Home insurance in Queensland (Qld)

From July 2025 to June 2026, Compare the Market customers in Qld were quoted $2,387 a year on average for home insurance (also known as combined home and contents insurance) for the policies purchased through Compare the Market. However, the amount you’ll pay can be variable depending on your home, where it’s located and the level of cover you choose.

Given the variation in home insurance costs across Qld, it’s worth comparing policies before you buy. Compare the Market lets you view a range of policies side by side so you can find a policy and price that suit your budget.

Insurers consider a range of factors when calculating home insurance premiums, including your sum insured, excess, the level of cover you choose, type of property, and their assessment of your property risk. Here are some of the main factors that can affect your premium in Qld.

Your location

Where your home is located can significantly affect your premium. For example, a property in North Qld such as Cairns or Townsville may attract a higher premium than most other regions due to a combination of cyclones, severe storms, flooding and storm surges. Likewise, 2 homes in Brisbane’s western suburbs such as Oxley or Graceville could have vastly different premiums if one is located in a designated flood zone and the other sits on higher ground.

In regional and remote parts of Qld, rebuilding may cost more because of higher transport costs, limited access to trades and increased demand for building materials after major weather events.

Flood risk

Qld has experienced several major flood events in recent years, including the 2011 and 2022 South East Qld floods. As a result, flood risk remains an important consideration for insurers. Insurers generally use flood mapping, historical claims data and their own risk models to assess a property’s exposure to flood events, which can influence premiums. Even if a property has never flooded, its location within a mapped flood-risk area may influence its premium.

The age and construction of your home

Home insurance helps cover the cost to rebuild your home, and your premiums are based on the size and age of your home, its design, building materials and local construction costs. Qld’s housing stock ranges from traditional timber Queenslanders to modern brick and steel homes, and these differences can affect premiums. For example, some insurers may view steel-framed homes more favourably due to their durability and resistance to risks such as bushfires and floods, which could influence insurance costs.

Neighbourhood

Crime rates can vary significantly across Qld, and insurers may consider this when assessing risk. For example, local government areas such as Townsville, Cairns, Brisbane Inner City and Logan have some of the highest reported property crime rates. Your premiums could be impacted if you live in these higher-risk areas, though security features can help reduce risk. For example, some contents insurance policies may require minimum security measures such as keyed window locks, double-keyed deadlocks on external doors and patio bolts on sliding doors as condition for cover.

Your level of cover and excess

Policies with broader cover or optional extras will generally cost more than policies with more limited cover. Choosing a higher excess may reduce your premium, but make sure you’re comfortable paying that amount if you need to make a claim.

Your claims history

If you’ve made multiple claims, particularly for weather-related damage, this may affect the cost of cover.

Home insurance in Qld can cost more than in many parts of Australia because insurers face a higher risk of costly claims. Severe weather, rising rebuilding costs and higher reinsurance charges can all increase the price of the cover. As a result, Qld records the highest average home insurance premiums in Australia, according to Compare the Market quote data.

Average home insurance premiums by state and territory

Some of the main reasons behind these higher premiums include:

• Severe weather risks: Qld is Australia’s most cyclone-prone state, with an average of one to two tropical cyclones affecting the state each year. Events like Cyclone Yasi (2011), Cyclone Debbie (2017), Cyclone Jasper (2023) and cyclone Alfred (2025) caused widespread damage and insured losses running into the billions. The state is also highly exposed to riverine flooding, such as the 2011 and 2022 Brisbane and South East Qld floods, as well as severe hailstorms in areas like Ipswich and the Gold Coast.
• Higher reinsurance costs: Insurers buy reinsurance to help cover the cost of large disasters. After major global catastrophe years, reinsurance prices have risen, and Australia’s cyclone-prone northern regions, including much of Qld, attract higher reinsurance loading. When reinsurance costs rise, insurers generally pass some of these costs on through higher premiums. In fact, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), reinsurance costs accounted for 71% of insurers’ average costs for combined home and contents insurance in northern Australia in 2024–25.
• Higher rebuilding costs: Qld has seen construction costs rise significantly in recent years due to labour shortages and supply chain pressures, which generally flow through to insurance premiums as homeowners need to increase their property’s sum insured to maintain the same level of protection. For context, the cost of building a new house in QLD grew 44% in 5 years, from $312,857 in 2019–20 to $450,612 in 2023–24, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

However, some cost pressures have started to ease. The Australian Government’s Cyclone Reinsurance Pool, introduced in 2022 to help reduce cyclone-related reinsurance costs for eligible properties in northern Australia, is showing signs of success. The ACCC found that average premiums in medium- to high-cyclone-risk areas were around 11% lower on a per–$100,000 sum insured basis one year after insurers entered the pool, with even greater savings seen in Mackay (14%) and Cairns (12%).

While savings vary, the scheme has helped improve insurance affordability for some Qld homeowners.

There is no single cheapest home insurance policy in Qld because premiums vary based on a range of factors, including your home’s location, construction type and the level of cover you choose.

While it’s tempting to look for the cheapest cover available for your property, the lowest premium may not cover everything that’s important to you. MoneySmart recommends comparing the policy details before choosing an insurer because the cheapest policy may not provide the cover you need. Instead of comparing price alone, it’s worth considering what’s covered, what’s excluded and the excess you’ll pay if you need to make a claim.

Choose a higher excess, review your sum insured, compare policies from different insurers and consider upgrades that make your home more resilient to floods and cyclones. While you can’t control factors such as your home’s location or its exposure to floods and cyclones, these steps could help lower insurance costs or improve the value of your cover:

• Compare more than just the premium: Shopping around can help you find better value, but don’t choose a policy based on price alone.
• Review your sum insured: Your premium is based on the cost to rebuild your home, not its market value. Review your sum insured regularly, particularly if you’ve renovated or added features such as new roof, garage, updated plumbing or electrical wiring, or security system. Features that reduce the risk of theft, storm or water damage may be looked upon favourably by some insurers.
• Choose an excess that suits your budget: A higher excess may reduce your premium because you’ll contribute more if you make a claim. Before increasing your excess, make sure it’s an amount you could comfortably afford after an unexpected event such as a storm, flood or cyclone.
• Make your home more resilient: If you live in a flood or cyclone-prone part of Qld, resilience improvements may help reduce your insurance costs. For example, a Qld Reconstruction Authority (QRA) case study found that a homeowner in Graceville (a flood-prone Brisbane western suburb) reduced their annual premium by 40% after incorporating flood-resilient design features, including raising the home and using materials such as polished concrete, into a renovation. QRA recommends speaking with your insurer before carrying out resilience upgrades, as some insurers may recognise eligible improvements when calculating premiums. Depending on your property, this could include strengthening your roof or using flood-resilient building materials during renovations.
• Check whether your insurer participates in the cyclone reinsurance pool: If you live in a cyclone-prone part of Qld, your insurer may participate in the Australian Government’s Cyclone Reinsurance Pool. The scheme has helped reduce insurance costs in some higher cyclone-risk areas, although savings vary depending on factors such as your insurer, postcode and property type. For some Qld households, it has helped improve insurance affordability.

Home insurance can help protect you from the financial impact of Qld’s extreme weather, as repairing or rebuilding a home after insured events such as storms, hail, cyclones and bushfires can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Exactly what’s covered depends on your insurer and policy, but if you take out a home and contents insurance policy in Qld, you’ll generally be covered for damage to your building and contents due to the following insured events:

• storm and rainwater damage
• fire and smoke damage
• theft or attempted theft
• escape of liquid causing damage
• lightning damage
• explosion damage
• earthquake or tsunami damage
• breakage of glass
• legal liability.

Some risks may not be included as standard or may only be available as optional cover. Depending on the insurer and policy, you may be able to add some or all of the following optional covers to your policy for an extra cost:

Building optional extras:

• accidental damage
• motor burnout of electrical appliances causing damage

Contents optional extras:

• Loss of or damage to portable contents and personal effects like mobile phones, laptops and jewellery
• Damage occurring while your contents are in commercial storage

Always read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and key fact sheet for any insurance policy you’re considering for full details on inclusions, exclusions and annual limits. The Target Market Determination (TMD) could also guide you on whether the product is right for you.

If your home is underinsured, your insurance payout won’t cover the full cost of repairing or rebuilding your property after an insured event, and you may have to:

• pay the difference between your insurance payout and the actual rebuilding cost
• delay repairs or rebuild to a lower standard if funds fall short
• face higher out-of-pocket costs after major events like floods as most policies only pay a proportion of your claim when you’re underinsured
• pay a larger share of rebuilding costs if you’ve renovated or improved your home but haven’t updated your sum insured.

Always check your Product Disclosure Statement to understand how your insurer assesses claims and whether any policy conditions apply.

Home and contents insurance policies taken out in Qld will generally provide cover for damage or loss caused by bushfire as a standard inclusion. If your home is located near bushland, this will likely drive up the cost of your insurance premiums.

You’ll want to ensure you’re adequately insured for bushfire damage and select an insured amount that will be enough to fully replace your building and belongings.

Flood insurance isn’t compulsory in Qld, but many insurers include it as part of their standard home insurance policies. Depending on where you live, your policy may be more or less expensive based on the area’s flood risk.