Compare home insurance in under a minute
Your home is likely to be the most expensive thing you own. If it gets damaged by a falling tree, burst pipes or a storm, you'll be patting yourself on the back for organising home insurance. Here's a quick breakdown of what you get:
This is combined insurance that covers your house and your possessions within it (most of the options in the table above are home and contents policies). It'll cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding your home if it's damaged from an insurable event, like a storm. I it also covers your possessions – furniture, electronics, carpets, curtains and clothing – from loss, damage and theft. You can also pay for extra cover for items you take outside of the house (like electronics or jewellery).
Contents insurance covers just your possessions in the home. This includes jewellery, electronics, carpets, curtains, furniture, appliances and furnishings. This is a great option for renters or those homeowners who live in an apartment.
This is stand-alone cover for only your home. It also covers other fixtures on your property, such as garages, fences, and sheds. It protects you against a bunch of natural events, such as fire, storm damage and (depending on the policy) floods.
Landlord insurance protects your home against theft, malicious damage, loss of rent, as well as natural events like storms, flood and fire. It's a smart idea if you're renting your home out to strangers.
When you live in a group living setting, like a block of apartments, you need cover for the building and common property like lifts, pools, car parks, gardens, balconies, driveways and even walls.
Step 1:
Evaluate how much your home and possessions are worth. When you take out home insurance, you give a dollar value to your insurer for how much your home is worth. The cost of home insurance for you will depend on this figure. Insure your house for too little and you risk being underinsured and out of pocket come claim time. Overinsure your house and you'll pay higher premiums.
Step 2:
Determine what kind of cover you need. Do you want to cover your home and everything in it? Then opt for home & contents insurance. Only want to cover your contents? Just your building? Figure out what kind of things you want to cover and find the policy that fits those needs. For example, a policy that offers total replacement cover might cost more but will also ensure you won't be underinsured. You'll also pay more if you want to get covered for accidental damage, but if you've got toddlers running around this is a no-brainer and could save you more cash in the long run.
Step 3: Compare insurers.
Once you've figured out how much your home and contents is worth and you know what policy you're after, start comparing insurers. Be sure to look at what the policy features as well as price.
Our home insurance guides can help you compare and understand what cover option is right for you.
Some more helpful guides
Best home insurance
5 policies selected by our experts, assessed and updated regularly
Home and contents insurance
For homeowners who also care about the stuff inside their home
Contents insurance
For folks who only want to cover their belongings (best for renters)
Building insurance
For homeowners who want to protect the building but not its contents
Some more helpful guides
Global warming is to blame for a lot. It's also a major reason home insurance costs are rising. You don't need to just accept the price increase though. When your renewal comes up, shop around. You'll likely find somewhere cheaper.
Home insurers like to offer sign-up discounts to get you on board. Some can genuinely save you a lot of money, like 30% off your first year. If you want to continue saving though, keep switching every 12 months because insurers often increase existing customers' prices significantly.
Insurers like safe homes, so make yours like Fort Knox (internal alarms, external sirens or external strobe lights will suffice) and some will charge you less.
This is a specified amount you need to pay whenever you make a claim. All home insurance policies have them. Most will let you increase your excess in return for cheaper premiums. There's a downside though – making a smaller-value claim won't be worth it.
"When my husband and I turned 60 and became semi-retired we wanted to put a stop to unnecessary purchases/bills so we could spend time enjoying our retirement. When we received our insurance renewal (from a company we'd been with for over 5 years), I was blown away to learn not only were they increasing my premium by 60%, but when I compared their basic cover against Honey Insurance's cover (with added benefits) I was saving over $700 a year!"
Want to find out more about a specific insurance brand? We've reviewed over 60 of them. Here's a bunch of the most popular ones:
If the brand you're looking for isn't here, check out our full home insurance directory.
A summary of how the provider compares to others in the market
HSBC’s home insurance is slightly cheaper than average, but still offers a strong range of benefits and generous limits.
Backed by insurance giant Allianz, IMB’s cover offers broad protection at a slightly-higher-than-average price point.
GMCU home insurance is backed by Allianz, which has a strong complaints record and solid benefits. However, premiums are also more expensive than average.
Australian Unity has a strong complaints record and competitive benefits, but it’s lacking in underinsurance protection which is a popular feature offered by many other brands.
Guild does have some market-leading benefits, but it was also one of the most expensive policies we compared. Read our full review.
Great Southern Bank offers a good range of benefits but it lacks underinsurance cover and premiums are quite expensive.
ALDI offers home, contents and landlords insurance. Its policies have thorough coverage with generous benefit limits.
Every bushfire season is different, but there has been a general movement upwards in the severity of the bushfire seasons that Australia experiences.
Allianz's Home & Contents insurance includes higher benefit limits than some other popular providers, but it can be lacking in optional extras.
