Tools to help you work out how much home insurance you need
When buying home insurance, it’s up to you to determine how much it would cost to replace your home building and home contents if they were totally destroyed, for example, by fire.
This is called the ‘sum insured’ and is the maximum amount we’ll pay. So it’s important you’re comfortable the sum you nominate is sufficient to replace your entire home and all of your contents at today’s prices.
Calculating the replacement cost of a home and its contents is complex. To make it easier, we’ve made available a range of calculators from leading estimators Cordell Information and Sum Insured.
Choose a calculator
Inflation protection
At the end of each insurance period, we’ll automatically increase your home building and home contents sums insured, to reflect rises in costs. Your premium will be adjusted accordingly.
If you wish, you can opt out of these automatic increases. Regardless, we encourage you to regularly review your sums insured, which you can change at any time (subject to our acceptance).
Shortfall cover
For greater peace of mind, you can add optional Sum Insured Safeguard cover to your home building policy.
If your nominated sum insured is not enough to repair or replace your home building, we'll increase it by up to 25% (e.g. from $400,000 to $500,000).
Debris removal and extra building costs
We’ll cover not only the replacement value of your home building, but also debris removal, demolition, and professional (e.g. architect, surveyor, engineer) and building-application fees.
We’ll pay up to 10% of your sum insured for these costs – in addition to your total sum insured.
Disposal and storage
We’ll cover the reasonable costs to remove and dispose of your damaged contents and store your undamaged contents during the time it takes to repair your home.
We’ll pay up to 10% of your home contents sum insured for these costs – in addition to your total sum insured.
Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply.
For full details, please read the product disclosure statement.
Choose your cover
You can get home building or home contents cover separately, or combine them.
Home and Contents Insurance
Protect your most valuable asset and your belongings by combining home building and home contents insurance.
Read more
Building Insurance
Covers loss or damage to your home building due to events like storms, fire, and escape of liquid, including the cost of repairs or rebuilding and temporary accommodation.
Read more
Contents Insurance
Covers loss or damage to your home contents due to events like storms, fire, and theft, including new-for-old replacement of items that can’t be repaired.
Read more
Find out more
The information on this page is a summary only. For more details about Budget Direct home and contents insurance, including the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions that apply, please read the product disclosure statement (PDS)
How to make a claim
If your home building and/or contents are lost, damaged or destroyed by an insured event and you need to claim, we’re here to help. Make a claim on your home and/or contents policy.
Award-winning Australian home insurance
Winner of Money Magazine's Best of the Best 2018 award for Cheapest Home & Contents Insurance; and five Mozo home insurance awards in 2017, including its People's Choice Award for Outstanding Customer Satisfaction and its Experts Choice Award for Exceptional Value.
Frequently asked questions
Will my home insurance cover keep up with rising costs?
At the end of each insurance period, we’ll automatically increase the amount your home building and/or home contents are insured for – to help keep pace with rising costs.
When you receive your annual insurance renewal offer, you’ll notice your premium has been adjusted to reflect the higher sum insured.
If you wish, you can decline the higher sum insured by calling us on 1800 182 310 or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
For example, if your house was insured for $500K and we increased it to $550K but you declined the increase, your sum insured would remain unchanged at $500K.
Regardless, we encourage you to regularly review your sum insured, which you can change at any time (subject to our acceptance of the new sum insured) by calling us or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
Note that we will not automatically increase the sums insured for your listed, or specified, contents and personal effects.
We recommend you get jewellery, collections, art works and the like valued every so often by a suitably qualified professional to ensure they’re adequately covered.
What if the amount I insure my house for is too low?
It’s important the home-building sum insured you nominate is sufficient to rebuild your home at today’s prices.
You can increase your sum insured at any time by calling us on 1800 182 310 or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
For extra peace of mind, you can add optional Sum Insured Safeguard cover to your home-building insurance policy.
If you select this cover, we’ll increase your home-building sum insured by up to 25% if your nominated sum insured is not sufficient to repair or replace your badly damaged or destroyed home (e.g. from $400,000 to $500,000).
Do I need to list, or specify, contents on my policy?
It’s up to you to decide whether to list the following on your policy:
- contents you want to insure for more than our benefit limit (where applicable)
- portable items you want covered when you take them with you away from your home.
You can list your contents when you get a quote and buy a policy or – if you’ve already bought one – by calling us on 1800 182 310 or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
How is the cost of home insurance – the premium – calculated?
There are lots of factors that can influence your home insurance premium, including:
- sum insured – generally, the larger the sum, the higher the premium
- location – areas prone to severe weather or crime, for example, can attract higher premiums
- age and construction materials – the newer your house, for example, the less you’re likely to pay
- how it’s occupied or used – if your home is used for business or is unoccupied for long periods, you may pay more
- claims history – the more claims you’ve made in the recent past, the higher your premium is likely to be
- insurance excess – generally, the higher your excess, the lower your premium; and vice-versa
- optional covers – the more optional covers you have, the higher your premium is likely to be
- government charges, taxes or levies.
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*Typical building replacement costs are provided by Cordell Information Pty Ltd (ABN 95 159 137 274) (Cordell); and typical building contents replacement costs are provided by Sum Insured Pty Ltd, trading as Home Contents (ACN 099 322 308) (‘Sum Insured’). Whilst every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of the information as a guide for costing, no responsibility is accepted by either Cordell or Sum Insured for its accuracy. Please check with an architect, builder, quantity surveyor, valuer or other suitably qualified professional for an accurate estimate. Auto & General Insurance Services Pty Ltd (trading as Budget Direct) takes no responsibility for the costs provided by Cordell or Sum Insured nor any liability for the accuracy of, reliance upon or use of the costs. Before deciding to purchase any product you should calculate the actual replacement cost of your home and/or contents (as the calculators contain general information only and may not suit your particular circumstances) and read the relevant product disclosure statement available from us.
