What's protected by Home Building Insurance?
We'll cover the cost to repair or rebuild your damaged or destroyed house, garden shed, fences and other outdoor structures on your property (as noted in the PDS). You can protect the house you made into a home, the place where your family's foundations are built with Home Building Insurance.
Keep in mind, the contents inside your house are not covered by Home Building Insurance. To make sure your possessions are also protected, you'll need to look into Combined Home and Contents Insurance.
Benefits Included in Home Building Insurance
We can cover costs for temporary accommodation for up to a year for your family and pets if your house is unliveable due to an insured event. Whether you'll be staying in a hotel for a few days or you need a long-term rental, we'll help make sure there's a roof over your head while your home is restored.
Home Building Insurance includes up to $20 million in legal liability cover. Legal liability can cover you for the death or physical injury to other people, or for loss or damage to other people’s property caused by an accident. Home Building Insurance provides legal liability cover at the insured address.
When you make a claim on your Home Building Insurance policy, we guarantee the quality of all authorised repairs, including the materials and workmanship provided. With the help of our trusted partners, you can rest assured that all authorised repairs will be performed properly as you rebuild your home.
If your home is completely destroyed as a result of an insured event, and we have agreed to settle your claim as a total loss, we’ll pay for legal and administrative costs of up to $750 to discharge your mortgage.
Rest assured, we'll cover the removal of debris and extra rebuilding costs of up to 10% of your sum insured.
To ensure your belongings remain secure, we will pay up to $1,000 to replace stolen keys, locks and key codes.
We can cover modifications to your home up to $5,000 to support you if you suffer from permanent paraplegia or quadriplegia due to an insured event at your insured address.
We'll cover up to $7,000 of funeral expenses if you, your family or a household member suffer a fatal injury due to an insured event at your home.
To help keep pace with rising costs due to inflation, each year we’ll automatically increase the sum insured amounts of your contents and adjust your premium accordingly. This means your cover will reflect more current replacement costs than when your contents were first insured.
We do not automatically increase the sums insured for specified items or personal effects items. So, it’s important to review the value of these items regularly to make sure they are sufficiently insured for the cost of replacement.
Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply. For full details, please read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)
Get a Quote Online and Save 15%^
If you get a quote and buy a new Home Building Insurance policy online, we'll give you a 15%^ discount on your first year's premium.
Compare Home Building Insurance Savings
Price Comparison Figures
What's covered by Home Building Insurance?
Budget Direct Home Building Insurance covers your house and outbuildings against loss or damage caused by the following insured events:
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Storm and rainwater (does not cover any loss or damage caused by flood). If this doesn't meet your needs, you can add optional flood cover§.
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Fires (including bushfires and grassfires)
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Lightning
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Theft (or attempted theft)
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Escape of liquid (e.g. burst pipe)
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Impact at home (e.g. fallen tree)
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Breakage of glass, ceramic and sanitary fixtures
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Malicious damage, vandalism, riot or civil commotion
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Explosion
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Earthquake or tsunami
What's not covered by Home Building Insurance?
Budget Direct Home Building Insurance does not cover you for loss or damage for every circumstance. There are exclusions such as:
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Action of the sea, high water or underground water
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Asbestos
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Breaking the law
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Business activity (not including Home Office)
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Communicable disease
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Contamination or pollution
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Defects, structural faults, or design faults
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Hacking or cyberattacks
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Loss of data (including access denial, recovery, reinstallation or replacement of data)
Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply. Please read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for full details on what’s covered by Budget Direct Home Building Insurance.
Award-Winning Home Building Insurance
After comparing the cost and features of 72 policies, from 50 other insurers, Canstar presented us with the National award for Outstanding Value Home & Contents Insurance for the seventh year in a row in 2023.
We’ve also won Money magazine’s Insurer of the Year title seven years running (2017–2023); Best of the Best title for Home & Contents Insurance (2022–2024); and Finder's 2023 Best Home Insurance - Value award.
We were also rated 5 stars by LMI Claims Comparison for our Motor and Home & Contents Insurance product. The rating is based on both quantitative and subjective data, as well as policy features that are deemed by LMI ClaimsComparison as important to a positive claims experience.
Upgrade Your Cover
Need more cover? For an additional premium, you can customise your Home Building Insurance policy by adding one or more of the following optional covers:
If you take out optional Flood Cover, this can cover you against loss or damage caused by a flood.§
We define a ‘flood’ as the covering of normally dry land by water that has escaped or been released from the normal confines of a lake, river, creek or other natural watercourse (whether or not any of them have been altered or modified) or a reservoir, canal, or dam.
Learn more about Flood Cover
§ The addition of Flood Cover to a policy is subject to our underwriting criteria.
Accidental damage is loss or damage caused by a sudden, unintended and unexpected event that is not the result of a deliberate act – useful if you want to be covered for some damage that’s not automatically included as part of your Home Building Insurance. For example, spilling red wine on a carpet by mistake, or knocking a hole in a plasterboard wall while moving a couch.
Learn more about Accidental Damage
Motor Burnout Cover covers you for loss or damage to electric motors that are less than ten years old if the motor burns out due to an electric current or power surge. Electric motors are commonly found in home appliances like fixed air conditioning units and swimming pool pumps.
Learn more about Motor Burnout
If the cost to replace, repair or rebuild your home exceeds the amount of your nominated sum insured, Sum Insured Safeguard means we’ll increase it by up to 25% (e.g. from $400,000 to $500,000) to help cover the necessary repairs.
How do I add an optional cover to my Home Building Insurance policy?
You can add one or more of these optional covers when you get a quote and buy a policy.
Or – if you’ve already bought a policy – add optional cover by contacting us or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
How much cover do I need?
When you buy Home Building Insurance, it's up to you to determine how much it would cost to replace your contents if they were destroyed, for example, by fire. This is known as the ‘sum insured’.
These are the maximum amounts we’ll pay after an insured event, so it’s important that the sum insured you nominate is sufficient to replace all of your contents at today’s prices.
To simplify your insurance journey, we have some calculators to help you work out how much home insurance you might need.
How To Make a Claim
If your home suffers loss or damage, or is destroyed by an insured event and you need to make a claim, we’re here to help.
24/7 Claims
With Budget Direct, you can conveniently make a claim online or over the phone at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year.
Manage Your Home Building Insurance Policy Online
Budget Direct customers can make a claim, view and edit their Home Building Insurance policies, and buy more insurance online.
Do you need more cover?
If your home itself is covered with Home Building Insurance then you might also want to consider covering your contents. With Budget Direct's Combined Home and Contents Insurance you can get 30%^ off your first year's premium when you purchase a new policy online.
Owner-occupiers aren't the only ones who may benefit from insuring their property. You can also protect your investment property with Budget Direct Landlord Insurance.
Do you rent the home you live in? If you’re a tenant, you can protect your valuable possessions with Budget Direct Renters Insurance.
Find out more
The information on this page is a summary only. For more details about Budget Direct Home Building Insurance, including the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions that apply, please read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).
Home Building Insurance FAQs
‘Home insurance’ is an umbrella term that encompasses three variations of cover:
Home and Contents Insurance covers your house and other structures on your property (such as a garage or shed) as well as your belongings for loss or damage due to an insured event like a fire, theft and storm. It is also known as Building and Contents Insurance.
Home Building Insurance covers your house and other structures on your property, including your garden shed, fences and in-ground swimming pool for loss or damage from an insured event.
- Contents Insurance covers the belongings inside your home, including furniture, whitegoods, electrical appliances, clothing, and more for loss or damage from an insured event.
Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply to Budget Direct home insurance; for full details, please read the product disclosure statement.
There are several ways you can reduce your Budget Direct home and/or contents insurance premium, including:
Selecting the right level of cover: Our range of optional benefits means you don’t have to pay for cover you may not need, e.g. flood cover.
Buying your policy online: If you get a quote and buy a policy online, you’ll receive a 15% (home or contents) or 30% (home and contents) discount on your first year’s premium.
Increasing your excess: Choose an excess between $100 and $5,000; by increasing your excess, you could lower your premium. Always choose an excess you’ll be comfortable to pay at claim time.
- Paying your premium annually: By paying annually instead of in instalments (i.e. fortnightly or monthly), you’ll pay a lower premium and avoid instalment processing fees.
Yes – Budget Direct home insurance covers loss or damage to your garage or carport due to an insured event.
These events include impact at the home, for example, due to a tree falling on your garage during a storm.
It’s up to you to determine how much it would cost to replace your home and contents – the ‘sums insured’ – if they were totally destroyed, for example, by fire.
It’s the maximum amount we’ll pay, so it’s important you’re comfortable that the amount you nominate is sufficient to replace your entire home and all of your contents at today’s prices.
Use these calculators to help you estimate how much it would cost to replace your home and contents.
For a more accurate rebuilding cost estimate, we recommend you consult a professional valuer or building contractor.
We guarantee the quality of the work and the materials used for all authorised repairs. Our builders hold the required licences to provide services in the states or territories in which they operate.
