About 230,000 properties in Australia face a one-in-20 risk of a catastrophic flood each year, and increased disaster-related insurance claims are pushing up premiums.Australia's largest insurer, IAG, is calling for property buy-backs and an end to new housing in high-risk zones.
"But then within months of us moving in, there were a few big east coast lows with very big seas, very big rain events, and so this property is affected not just by big waves, it's also affected when there is water saturation of the clay soil. That tends to destabilise the cliff.
"We are getting asked the questions about geotechnical risks a lot more often. I guess it's inevitable.Prices fluctuate, like the weather "We had the Black Saturday bushfires then, straight off the back of that, we had three years of quite extreme flood events," he said. "They were identified in flood studies and things of that nature, so we are continuing to do that, but it's very expensive to be fair to those whose properties they voluntarily put up for sale, or are prepared to sell. It's a costly exercise."The council program is largely funded by the state government at a time when it is also facing a critical housing shortage.