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What is Home Insurance and what can it cover?

Home Insurance can help provide cover for the costs involved with repairing your home and/or replacing parts of it in the event an incident may occur.

A typical example could be in the case of any structural damage to your home after an extreme weather event (e.g. a storm).^

The policy typically helps provide cover for repairs to the building, plus fittings and fixtures.

Is it possible to be underinsured?

Yes, it’s possible to have your home underinsured for the amount of damage that may occur.

If you choose to take out a sum-insured policy, ask your insurer if they offer a sum insured safeguard. This typically means the insurer will add up to a certain percentage of the total sum insured in the event of a complete loss, depending on the insurer and policy.

What are the consequences to being under-insured?

If you have valued your home lower than what it would cost to re-build in todays prices, you run the risk of not being able to claim the full value of the cost to rebuild your home as it was.

This could mean that you may end up receiving less than you need, or you may need to pay additional costs to cover your losses.

What doesn’t Home Insurance typically cover?

It’s important to remember that Home Insurance doesn’t generally cover any household items, or your belongings.

So if your things are damaged, lost, or stolen from your home, then Contents Insurance could help provide cover for these things.

Many providers offer Home & Contents Insurance together in the same policy.

How is Home Insurance typically calculated?

Amongst other things, insurers generally take the following into consideration when calculating Home Insurance costs:

1. Cover type
   The policy that is chosen may impact price, whether it is a home only policy, landlord policy or if the owner decides to also include contents.
2. Additional cover
   Additional options such as floods may increase the insurance premium.
3. Where your house is located
   If your home is in a bushfire prone area, or it’s vulnerable to flood damage or even cyclone damage, then many insurers would require you to pay higher premiums in order for them to bear the higher risk.^
4. Features of your home
   Things such as the type of tiles you have on your roof and whether or not you’ve got an alarm system installed inside may also impact the total cost of your policy.
5. Your claims history
   If you have a good claim history, then you may be able to avoid paying higher premiums.

What are the average Australian Home Insurance premiums?

The table below displays the average Home Insurance premiums for iSelect customers per annum, from July 1st 2020 to June 30th 2021**.

As you can see, Home Insurance costs can vary between states and households. We can also infer that bundling Home and Contents policies together can often be more cost effective than separately taking out multiple standalone policies.

How can I keep my Home Insurance costs low?

There are a few things you can do to help reduce the total cost of your Home Insurance:

1. Compare policies!
   There are so many options out there, so why not compare to see if you can get a better deal? You can start comparing home insurance policies from our range of providers and policies with iSelect, both online or via phone on 13 19 20.*
2. Keep your home secured
   If you install security screens or alarms and send photos of these safety measures to your insurer, then you may be able to benefit from lower premiums.
3. Higher excess fee
   If you choose to pay a higher excess fee , then you can generally benefit from lower premiums. However keep in mind this will mean the amount you may need to pay in the event of a claim would be higher.

How can I apply?

Many insurers offer online or over-the-phone applications. If you find an insurer or policy that you’re happy to work with, you’ll typically need to provide some personal details including contact details, information about the property and the personal items you’d like to protect.

But if you jump online with us at iSelect, we can help you through the application process from our range of insurers*.

Where can I compare options?

You can compare a range of home and contents insurance policies with iSelect*, both online or via phone on 13 19 20.

**Please note the values are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. Missing data is due to unrepresentative sample sizes.
^ It’s important to review the PDS of any policy you’re considering for any exclusions or limitations.