How Much Does Commercial Building and Property Insurance Cost in Australia?

What did building owners we insure pay?

Half of those Brisbane owners paid between $4,292 and $6,868. Most of them also insure loss of rent and their own liability on the same policy, so this is the whole landlord policy, not the building alone. Every premium on this site includes all fees and charges.

From our book of landlord policies on one building insured for $1 million to $2 million, the middle premium a year, as at October 2026:

For buildings insured for $2 million to $3.5 million, the middle premium a year was $5,974 for an office, $8,434 for a factory or industrial unit and $10,170 for a shop.

Among the shop buildings we insure for $1.5 million to $2.5 million, the one in the middle paid $7,850 a year. That middle shop is in the Hunter region of New South Wales: brick, insured for $2.1 million, with $420,000 of rent cover over 24 months, glass cover, a $2,000 excess and no flood cover. The tenant is a medical clinic with one tenancy. What the tenant does can move a shop's premium a long way: a cafe with deep frying is rated differently from a clinic.

You may have seen the tables on other brokers' sites and comparison pages: "Small retail shop: $150 to $300 a month. Warehouse: $300 to $500." Our figures are what owners paid, with the building's size beside each one.

A lower premium is worth considering, but first check what you would be buying. Does the quote include rent and liability, or just the building? What rebuild figure and excess does it use, and what does it exclude? We help you compare those differences so you can decide whether the saving is worth it.

When we set up a policy, we go through what the sum insured has to cover, including stock, plant, machinery and fit-out, and we explain that the property part of a business pack costs the least for each dollar of cover. Many owners raise their sums insured once they see that.

As a guide, and as at July 2026, increasing your contents and fit-out cover can cost as little as $20 to $30 a year per $10,000 of sum insured.

If you lease the building out, what commercial landlord insurance costs splits the bill into building, rent and liability. Your lease decides whether your tenant pays the building insurance through the outgoings. Commercial building insurance sets out what the cover pays for, and commercial property insurance shows which covers are the owner's and which the tenant's. Your tenant's own cover depends on its trade, and warehouse insurance, retail insurance for shops and office insurance each set out what that cover includes.

To find out your building's premium, leave your name and number and we'll ring you.

Why does one building cost more to insure than another?

Insurers price your building and what could happen to it. Five things move the premium most.

What it is made of. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) and sandwich panel (metal sheets around an insulating core), common in cool rooms and food processing, are the biggest red flags. Most of the insurers we place business packs with decline once sandwich panel makes up 20 per cent or more of the floor area. The specialist insurers that take a building beyond that point are not listed publicly. On sheds and factories, insurers ask about panel walls and asbestos roofs, and industrial building insurance sets out what they ask.

What happens inside. A commercial kitchen or a workshop doing welding or grinding (hot work) costs more than an office in the same shell. The insurer prices the whole building on its riskiest tenant. So the policy has to describe the trade in the building, or it may not match your claim when you make one. Security and fire protection are priced too.

Where it stands. Cyclone and flood exposure change how many insurers will quote at all. In our experience, premiums step up north of Bundaberg, around the 26th parallel, which takes in Townsville and Cairns. As at July 2026, a basic $1 million industrial shed can cost around $4,800 a year to insure in regional Victoria, or $24,000 or more for an identical shed in Cairns. In Brisbane, the 2022 floods changed flood cover and little else in how insurers treat commercial buildings. Fewer insurers now write flood cover, and those that do charge much more for some Brisbane flood risks, or decline them. More on Brisbane is in commercial building insurance in Brisbane.

Whether it sits empty. An empty building is a bigger risk, and it can narrow who will quote. 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.

Your claims history. Insurers usually look back five years. A pattern of claims pointing to poor maintenance pushes the premium up and can take the cheaper insurers out of the running.

My premium went up about 77 per cent and nothing changed. Why?

Often the insurer changed its pricing and you changed nothing. An insurer that has charged less than the others for years has to catch up when its claims rise, and the increase lands on renewals that did nothing to earn it.

A real renewal from our book: a $3 million commercial building renewed at $4,803 with a $500 excess. The next year the same insurer offered $8,498 for the same sum insured, with no claim and no change. Lifting the excess to $5,000 took $858 off, and the client took it. Even about 77 per cent up, that insurer was still the lowest quote of all the insurers we put it to.

Other reasons a renewal rises are in why did my commercial insurance go up.

Could a cheap premium mean my building is underinsured?

Yes. A premium is a percentage of the sum insured, so a low premium and a low sum insured look the same on the invoice. The sum insured has to be the full cost for outside trades to put the building back: the slab, labour at trade rates, fees and approvals, current code and debris removal. You do not get to pick which parts you insure.

A short figure can cost you at claim time. On the policies we place, the underinsurance test is generally set at 80 per cent of the building's full value. Check the figure in your own policy. Below that line, the insurer can reduce a partial claim. Your policy sets the calculation and whether smaller claims are exempt. On a total loss, most of these policies pay up to 20 per cent above the sum insured, and anything the rebuild costs beyond that is yours. The co-insurance clause explained works the sums through.

What do you need from me to get my own premium?

On the first call a broker asks what you need, talks through the building with you and explains the next steps.

Before we quote, we commission a desktop building replacement estimate for you, free. 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. At quote time we look at aerial imagery of your roof and tell you what condition it appears to be in.

Where there is a real gap between the estimate and your sum insured, we explain it and show you the premium at more than one sum insured, so you can see what closing the gap costs. Then we look for suitable options for your building.

A bank lending on a purchase will not settle until the cover it asked for is in place, so mention the loan on the first call. What a bank asks for on a commercial property loan sets out the certificate it wants.

How do I lower the premium without cutting cover that matters?

Use the excess on purpose. A higher excess you could genuinely absorb is a fair trade, as the renewal above shows. One more from our book: a strip of shops with five tenancies, insured for $1.9 million, was quoted in 2026 at $9,899 a year with a $2,000 excess. With a $5,000 excess it was $9,060. The owner took the higher excess and kept the difference. A rule of thumb: add up what the higher excess saves over four or five years. If that would pay the extra excess on one claim, it is worth a look, unless you claim often. The saving differs by insurer, so we test it quote by quote.

Test more than one insurer. As at August 2026, we can approach up to 18 markets for your building, and we test the market again at every renewal.

Fix what insurers price. Documented maintenance and a roof that is not quietly failing both help. In our experience, insurers look at different things. Some look at the roof, some at the wiring and switchboard and how new they are, and some want photographs before they will price.

Have your building's premium properly tested

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