Average contents and landlord insurance costs in Australia

The ACCC’s June 2026 insurance monitoring report puts the national average home contents insurance premium at $531 in 2024-25, up 20.1% since 2021-22, with premiums varying sharply by region and cyclone risk. Landlord insurance is measured differently: no official body publishes a national average premium, though the ATO’s data-matching program tracks an estimated 1.6 million policies a year.

Landlord insurance is still represented in major official compliance datasets. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) acquires landlord insurance policy and premium data directly from insurers under a dedicated data-matching program expected to cover approximately 1.6 million individuals in each financial year from 2021-22 to 2025-26. It separately reports that 2,335,540 individuals held an interest in a rental property in the 2023-24 income year, up from 2,261,080 the year before.

Landlord insurance premiums are among the rental property expenses that may be deductible when a property is rented or available to rent on commercial terms. Deductions may need to be apportioned where an expense also relates to private use.

What do contents and landlord insurance cover?

Contents insurance covers belongings inside a home, such as furniture, appliances and clothing, rather than the building itself. It can be bought on its own by renters and owners alike, or bundled with building cover.

Landlord insurance may cover risks specific to renting out a property, potentially extending beyond what a standard home or contents policy provides. Inclusions, exclusions and limits vary between policies and providers.

The ACCC also reports premiums relative to the amount of cover provided.

A household in a small unit and one in a large house might both hold contents insurance, but they may insure different values of belongings. Measured per $100,000 of sum insured, the national contents premium was $636 in 2024-25, up 12.0% since 2021-22, a smaller rise than the 20.1% increase in raw premiums over the same period. The smaller increase may partly reflect changes in sums insured, although the data does not quantify their precise contribution.

The explorer below compares the four ACCC regions by average combined premium and against the rest-of-Australia average.

North Western Australia’s average was more than double the rest-of-Australia figure, and cyclone-exposed Northern Australia as a whole, the ACCC’s broader grouping covering these three regions, averaged $3,233 for combined home and contents cover, about 40% higher than the $2,310 rest-of-Australia average.

The ACCC also found that the largest decreases in average premiums per $100,000 sum insured after insurers entered the cyclone reinsurance pool were concentrated in Northern Australia. Most of the largest increases occurred outside Northern Australia or in inland regions.

After insurers joined the pool, average premiums in the highest-risk band fell to $628, an 11% drop, and were $606, or 14% below the pre-pool average, in the second year after entry. Over the same periods, premiums in nil-risk areas rose to $300 and then $306, up 6% and 8% respectively. The ACCC found that this pattern was consistent with the pool directing its largest benefits towards policyholders in higher cyclone-risk areas, while noting that other market factors also affect premiums.

The effect is visible at the city level too.

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General information only

This article is based on published Australian insurance, tax and housing data from the ACCC, APRA, ABS, ATO and ASIC Moneysmart. It discusses average premiums, official datasets and market-wide trends. It does not provide financial, tax or insurance advice and does not take into account any individual’s circumstances, property, location, policy terms or cover needs.