Also known as home insurance, building insurance protects the physical structure of your home, including fixtures, but not the contents inside it.
Building insurance protects your home against loss or damage from events that affect your building, such as:
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Refine your search through our comparison tool to help you find a policy with the right features at a competitive price.
If you have any questions about building insurance, we can direct you to the answers you need.
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Home or building insurance covers your walls, doors, roof, fixtures and built-ins from several events. However, building insurance doesn’t cover your personal belongings.
A home and contents combined policy covers your building and your possessions together in one combined policy.
If you’re renting out a building to tenants, you can get landlord insurance instead of building insurance. Landlord insurance provides specialised cover that’s not included in regular building insurance.
Building insurance provides financial protection again loss and damage from insured events up to a specified limit. However, there are some exclusions across different policies.
When comparing building insurance with our free comparison service, you’ll be able to see the listed events covered by each available policy, as well as exclusions.
To give you an idea of typical inclusions and exclusions, see our table below – these, however, are subject to the policy’s terms and conditions. As always, be sure to thoroughly check a policy’s Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before purchasing cover.
| Event | Does building insurance provide cover? |
| Fire | Yes; however, cover doesn’t include damage caused by cigarette/cigar or pipe smoking, scorching, melting and soot when there’s no flame. |
| Impacted walls and fixtures | Yes – depending on the event however, coverage may fall under an accidental damage add-on |
| Flood damage | Yes; however flood damage isn’t always included as a standard benefit. |
| Broken glass, ceramics and crystal | No, yet this may be covered by purchasing accidental damage cover. |
| Swimming pools | Yes (though typically only in-ground pool) – refer to the PDS for details |
| Damage to fences | Yes, if they are structurally sound and well maintained. |
| Damage from vermin | No (vermin includes birds, rodents, and insects). |
| Carpets, curtains and rugs | Fixed carpets are covered. Loose carpets and rugs fall under contents insurance. |
| Deliberate damage | No. |
| Vandalism and damage from theft | Yes. |
| Damage from burst pipes and loss of liquid | Yes; however the burst pipes or aquarium that caused the damage are not covered. |
| Damaged caused by removalists or renovations | No. |
| Legal liability if someone is injured in your home | Yes. |
| Falling trees | Yes – provided the tree or branch falls naturally. |
| Garages and outbuildings | Garages are covered – outbuildings differ per policy. |
Sum insured refers to the amount you are covered for in the event of damage or loss to your home. It’s vital to ensure that the sum insured covers the cost to rebuild your home if it needs to be repaired or completely rebuilt. Otherside, you’ll need to pay the difference out of pocket – something that could be financially debilitating.
Our easy-to-use free home insurance comparison tool allows you to specify your sum insured, which can influence the premiums you pay.
The price of building insurance is unique to each home, determined by several factors, like the property’s:
Additional factors that impact your premiums include whether you’ve paid for any optional extras (e.g. accidental damage).
Our home insurance comparison service allows you to view several policies from some of Australia’s top insurers in one place. Our tool makes it easy to compare policy coverage, features and cost.
