Gangnam flood leads to RM 292m Gangnam style insurance claim for over 1,500 high-end cars

On Monday, Seoul experienced a record torrential rainfall causing a massive flood in the capital city’s wealthiest areas. After the flood, the country’s insurance agencies have received a record of over 6,000 flood claims with an estimated 1,500 cases made by owners of high-end luxury cars.

According to a Korea Times report, major non-life insurance companies, including Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, KB Insurance, DB Insurance, Hyundai Marine, and Meritz Fire, are estimated to pay millions worth in damages.

The worst hit area by the flood is the Gangnam area, also known as Korea’s Beverly Hills. So, it is not a surprise that many super-luxury cars, such as Ferraris, Porsches, and Bentleys were damaged during the flood.

Other than that, hundreds of cases of other high-end imported cars like Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Audis, and Volvos were also reported after the flood.

As of Wednesday, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance reportedly received a total of 2,371 cases of flood-damaged vehicle claims. Nearly 40 percent of the reported cases (939 cases) received were high-end imported cars.

This alone would cost the company a whopping KRW 25.14 billion (~RM 86 million).

Also read: KL City Hall and the Irrigation Dept plans to build underground water storage tunnels to alleviate flash floods

DB Insurance, meanwhile, received a total of 1,247 cases of flood damage claims as of midnight (9-August-2022), 397 of the cases involved luxury imported cars.

The amount is only expected to continue growing as more owners come forth to make their claims. Industry insiders say that this is a rare case in which most of the flood damage is focused on the wealthy Gangnam District.

Aside from the aforementioned luxury cars, Korea Times estimates that over 7,000 vehicles in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi Province were damaged during the flood on Monday and Tuesday.

A total of 6,853 cases of flood damage vehicle claims were reported by 9 am on Wednesday (10-August-2022). With the number of cases, insurance companies are expected to pay over KRW 85.5 billion (~RM 292 million) in damages.

Also read: Abang Triton (aka Abang Viva) is still actively helping flood victims in Baling

During the pandemic, insurance agencies have been enjoying stable profits with most firms’ loss ratio standing in the 70 percent range in 2021. However, due to the torrential downpour, the companies are expected to be hit severely in their 2022 third-quarter earnings.