You pay the same price as buying directly from the home insurer.
We're not owned by an insurer (unlike other comparison sites).
We don't ask for your phone or email.
We've helped over 300,000 people find home insurance.
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:
Home and contents insurance
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.
"Given Australia's increasing frequency of natural disasters, it's crucial to understand how home insurance can support you. Temporary accommodation is vital for families displaced by events like bushfires and floods. Portable homes, often covered under home insurance policies, provide a secure and immediate solution, ensuring that families have a safe place to stay while their permanent homes are being restored."
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.
Collectively, our experts have over 12 years of experience helping people find home insurance.
We've written hundreds of guides (211 so far and counting) and are passionate about presenting the most up-to-date and relevant information for you.
We can help provide answers during major weather events and natural disasters such as La Niña, the recent Australian floods or during bushfire season.
You can regularly catch our experts on TV shows such as Sunrise and 7News dishing out the latest home insurance savings tips.
Back to topTo prevent water damage, it's worth making sure your gutters don't become blocked by leaves and other debris this autumn. Home insurance typically won't cover you for damage related to something like this. This is because it's considered general maintenance – that is, something you ought to be doing yourself.
Gary Ross Hunter
Finder insurance and innovations editor
Just having an awareness of what your insurance cover amount is and what your policy covers you for will make a difference. If you just haven't reviewed it for a number of years, it may be time to do that.
Trying to navigate a product disclosure statement can get overwhelming quickly. So I understand why people get confused about what's included in their policies. When I'm doing research, I just Ctrl+F a keyword or phrase and it saves me a lot of time and frustration.
Jessica Prasida
Finder home insurance publisher
One thing I've learned is that every insurer prices its risk in really different ways. Something as simple as the policyholder having a birthday can change the risk profile of the policy and change the premium. I compared options in 2022 when my home insurance premium went up by 33%, and I saved over $1,400! It really pays to shop around.
Sarah Megginson
Finder head of editorial and homeowner
One of the most common accidents is when people have their smartphones accidentally damaged. The great news is most content insurance can cover your phone in and outside of your home. To ensure your phone is properly covered, have it specified on your policy.
I pay for home insurance annually, whenever I can afford to. Insurers often charge more if you pay for your policy once per month. I'm a firm believer that staying loyal to an insurer never pays off with home insurance. I'd encourage consumers to compare at least 4 or 5 different policies when your renewal date creeps closer.
James Martin
Finder insurance editor and homeowner
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
Our team of experts researched 68 home insurance policies and selected 2 Finder Award winners based on value and comprehensiveness.
We also ran awards for customer satisfaction, innovation and green insurance.
Honey Insurance is our 2023 winner for comprehensive cover in home insurance.
It comes with automatic flood cover, up to $20,000 towards your home office contents and you also get smart sensors (worth $250) to prevent accidents.
Budget Direct is our 2023 value winner in home insurance.
On average, it's cheaper than most insurers and it covers most of the essentials such as fires, storms and theft. You can take out extra cover for things like floods and accidental damage.
QBE is our green insurer of the year for the fourth consecutive year. It's on track to be net-zero by 2030, a portion of your premiums go towards environmental causes and it can pay for some swanky environmental upgrades if your home is damaged. Plus, it's one of the most comprehensive home insurance policies you can get in Australia.
Honey Insurance recently took home the main insurance prize at our 2022 Finder Innovation Awards.
Why? It takes less than 3 minutes to get a quote and you get $250 worth of smart sensors that detect household accidents such as leaks and burglary.
Plan to take out more than one type of insurance (home, car, pet)? Well, we also had a customer satisfaction award for insurer of the year.
Youi was the winner. (Savings tip: you often get a discount for multiple policies with the same brand.)
We gathered over 300 quotes from 17 different insurers
for a $500,000 building and $100,000 of contents.
On average, the monthly cost of home insurance
in Australia is:
$160
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!"
Remember the deals and sign-up offers we mentioned? We put together a list of them below to help you save:
| Store | Discount | |
|---|---|---|
|
Receive $250 worth of smart sensors with Honey Home Insurance Get free smart sensors (valued at $250) to install around your home when you sign up for a combined home and contents policy. T&Cs apply. Last verified |
||
|
30% online discount on new home and contents insurance Receive 30% off your first year's premium when you purchase a new combined home and contents insurance policy online. T&Cs apply. Last verified |
||
|
16% off on your premium for the first year + $10 credit Sign up online and get 16% off your policy for the first year plus $10 ongoing monthly credit. T&Cs apply. Last verified |
||
|
Earn up to 30,000 Qantas Points with Qantas Home Earn up to 30K Qantas Points for joining by 30 September. Plus save 30% on your 1st year’s premium for purchasing a combined home and contents policy online. T&Cs apply. Last verified |
Deal ends |
|
|
Get up to 20% off your first year's premium with QBE Building and Contents Insurance Discount is made up of a 10% online discount, and a further 10% for buying a combined policy. T&Cs apply. Last verified |
||
|
Get 10% off when buying Home and Contents Insurance from Australia Post Save 10% when you buy a combined home and contents insurance policy online from Australia Post. T&Cs apply. Last verified |
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.
You pay nothing. Finder is free to use. And you pay the same as going direct. No markups, no hidden fees.
You save time. We spend 100s of hours researching home insurance so you can sort the gold from the junk faster.
You can trust us. We say it like it is. We aren't owned by an insurer and our opinions are our own.
We talk you through how to get home office insurance.
Find the right granny flat insurance, whether you're renting yours out or you've moved into one.
If you're a tenant with a fragile home aquarium, here's how renters insurance can help protect it.
Find out how to get cover for your solar panels.
Find out how home insurance can cover you for cyclones.
Your guide to taking out accidental damage cover for your home.
Discover what impacts the cost of home insurance and how to get the right protection with this handy guide.
South Australia is unique. Protect your home from a range of unexpected circumstances with home and contents insurance. This guide will teach you what to look for in a policy in South Australia.
Motor burnout covers those big appliances in your home in the event that they let you down. This article will show you what it is, why it's important and how much it can cost you.
Guide to understanding building insurance and what it covers.
How can I find out which insurers will quote on home & contents insurance for a house on 10 acres (4 ha) on the outskirts of Sydney? So far I have started 2 on-line quotes only to find that they will not cover our property.
Hi Fiona,
You might be better off finding an insurance broker. They will review the market for you and help you find a specialist insurer that meets your needs.
Hope this helps!
We are attempting to get our holiday house insured as we are about to holiday let it via airbnb, stayz etc. Our house is made out of shipping containers and we have been told that they can’t insure us. Do you know which insurance company would insure us?
Hi Penny, With an unusual property like this, you might be best off working with an insurance broker to find the right policy. You may find mainstream insurers are reluctant to offer a policy on a property that falls outside the norm like this, but there will be a specialised insurer that can help you.
Best of luck!
HI I am just trying to find an insurer for Home Insurance that will accept customers with previous non payment of premiums .
Thanks
Hi Emma,
Your best bet is to get on the phone to an insurer, rather than doing it online. They might be more lenient or hopefully they can refer you somewhere, or give you advice relevant to your specific situation.
Hope this helps!
We wish to insure our house-only for buildings insurance, but it is on 50 acres, with our vineyard / winery business conducted at the same address. The house has nothing to do with the business, but most insurers will not cover us at all because of the business being co-located on the site.
It takes about 15 minutes worth of questions with each insurer to get to the point where the “computer says no”, so it is a painful process to try to find an insurer.
Are there any insurers who will cover our house? Thanks.
Hi Rhonda, Given the complexity of your situation, it might be worthwhile consutling with an insurance broker.
You can learn more about how insurance brokers work and how to find one in this guide.
Best of luck!
Hi Team
I have just built a new 2 x unit duplex on the Sunshine Coast. It is under one title at this stage. I want to live in one unit and long term rent the other unit. What insurance companys will do this for me?
Hi Wil, Have you considered using an insurance broker? They can often assist with trickier risks like yours. The National Insurance Brokers Association has a search tool that might help you find someone in your area: https://www.needabroker.com.au/
Hope this helps!