Insurance Council says about three quarters of the $3.6 billion of claims for the massive weather events earlier this year have now been paid

Insurers have now paid out $2.7 billion worth of the $3.6 billion claims made for damage from the two massive weather events in January and February of this year.

The Insurance Council is styling the Auckland Anniversary weekend flood and Cyclone Gabrielle in February as, separately, the two largest insurance weather events in the country's history.

Insurers have settled 99,798 of 115,353 claims made.

Insurance Council chief executive Tim Grafton says this is "really good progress".

"Insurers are committed to finalising the remaining claims with their customers," he said.

"We know some homeowners are waiting to settle until more is known about their local council voluntary buyout offer.

"Our message to homeowners is that your insurance claim needs to be completed before starting the property purchase process. As people will not be financially advantaged or disadvantaged by waiting we encourage people to continue to work with their insurer to finalise their claim."

The $2.7 billion paid out to December 1 covers 87% of claims by volume and around 75% by value.

By value, residential house claims are 84%, contents 95% and motor 99% fully settled.

The council says the nature of Business Interruption claims means payments are spread over time and so progress is tracking as expected (75% by number and 57% by value).

Putting some perspective on the figures - earlier this year the council had said that the general insurance sector in NZ had total claims for the whole of 2022 of $3.08 billion, while claims for 2016's Kaikoura earthquake totalled $2.27 billion.

The below is the council's full description of claims and progress to date for this year's weather events: