Hiscox sees higher U.S. property insurance rates after Harvey, Irma

[September 12, 2017]  (Reuters) - Lloyd's of London underwriter Hiscox Ltd said the price of insuring property in the United States would rise after the states of Texas and Florida suffered billions of dollars of losses from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

"This will definitely have the impact of eliminating price reductions. I think that loss-affected areas will see price rises. The bigger ticket property area will see price rises because that was a very under-priced area beforehand," Chief Executive Bronek Masojada told Reuters.

"People buy programs covering all of their property wherever they are in America. So, it (price rises) will be broader than just Texas and Florida," Masojada added.

Like many Lloyd's of London insurers, Hiscox offers U.S. property insurance.

AIR Worldwide forecast on Monday total insured losses in the United States for Irma of between $20 billion and $40 billion. That was down from initial estimates over the weekend of as much as $65 billion.

Rival risk modeling firm RMS estimates insured losses from Harvey of $25-$35 billion.

Masojada said Hiscox would be announcing loss estimates "in due course".

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Carolyn Cohn)

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