Insurance for commercial property owners, whether you own one building or several.

Indexation increases the figure already on your policy. It does not establish what your building would cost to rebuild today, and it carries an existing shortfall forward. Even a valuation from a few years ago may need updating, especially if you insured below its recommendation. When MCG Quantity Surveyors measured buildings, the sum insured was on average about 24 per cent short, and 31 per cent for industrial property. Underinsurance in Commercial Buildings explains why indexation lags.

In the great majority we see, a short sum insured comes from not knowing what a rebuild costs today. A tenant paying for the building insurance through outgoings has every reason to want it cheaper, and some ask for the building to be insured for less. If it burns, you carry the gap. We show you the right figure and its price, even when that means a higher premium, and what a lower figure would leave you to pay.

Most of the policies we place have a co-insurance clause, which tests your sum insured, or on some a limit set 20 per cent above it, against 80 per cent of the building's full value. Fall below that and a partial claim can be cut back. On a total loss you are paid up to the policy's limit, and the cost beyond it is yours.

In a 2025 storm claim we handled, a regional NSW landlord had insured a retail building for $500,000 against the roughly $1.99 million we advised in writing. We found two points in the wording that nobody had raised, and correcting them brought the building value used in the test down to about $1.31 million. The insurer amended the settlement to that value. The co-insurance clause still cut the partial-loss payout to about 48 cents in the dollar, because $500,000 was well short of 80 per cent of it. The full story is in How an underinsurance cut is worked out.

• The building, insured for what it would cost to rebuild today. That includes proper allowances for professional fees and debris removal. It is a different number from what the building would sell for, or from last year's figure plus CPI. The lease decides who insures the glass, and we set the covers to match it. On most of the policies we place, cover for fire, storm, water damage, malicious damage and theft stops once a building has been empty for 90 days in a row, unless the insurer agrees in writing. See Commercial Building Insurance.
• Loss of rent, for the months a rebuild and a new tenant take, with the outgoings your leases recover (rates, land tax, insurance) included in the figure. In the leases we have seen, the rent stops while damage keeps the tenant out, and falls in proportion while they can use only part of the building. On the policies we place, lost rent is paid only if a rent item is on your schedule. See Commercial Landlords Insurance.
• Property owners liability, your own cover in your own name. Your tenant's liability policy protects your tenant. See Property Owners Liability.
• Equipment breakdown for the plant that keeps the building tenantable: air conditioning, lifts, roller doors, switchboards. Leases commonly make servicing the tenant's job, while the cost of replacing failed plant stays with you. Breakdown is not part of the building cover we arrange, so it needs its own section.
• Flood and cyclone, weighed building by building, because each depends on where the building stands. Flood is included from the start on some of the policies we work with and is an option on most, so check your schedule. For a Brisbane building, the flood, hail and overlay detail is on commercial building insurance in Brisbane.

A building you trade from carries two risks that fail together: the building and the livelihood inside it, often in two entities. For Business Owner-Occupiers covers both. Strata has its own cover: commercial landlord insurance for your strata unit sits alongside the scheme's policy, and commercial strata insurance covers a whole scheme. Commercial Property Insurance sets out which covers belong to the building and which belong to the business.

Should each building keep its own policy, or should several sit on one? One programme across a larger portfolio asks more of you: you declare a value for every building and choose the limits inside the policy, and the insurer still underwrites each building on its own. Which comes out cheaper turns on the total sum insured, and it cannot be worked out until we quote. What a landlord policy costs by building type is in how much commercial landlord insurance costs.

A sale, or a move into a trust or super fund, means checking those names, including the trustee's role.

If your super fund owns the building and your business rents it, there is one more thing to get right: a formal, arm's-length written lease between the two entities. That is an SMSF compliance requirement, and the detail belongs with your accountant. Without it, loss of rent cover may have nothing to attach to.

We can go through the insurance clauses of the lease with you, including the rent and anything it makes the tenant responsible for insuring.

If the lease makes the tenant responsible for insuring the owner's fit-out or plant, the policies have to reflect that transfer too. The full detail is in SMSF Commercial Property Insurance.

What your bank requires, and what a short claim can do to your loan, is set out in our guide to bank insurance requirements on a commercial property loan.

• A rebuild figure for each building. It's a desktop building replacement estimate, so it's worked out from aerial and street imagery rather than a site visit. We commission it for our purposes as your broker, to inform the advice we give you. We commission an estimate for each building, rather than estimating one and indexing the rest. If it shows a shortfall, we can talk through the figures and your options. You can ask to see the calculation.
• The roof, seen from above. We review aerial imagery of the roof alongside it, one of the more than 1,200 roof condition checks we run a year. Imagery cannot certify a roof or find every defect. If we see water pooling or rust, we send you a report with the images and the relevant policy wording. That is usually before we take your renewal to other insurers, though sometimes your insurer raises the concern first. It gives you something concrete to discuss with a roofing contractor.
• The lender. Where a building carries a loan, we note your lender on its policy as an interested party, so the policy records the bank's stake in the building.
• What the insurer knows about each building. The insurer needs to know about expanded polystyrene (EPS) sandwich panel in the walls, an asbestos roof, a tenant who changed what they do, or a renovation it never heard about. Telling the insurer is your duty. Tell us, and we make sure the insurer hears it and the policy still fits. At renewal the insurer may also read your tenant's website and look at a satellite image of the yard.
• The rebuilding amount. We recommend the full cost of rebuilding. If the premium is difficult to afford, we can compare sums insured and excesses and explain what each choice could leave you paying after a loss.
• Loss of rent, with a period long enough to rebuild and re-let. We recommend at least 18 months, and often 24 or 36 depending on the owner, and the period is your decision.

If a renewal went up and nobody explained why, we can start with that policy, setting its price beside what it covers.

You can appoint us by letter to look after a suitable policy you already hold. That can happen part way through its term, without cancelling it.

The same account manager can work across the whole set, by phone or email, whichever reaches you. That way, you are not explaining your buildings to someone new each year.

On a policy we look after, a specialist claims manager on our team takes the claim up with the insurer, and your broker stays involved. The insurer makes the decision, and we press for what the policy and the evidence support.