torch tower fire in Dubai Marina on Saturday.
But the spike is likely to wane over time as many residents generally seem unaware of the importance of having household items and personal belongings insured in the UAE, insurers said.
A massive fire engulfed the 86-storey tower at Dubai Marina on Saturday. Out of 676 apartments, 101 units have been closed indefinitely.
“Our call centre has taken a considerably higher number of home contents insurance enquiries in the past 48 hours but it is too early to provide a statistic against this number,” Zahir Sharif, General Manager – UAE at Zurich Insurance Middle East, told Gulf News via email.
AXA Insurance Gulf has noted an increase of 600 per cent in their quotes, a 450 per cent increase in leads generated online and a 300 per cent increase in sales in the past days, said Alexis de Beauregard, Chief Marketing Officer.
The same is true for AIG. Ramsey Chami, Head of Personal Property and Private Client Group – MENA at AIG, said: “We have registered a considerable spike in the number of inquiries for home insurance as a result of the terrible fire at The Torch tower. Many citizens now appear to be realising that they do need to take proactive steps to ensure they are fully protected in case of future unexpected events.”
This knee-jerk reaction of residents to get home insurance was also noted during the Tamweel Tower fire in November 2012. But it did not have a lasting impact until The Torch tower fire when interest picked up again.
“In the aftermath of the Tamweel Tower fire in November 2012, we initially saw sales of home insurance increase dramatically at Zurich as there was a surge in awareness across the UAE about fire, risk and insurance,” Sharif said.
One year later, Sharif said they undertook a survey that revealed that only six per cent of UAE residents had home contents insurance — a stark contrast with that of the UK at 76 per cent.
“Sadly, it seems too many people are failing to heed the warning from these types of tragic events and are not taking the necessary steps to protect their home contents against fire and other potential risks,” Sharif added.
The relative safety the UAE enjoys is one of the most common reasons for not getting home insurance, insurers said.
“The need of the hour is to build awareness on risks. Although the risks of natural disasters, fires and weather-related events are not high in the UAE compared to other countries, the possibility of loss has never been zero,” de Beauregard said.
The transient nature of the expatriate’s stay in the UAE and the misconception that insuring home contents is the landlord’s responsibility are also reasons why people either ignore or don’t believe in getting insured.
Other residents point out that taking home insurance is an added expense. But it’s an expense that they should be willing to bear.
“Damage to your home can happen very quickly and, therefore, a protection that gives you peace of mind is critical. All this, starting at less than Dh1 per day,” de Beauregard said.
“We have to remember that frequency of damage might be low but the costs are very high when an incident occurs, which could change your life,” he added.
Chami said many people often don’t realise how cost-effective and easy it is to get such insurance and ensurepeace of mind. It can be bought online in less than five minutes.
