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

What did building owners we insure actually pay?

Half of those 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. These are examples, not quotes; the only way to know your premium is a quote against your actual risk. Every premium on this site includes all fees and charges.

The building type moves the premium before anything else does.

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

For buildings insured for $2 million to $3.5 million, the middle premium a year, all up, as at October 2026, was $5,974 for an office, $8,434 for a factory or industrial unit and $10,170 for a shop.

Most of these policies also insure loss of rent and the owner's own liability, so each figure is the whole landlord policy. What your tenant does can move the premium a long way. They are examples, not quotes; the only way to know your premium is a quote against your actual risk. Every premium on this site includes all fees and charges.

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." Those are their numbers, not ours. Ours carry the building size and what was paid all up.

Why our figures can look higher than those tables. 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. So the premiums above are often higher than a table built on whatever sum insured an owner first picked, because they are for buildings and businesses insured for what they would cost to replace.

For the landlord's bill split into building, rent and liability, see what commercial landlord insurance costs.

Among the shop buildings we insure for $1.5 million to $2.5 million, placed since October 2025, the one in the middle paid $7,849.81 a year, all up, as at October 2026. 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. It is an example, not a quote; the only way to know your premium is a quote against your actual risk. Every premium on this site includes all fees and charges.

Why does one building cost more to insure than another?

Because the insurer prices your building and what could happen to it, not its category. Five things do most of the moving.

What it is made of. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) and sandwich panel are the biggest red flags. Most insurers on the business pack panel we place through decline once panel makes up 20 per cent or more of the floor area. Specialist markets beyond that point are not listed publicly; a broker knows which one to ring. Security and fire protection are priced too. If yours is a factory, shed or workshop, industrial building insurance covers what insurers ask about panel walls and asbestos roofs.

What happens inside. A commercial kitchen or a workshop with hot work costs more than an office in the same shell, and the policy prices the riskiest tenant. So the policy must describe what really happens inside, or it may not match the claim you one day make. If you run your own business from the building, the cover for what is inside it depends on the premises: warehouse insurance, retail insurance for shops and office insurance each set it out.

Where it stands. Cyclone and flood exposure change how many insurers will quote at all. In our experience, premiums north of Bundaberg, around the 26th parallel, step up. The federal cyclone reinsurance pool sits behind small business property policies with a total sum insured of $5 million or less across all locations on one policy. The ACCC found small business premiums in high-risk areas falling by up to 31 per cent within two years of an insurer joining it. That included 28 per cent for Townsville strata and 17 per cent in Cairns (2025). In Brisbane it turns on flood layers, hail and heritage overlays: see commercial building insurance in Brisbane.

Whether it sits empty. An empty building is a bigger risk, and it can narrow who will quote. On all nine business pack wordings we checked on that panel, the vacancy clause bites after 90 consecutive days empty. Several keep cover going if you tell the insurer first and it agrees in writing. On most of those wordings a building that is partly let is not treated as empty; one treats a building with half its tenancies empty as empty. Separately, insurers ask when quoting whether more than half the building is vacant.

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 because the insurer's position changed, not yours. An insurer that has priced under the panel for years has to correct when its book turns, and the correction lands on renewals that did nothing to earn it.

A real example from our book, insurer unnamed: a $3 million commercial building renewed at $4,802.78 with a $500 excess. The next year the same insurer offered $8,497.92 for the same sum insured, with no claim and no change. Lifting the excess to $5,000 took $858.22 off, and the client took it. Even about 77 per cent up, that insurer was still the cheapest quote on the panel, which only a whole-panel test shows.

What else usually sits under a renewal rise is 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. You do not get to pick which parts you insure: the sum insured is the full cost for outside trades to put the building back, including the slab, labour at trade rates, fees and approvals, current code and debris removal. In our experience industrial sheds come back furthest short.

On all nine business pack wordings on that panel, the underinsurance (co-insurance) clause draws its line at 80 per cent of the building's value. Below it, a partial loss is paid in proportion. On a total loss the full sum insured is paid and the gap to the real rebuild cost is yours (the co-insurance clause explained). On several of the wordings we place, the co-insurance clause is switched off entirely where the sum insured is the full figure in a current professional valuation by an approved valuer.

To help you set the rebuild figure in the first place, we commission a desktop building replacement valuation at no cost to you. It is carried out by a registered valuer and commissioned for our purposes as your broker, to inform the advice we give you.

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 $9,898.65 a year, all up, with a $2,000 excess. With a $5,000 excess it was $9,059.74. The owner took the higher excess and kept the difference. A lower sum insured is a bet against your own building.

Test the whole market. We can put your building to a business pack panel of up to nine insurers. Where that panel cannot do it justice, we can go to up to eighteen further markets, one at a time.

Fix what insurers price. Documented maintenance and a roof that is not quietly failing both help. We run more than 1,200 aerial roof condition checks a year across our client base.

Have your building's premium properly tested

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