People in northern Australia will soon have cheaper property insurance as the federal government announced a subsidy plan for the region from next year. A reinsurance pool backed by a $10 billion government guarantee will be in place from July 1, 2022, to relieve the high premium cost burden on homes and businesses due to frequent natural disasters like cyclone and floods in recent years. “This would reduce insurance premiums across Northern Australia by over $1.5 billion for households, strata, and small businesses over 10 years,” the federal government announced in a joint media release. It is expected that over 500,000 residential, strata, and small business property insurance policies are eligible to be covered by the reinsurance pool. Average premiums in northern Australia have sky-rocketed during the past 10 years, according to a report from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s three-year Northern Australian Insurance Inquiry. From 2018 to 2019, …