How much have insurance premiums increased in Australia?

Home insurance claims also rose sharply in 2025. Gross home insurance claims incurred reached $13.9 billion, up 61% on 2024 and the highest annual total in APRA's current reporting series. Claims rose faster than gross accrued premium over the year, although annual claims did not exceed annual premium on the APRA series.

A single month shows the latest annual movement, but the longer quarterly series shows how the increases have built up over time. By March 2026, insurance prices were 76.4% higher than in December 2015, 52.7% higher than in December 2019 and 35.4% higher than in December 2022. Over each of those periods, insurance prices rose faster than All groups CPI.

Within those limits, the APRA data show CTP had the fastest annual growth in gross written premium among the listed general insurance classes, up 10.5% in the year to the March 2026 quarter. Home insurance gross written premium rose 6.1%, domestic motor rose 5.9%, and travel was broadly flat, down 0.2%.

Private health insurance premium increases have also lifted. The industry-average approved increase was 3.73% in 2025 and 4.41% in 2026, the largest average approved increase since 2017.

Cyclone risk creates a sharper split in home insurance premiums

The ACCC's final cyclone reinsurance pool report found that premium changes differed by cyclone risk. The report compares average premiums per $100,000 sum insured before an insurer entered the pool with policies renewed or taken out after the insurer entered the pool.

For combined home and contents insurance, average premiums per $100,000 sum insured were:

• 11% lower in medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas in the first year after insurers entered the pool
• 3% higher in low cyclone-risk areas
• 6% higher in nil cyclone-risk areas

The ACCC also found that the reduction in medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas was sustained into the second year after pool entry. In that second-year comparison, average home and contents premiums per $100,000 sum insured were 14% lower than pre-pool premiums in medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas, compared with increases of 4% in low-risk areas and 8% in nil-risk areas.

For other policy types, the first-year reductions in medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas were 8% for strata insurance and 24% for small business building and contents insurance.

Around 2% of policies nationally are in the medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas targeted by the pool. The ACCC survey also found that 45% of respondents rated their home insurance as either unaffordable or barely affordable, including households inside and outside cyclone-risk areas.

Average combined home and contents premiums remained highest in northern Australia in 2024–25. The ACCC reported average premiums of $4,966 in north Western Australia, $3,546 in the Northern Territory, $3,117 in north Queensland and $2,310 for the rest of Australia. These are average premiums, so they do not show the higher amounts paid by some individual policyholders.

Some cyclone-exposed cities also recorded lower premiums after insurers entered the pool, measured per $100,000 sum insured. The ACCC reported decreases in Karratha, down 15%; Mackay, down 14%; and Cairns, down 12%.

A ratio above 100% in the state selector below means claims incurred exceeded revenue that quarter. Only the Northern Territory crossed that line in Q1 2026, and APRA's data doesn't identify the specific events behind a state's result in any one quarter, so a single quarter can swing a smaller jurisdiction's ratio considerably.

What survey data show about insurance gaps

A 2025 Australia Institute survey of 2,009 Australians found that some homeowners reported gaps in building or contents cover. Among respondents who owned their home outright or had a mortgage, 15% said their house was underinsured and 4% said it was uninsured. For contents cover, 19% said their contents were underinsured and 10% said they were uninsured.