Insurance Affordability in Australia 2026

YouGov Australia, April 2026: 54% of Australians with home or contents insurance are worried about the affordability or availability of cover.

That is more than half of every household with a policy. It is not noise — it is a structural shift driven by rising premiums, higher excesses, more frequent natural-hazard events, and construction-cost inflation that has outpaced wage growth since 2020.

This page is for the people behind that 54%. If you are stretching to keep cover in place, or worried about what happens if you actually need to claim, the practical steps below are written for you. None of this is legal advice, and none of this is financial advice. It is what we see, every week, in the restoration network.

Source: YouGov Australia, April 2026 home and contents insurance affordability survey. ICA and APRA publish regular sector commentary on premium drivers.

Insurers price cover against expected claim cost. Four drivers have pushed that expected cost higher since 2022:

1. Reinsurance. Global reinsurers, who carry the tail of the risk, raised rates sharply after the 2022 floods, the 2023 bushfire season, and Ex-Cyclone Alfred (2025) and Cyclone Maila (2026).
2. Event frequency. ICA significant-event declarations are running materially above the long-run average. More events means more claims in the same year.
3. Construction-cost inflation. Replacement-cost building materials and labour have risen faster than CPI for four consecutive years. The same loss in 2026 costs more to repair than it did in 2022.
4. Catastrophe pooling. The Cyclone Reinsurance Pool (active since July 2022) reduces premiums in cyclone-exposed regions but does not eliminate the underlying cost.

None of this is the policyholder's fault. But it is the environment every household has to manage.

• Re-check your sum insured against current rebuild costs. Underinsurance estimates from ICA and Quantum Market Research have run between 60% and 80% of Australian residential policies. Most insurers publish a rebuild calculator; use it.
• Read your PDS for managed-repair clauses. Know whether your policy gives you the right to nominate your own contractor, or whether the insurer has authority to assign a builder from their panel.
• Photograph your contents annually. Sum-insured contents claims routinely under-pay because the policyholder cannot evidence what was lost.
• Keep proof of major upgrades. Receipts for kitchens, bathrooms, flooring. Without them, settled claims default to base specification.
• Compare cover, not just premium. The cheapest premium with a $5,000 excess and a 70% sum insured is often more expensive at claim time than the slightly higher premium with proper sum insured and a $1,000 excess.

This is the moment where the affordability anxiety bites hardest. Premiums and excesses have already gone up; the property is now damaged; and the insurer may be slow, under-scoping the loss, or pushing you onto a managed-repair panel.

1. Request emergency make-safe authorisation in writing. Most home and contents policies include emergency make-safe cover. Email the insurer; do not rely on a phone confirmation alone.
2. Get an independent IICRC-certified scope of works. Documents your full loss to the current industry standard — IICRC S500:2025 for water, S700:2025 for fire and smoke, S520:2025 for mould. This is your most important piece of evidence if anything is later disputed.
3. Compare scope against any insurer-authorised scope line by line. Items that appear in the independent scope but not the insurer's scope are the items to dispute.
4. Lodge an internal dispute (IDR) in writing. All Australian insurers must operate a free internal dispute resolution process. Attach the independent scope.
5. Escalate to AFCA at no cost if unresolved within 30 days. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority accepts complaints from policyholders without charge. The complaint must generally be lodged within two years of the insurer's decision.

Related reading: Your Advocate vs Your Insurer's Builder, Should I Take a Payout?.

Disaster Recovery is a network of IICRC-certified independent contractors. We are not on any insurer panel and we are not a managed-repair program. Your contractor works to your brief and bills you directly.

When premiums are stretching households, an under-scoped repair is more expensive — not less — because the rework, the moisture-related secondary damage, or the mould remediation comes back six months later out of pocket. An independent scope of works documented to the current IICRC standard is the cheapest insurance against that outcome.

“Who First” means policyholder-first scope. It is a stance, not a guarantee. It is the difference between a budget-fit repair and a damage-fit repair.

This page is general information about the Australian insurance environment in 2026. It is not legal advice and it is not insurance advice. For policy-specific questions, contact your insurer or a licensed broker. For disputes, contact AFCA or a legal practitioner.