On Sunday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves revealed shocking statistics on home insurance coverage in the Grenadines, stating that only 79 of the 1300 houses on Union Island have insurance, and a total of 346 out of close to 6,000 on all the Grenadine islands.
It is understood that a significant number of residences on the Grenadine Islands are constructed without mortgages, which may contribute to inadequate insurance coverage.
According to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, the data indicates that only a small number of houses have insurance.
“79 of the 1300 houses on Union Island are insured, and the total insurance for those 79 houses is 30 million dollars.”
“The owners and the insurers thought that what was reasonable was about $30 million. So, in the aggregate, when you add 20 commercial properties, you get a total of over 46 million. So you have very few houses that are actually insured.”
Gonsalves said the numbers in Mayreau and Canouan are even lower, with Bequia being the highest.
“In Mayreau, 8 houses are insured; in Canouan, 34; and in Bequia, 225. That is, in total, for those four islands, 346 houses out of a total of 6,000 houses.”
Gonsalves said just over 100 commercial buildings are insured on all four islands.
“And the commercial buildings are 109 on all four islands. And the total sum for those 455 buildings. That is to say, the private and the commercial are half a billion dollars,” Gonsalves said.
