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Home and contents insurance can help pay for damages and incidents that affect your home or belongings, such as fire, theft or storm damage. You can make a claim with your home and contents insurance provider, who will pay for repairs, replacements, and even completely rebuild the home.
There are conditions and the event has to be specifically covered by your policy, but home and contents insurance can bring peace of mind and help financially secure your home.
There are several reasons why you should compare home and contents insurance:
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In just a few minutes, you can get a range of quotes from some of Australia’s best home and contents insurance brands.
Our comparison service helps you refine your quote and weigh up coverage, prices, optional extras and more with ease.
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Building insurance refers to a variety of ways to insure the structure of your property. It can protect you against wild weather, damage and break-ins.
Renters insurance is another name for contents insurance. It covers your belongings while you are a tenant.
Home and Contents insurance with flood cover provides financial protection against property damage or loss caused by flooding. It’s a crucial policy inclusion if you live in a flood-prone area.
Personal effects cover protects your belongings (e.g. phones and jewellery) against loss, theft or damage when you are away from your home
This type of policy gives investors financial protection from damage and costly repairs to the building and some contents, plus additional coverage for things such as lost rent.
Australians are no strangers to the threat of property fires. Cover for fire is designed to take care of these kinds of claims.
Your policy will outline which weather-related events that might affect your property are covered, such as storm damage, hail, water runoff and land gales. These comprise ‘storm damage’.
Accident damage’ cover gives you financial protection for unforeseen accidents in and outside of your home that causes damage to your property or possessions.
Motor burnout cover is a policy feature that insures the unexpected breakdown of the motor in appliances like fridges, washing machines or dishwashers due to a power surge or excessive energy current.
Your insurer will consider factors such as the estimated value of your home and contents, construction materials and home security when working out your monthly premium.
A ‘defined events’ policy lists the risks your property is insured for and excludes everything else, while ‘accidental damage’ is an additional policy benefit.
Even when you take out a comprehensive home and contents policy, certain events might still not be covered. These are called policy exclusions.
The cost of home insurance and contents insurance can vary widely, based on several key factors, including:
Read all about the factors that affect the cost of home and contents insurance to learn more.
Home and contents insurance pays out a sum of money if your building or possessions are damaged, destroyed or compromised by an ‘insured event’. These events can include storms, fires, floods, burglaries and vandalism, but might exclude damage from vermin or movements of the sea.
We’ve put together a quick glance guide to show you what is typically covered by home insurance (also known as building insurance), contents insurance or combined home and contents policies.
| What is & isn’t covered? | Home insurance | Contents insurance | Home & contents insurance |
| Storm damage | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fire damage | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Flood damage | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra |
| Earthquake | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Movement of the sea | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vandalism | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Theft | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Impact damage (excluding deliberate damage) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Portable contents | ✗ | Optional extra | Optional extra |
| Motor burnout | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra |
| Damage from vermin (including rodents and insects) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| War and uprising | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Accidental damage | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra |
| Loss of liquid (excluding the leaking item, e.g. burst pipe) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Removing debris | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Damage from renovations | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Temporary accommodation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| N.B. Some events, such as flood damage, may be covered as an optional extra or a separate policy you can purchase alongside building and contents insurance. Limits and additional exclusions may apply. | |||
When using Compare the Market’s free home and contents insurance comparison service, you’ll see what’s listed under each specific policy when comparing results. You should always read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) of any insurance policy you’re considering before you buy, so you know exactly what you are and aren’t covered for.
If you’re looking to protect your belongings and home from a range of potential dangers, home and contents insurance can provide the cover you’re after. This type of insurance can help you get back on your feet, and you can have both types of cover in a combined policy.
Comparing home and contents insurance with Compare the Market’s free home and contents insurance comparison tool can help you find a range of policies that have the coverage you’re looking for.
Buying a house may be one of the biggest investments you make in your life, so it makes sense to protect it accordingly. Storms, bushfires and accidents are all too common across the country, and such a calamity might mean thousands of dollars in repair, replacement or rebuilding costs.
Home insurance cover can help protect your wallet against the cost of repairing or replacing your home following an insured event, like malicious damage, falling trees and natural disasters. Home insurance can cover the replacement cost of the home and outbuildings, as well as the cost of clearing debris. Depending on the type of cover you have, you can also be insured for flood damage and burned-out electrical appliances.
It could cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars to replace your belongings without contents insurance. Contents insurance covers all sorts of possessions such as clothing, jewellery, furniture, laptops and desktops, books and DVDs, tools in the garage plus appliances we just can’t live without like fridges, washing machines and TVs.
For antiques and personal belongings that may be irreplaceable, contents insurance can help provide financial compensation that, while it may not be able to replace that item or its sentimental value, can soften the blow of losing such previous items.
As everyone’s needs are different, there is no single home and contents insurance policy that’s the ‘best’. That’s why shopping around and comparing policies by price, features, excess payments and optional extras is important – it can help you find one that adequately covers your needs.
You can start your home and contents insurance journey by comparing policies for free with Compare the Market, to help you find the cover you need.
Here are some key points to consider when looking for home and contents cover:
The best home insurance company will be very subjective, and different people will have their own answer to this question. To figure out who is best for you, you might want to consider the company’s track record when paying out claims as well as customer ratings and testimonials.
We work with a range of Australian home insurance providers to bring you a range of policies to compare.
We do not compare all home and contents insurance providers in the market. At certain times, some insurance policies might be unavailable. Learn more.
You can also take a look through the following list of home insurance providers in Australia.
List accurate as of 3 May 2022 and is subject to change.
Again, the answer to this question will be different for different people. You might want to weigh up not just the prices and coverage of their policies, but other things about the company like customer satisfaction or whether the company supports any charities.
We compare contents insurance from the following Australian providers:
We do not compare all home and contents insurance providers in the market. At certain times, some insurance policies might be unavailable. Learn more.
You can view an extensive list of contents insurance providers in Australia below.
List accurate as of 3 May 2022 and is subject to change.
As expert in home and contents insurance at Compare the Market, Stephen Zeller works to make the protection of a homeowner’s most significant financial assets, an easier and more efficient process. Stephen empowers people with choice and believes it’s important to have adequate cover in the event of the unexpected – fire, flood, storm or vandalism.
Stephen has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He is an Allied member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and ensures any information about insurance products that we publish is accurate and comprehensive.
