Australian Home Insurance Statistics 2026

Two quarters accounted for most of the rise in home insurance claims. In the March 2025 quarter, ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred crossed the south-east Queensland coast and caused widespread flooding, wind damage and coastal erosion across Queensland and northern NSW, contributing to claims for the quarter reaching $4.70 billion.

The December 2025 quarter was even higher in dollar terms, with claims reaching $5.45 billion. Queensland accounted for $3.47 billion of that total. APRA's data does not identify the specific events behind individual quarters, but the state split points to claims being concentrated in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Higher claims in 2025 may place upward pressure on premiums, but insurers do not price policies based on one year alone. They also consider reinsurance costs, capital requirements, long-term weather data and competition from other insurers. Net claims remained below net accrued premium for the year ($8.94 billion versus $11.80 billion), although underwriting profitability should be assessed using APRA's broader insurance service result measures, not this comparison alone.

The first 2026 data is now available. In the March 2026 quarter, gross written premium reached $4.25 billion, up 6.1% on the March 2025 quarter, and gross accrued premium rose 7.7% over the same period. At the same time, claims eased sharply from the December 2025 peak, with the loss ratio falling to 76.3% from 125.9%. Together, this suggests premiums kept rising into 2026 even as the acute pressure from 2025's claims began to ease, which is consistent with insurers pricing off a longer run of claims experience rather than reacting to a single quarter.

Home insurance is more expensive in northern Australia because insurers price cover around the likelihood and cost of future claims. The tropical north is exposed to cyclones, monsoons and severe storms, which can lead to costly property damage. Major events such as Cyclone Yasi in 2011, Cyclone Debbie in 2017 and ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in 2025 show how large these claim events can become.

This shows up in the ACCC's regional data, but not as a uniform "north equals most expensive" pattern. In its 2026 report, the Northern Territory's SA3s mostly sit at $2,500 to under $3,750, with Darwin City and East Arnhem the priciest at $5,000 to under $6,250 — no NT area reaches the very top band. The single most expensive SA3 nationally is instead West Pilbara in Western Australia, at $6,250 or above, alongside other remote, cyclone-exposed WA regions.

The cheapest home insurance areas are mostly in outer metropolitan suburbs and some regional areas. SA3 areas in the $1,250 to under $2,500 band include outer Adelaide suburbs such as Playford, Salisbury and Tea Tree Gully; outer Melbourne areas such as Dandenong, Casey-South, Wyndham, Melton and Brimbank; and outer Perth areas such as Wanneroo, Kwinana and Canning.

Several rural parts of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania also fall into the lowest band. This likely reflects a mix of factors, including sums insured, local claims experience, insurer pricing and local hazard profiles. Tasmania has the highest share of any state in this band, at 87% of its mapped SA3s.

The ACCC’s SA3 analysis is the most detailed public data available for local combined home and contents premium comparisons. It maps 330 regions across Australia into five premium bands and is published with the ACCC’s insurance monitoring reports.

Insurers price policies at the property-address level, so building age, construction type, location risk and sum insured can affect premiums within the same SA3. The ACCC’s bands are useful for comparison, but they should be treated as regional benchmarks rather than quotes.

The Australia Institute's 2025 survey found that 15% of homeowners described their home building cover as underinsured, while 4% were uninsured. Together, that puts 19% of homeowners in the gap for building cover. Contents cover was less complete. 19% of homeowners said they were underinsured for contents, while 10% were uninsured. That means 29% were in the gap for contents cover.

The true level of underinsurance may be higher because the survey relies on self-reporting. Many homeowners may not know whether their sum insured still matches the current cost to rebuild.

Uninsured means there is no policy in place. If the home is damaged, the owner has to pay the full cost themselves.

Underinsured means there is a policy, but the sum insured is too low to cover the full cost of rebuilding or replacement. Some policies may also reduce partial claim payouts if the sum insured is too low.

Both leave the owner exposed, but underinsurance is usually less obvious because it can build up quietly over time.