Building insurance
Building insurance covers your home and its permanent fixtures, such as your roof, ceiling, walls, floors, doors, windows, built-in cabinets and cupboards. Building insurance doesn’t cover the contents of your home – so it may be the right choice for you if you’re looking for cover just for your building and fixtures only.
If you’re a homeowner, we’re here to help you find the right building insurance policy for your needs. Compare options below and get a building insurance quote online in minutes. If you need cover for your belongings as well, you might want to get cover for your building and contents together.
If you’re a landlord looking to cover your rental property and/or its contents, please refer to our landlord insurance page.
Looking for affordable building insurance? Save 10% when you buy online today.
What’s included in building insurance cover?
Building insurance covers your home and permanent fixtures against damage caused by things like fire, flood, storm, theft and vandalism. Find out how buildings are covered by QBE Home Insurance below.
Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for full details including limits, exclusions and conditions that apply.
Included
Need insurance for your building and its fixtures but not your contents? QBE Home insurance covers your building, here's what's included:
- Cover against damage or loss caused by storm, fire, theft, vandalism, flood and more
- Up to $30 million for legal liability
- Temporary accommodation costs for up to two years if your home isn’t liveable
- Electrical motor burnout cover
- Emergency temporary repairs
- Buildings Sum Insured Safeguard benefit (eligibility criteria applies)
- Lifetime guarantee on home repairs made by our repairers
- Environmental upgrades
Not included
If you decide you only need building cover as part of your QBE Home insurance it will exclude things like:
- Contents insurance
- Accidental damage cover
Upgrade to include
- Accidental damage cover for an extra premium
Why choose QBE Home Insurance?
At QBE, we offer insurance cover for everyday Australians that’s easy to understand and easy to buy.
Ways to save on your home insurance
Want more value from your home insurance? Consider:
- Flexible excess: Choosing a higher excess lowers your premium. Be sure to pick an excess you can afford to pay at short notice if you need to make a claim.
- Pay up front: Pay less for your home insurance when you choose to pay annually.
Read more about premiums, excesses and claims in the Additional Information Guide.
Save 10% on home insurance to cover your home!
Four risks to your home, and how to combat them
Your home is more than just four walls – it’s a sanctuary for you and your loved ones. And chances are it didn’t come cheap. Understanding the risks your home faces will help you protect it.
Home owners: how to avoid underinsurance
You know how important it is to insure your home and belongings, but are you sure you’ve got enough cover? We provide online insurance calculators to help you figure out how much cover you need (your ‘sum insured’).
Home and contents insurance calculators
You can use these calculators to estimate roughly how much it would cost to rebuild your home or replace your contents. By providing general information about your home the calculators will provide an estimated value and summary that you can further edit for a more accurate result if you wish.
Building insurance frequently asked questions
Building insurance covers your home and its permanent fixtures – such as your roof, ceiling, walls, floors, doors, windows, built-in cabinets and cupboards – but not your contents.
Building insurance is designed to cover you for damage or loss due to things like:
- Fire
- Flood
- Storm
- Theft
- Vandalism
If you’re looking to cover your home and its fixtures only, building insurance may be the right option for you.
What’s covered depends on the type of building insurance you have and your specific policy. Most building insurance policies cover the cost of replacing or repairing your building in the event that something goes wrong like:
- Fire
- Flood
- Storm
- Theft
- Vandalism
QBE Home Insurance buildings cover also includes things like:
- Temporary accommodation costs for up to two years if your home is unliveable
- Electrical motor burnout cover (for things like air conditioning units) as standard
- Emergency temporary repairs
- Environmental upgrades
Accidental damage cover is an option that you can add for an extra premium if you need it.
The cost of building insurance depends on a number of factors, such as:
- How much cover you choose for your property (sometimes called your ‘sum insured’)
- Whether you decide to add any optional types of cover, like accidental damage
- How much excess you choose (Be sure to pick an excess you can afford to pay at short notice if you need to make a claim.)
- Your claims history
- Location of you property
- Characteristics of your home
The easy way to compare building insurance and see how much it may cost you is to get a quote.
This all depends on your circumstances and how much cover you need. At QBE, we offer a range of home insurance options depending on how the home is occupied.
You can also customise your policy with optional extras – so you can get the right level of cover to suit your needs.
Accidental damage cover is an option you can add if you need it for an additional premium.
If you add accidental damage cover to your building insurance policy, we’ll cover accidental damage to your buildings, including damage caused by things like power surge.
The Buildings Sum Insured Safeguard benefit is like a safety net. It’s designed to help protect against underinsuring your property. Your Certificate of Insurance will confirm if your policy includes the safeguard benefit.
If it does and we accept a claim that exceeds your buildings sum insured, we’ll pay up to 30% more than the buildings sum insured shown on your Certificate of Insurance.