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Building insurance

Building insurance can provide cover for 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.

If you’re a homeowner, we’re here to help you find an insurance policy for your needs. Find out more below and get a building insurance quote online in minutes. If you need cover for your belongings as well, you can select 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 building insurance? Save 10% when you buy a new policy online today.

What’s included in building insurance cover?

Building insurance can provide cover for your home and its permanent fixtures for damage caused by things like fire, flood, storm, theft and vandalism. Find out how buildings are insured by QBE Home Insurance below.

Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) 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 can insure just your building, it includes things like:

  • Cover for 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 due to damage caused by an insured event
  • Electrical motor burnout cover
  • Emergency temporary repairs
  • Up to 30% Buildings Sum Insured Safeguard benefit (eligibility criteria applies)
  • Guarantee on home repairs made by our repairers
  • Environmental upgrades.
Get a quote

Not included

If you decide you only need building cover as part of your QBE Home Insurance, it will not provide cover for things like:

  • Contents, such as your personal belongings, furniture, white goods, carpets and internal blinds
  • Portable contents option
  • Wear and tear or gradual deterioration
  • Maintenance or existing damage
  • A defect, structural fault, design fault or faulty workmanship
  • Action of the sea.

Upgrade to include

  • Accidental damage cover for an extra premium.

Why choose QBE home insurance?

We’ve been insuring Australians for over 130 years.

We provide 24/7 friendly claims service.

We offer up to $30 million legal liability cover.

What customers say about QBE home insurance

Insuring Australians for over 130 years.
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Ways to save on your home insurance premium

Here are some ways to reduce the cost of your home insurance premium:

Flexible excess
Choosing a higher basic excess can lower your premium. Consider a basic excess you can afford to pay at short notice if you need to make a claim.
Pay upfront
Pay less for your home insurance premium when you choose to pay annually.

Read more about premiums, excesses and claims in the Additional Information Guide.

Save 10% on new home insurance online!

Buy a new QBE Home Insurance online today and you’ll save 10%!

Four risks to your home, and how to combat them

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 can help you protect it.

Home owners: how to avoid underinsurance

Homeowners: 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? Online insurance calculators are available and can provide an estimate to help you figure out how much cover you need (your ‘sum insured’).

Insurance calculators

Home and contents insurance calculators

You can use these calculators to estimate roughly how much it could cost to rebuild your home or replace your contents. By providing general information about your home the calculators can provide an estimated value and summary that you can further edit for a more detailed result if you wish.

Building insurance frequently asked questions

Building insurance can provide cover for your home and its permanent fixtures – such as your roof, ceiling, walls, floors, doors, windows, built-in cabinets and cupboards – but not your contents.

It can include cover for damage or loss due to things like:

  • Fire
  • Flood
  • Storm
  • Theft
  • Vandalism.

To decide if this product is right for you, read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD).

What’s covered depends on the type of building insurance you have and your specific policy. Building insurance policies can 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 due to damage by an insured event
  • Electrical motor burnout cover (for fixtures like air conditioning units)
  • Emergency temporary repairs
  • Environmental upgrades.

Accidental damage cover is an option that you can add for an extra premium if you need it.

Read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) for full details including limits, exclusions and conditions that apply.

The cost of building insurance can depend 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 cover, like accidental damage
  • The basic excess you choose (consider a basic excess you can afford to pay at short notice if you need to make a claim)
  • Your claims history
  • The location of your insured property
  • Characteristics of your home
  • Your payment frequency.

Read more about premiums, excesses and claims in the relevant Additional Information Guide.

The easy way to compare building insurance and see how much it may cost you is to get a quote.

Head to our home insurance claims page to make a claim online or call us 24 hours a day on 133 723.

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.

Homeowners
Buildings and/or contents insurance for homeowners.
Landlords
Buildings and/or contents insurance for residential landlords.
Renters & strata owner occupiers
Contents insurance for renters and strata owner-occupiers.

You can also customise your policy with optional extras – so you can select the cover to suit your needs.

With QBE Home Insurance, accidental damage cover is an option you can add for an additional premium.

If you add accidental damage cover to your building insurance policy, we can cover accidental damage to your buildings, including damage caused by things like power surge.


No. With QBE Home Insurance, carpets and internal blinds can be insured under contents cover.

The Buildings Sum Insured Safeguard benefit is like a safety net. It’s designed to help protect against underinsuring your buildings. 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 can pay up to 30% more than the buildings sum insured shown on your Certificate of Insurance.


QBE home insurance is issued and underwritten by QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited (ABN 78 003 191 035, AFSL 239545). Any advice provided is general only and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be right for you. To decide if this product is right for you, please read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD).

Need more help?

Call us on 133 723

Mon-Fri 8am-7pm, Sat 8am-1.30pm (AET)