Written by Daniel Roussounis
Account Director
Reviewed by William Paull
Co-Founder & Account Director
On this page
- What are you actually paying for in a commercial landlord premium?
- Why your tenant's trade decides your price, and not yours
- What moves a commercial landlord premium, and which way
- What did five real commercial landlords pay?
- Your lease is a pricing document
- What multi-tenancy does to the number
- How a broker actually builds the quote
- FAQ
The five premiums further down are real quotes we placed, with construction and excess named, to show how pricing behaves rather than what yours will be.
The building-side drivers and real regional figures are in our companion guide, what commercial building insurance costs.
What are you actually paying for in a commercial landlord premium?
Three sections, each with its own sum insured and rated independently, so a landlord's total can move even when the building has not changed.
| Section | What it pays for | Who mostly controls it |
|---|---|---|
| The building | Demolition, redesign, approvals, and rebuilding the structure at today's cost | You set the sum insured; your tenant sets the activity |
| Loss of rent | The rental income you lose while an insured event stops the building being occupied | You, entirely |
| Property owners liability | Defending and paying claims where someone is injured or their property is damaged in connection with your building | You, entirely |
The sum insured is a rebuild figure, not a market value and not a purchase price. Both of those include the land, and land does not burn down. What a lender may ask for on top is in what a bank requires before it settles a commercial property loan.
Loss of rent has two dials, and both are yours: the amount it pays each month, and how many months it pays, called the indemnity period. What has to happen before it pays, and the outgoings the figure should carry, are on loss of rent insurance for a commercial property. Our commercial landlord's insurance guide sizes both with two real Consolidated Insurance Brokers claims that tested each dial. Our business interruption page covers what the period does to the price.
Property owners liability is a small part of the bill and the one we most often find wrong. In our experience the section usually runs between $450 and $900 a year at a $10 million limit, and between $500 and $1,100 at $20 million, depending on the tenancies and what the tenants do. What doubling the limit costs, and why your tenant's liability policy will not defend you, are on our property owners liability page.
Why your tenant's trade decides your price, and not yours
An insurer prices the building around what happens inside it, and your tenant runs that, not you. Deep frying, spray painting, welding, hot work, flammable stock, and high foot traffic each change the fire and damage risk. A bookkeeper and a commercial kitchen in identical sheds are different risks, so the same landlord can pay two prices for the same building across two tenancies.
The occupation on your policy has to describe the building today. If your schedule still says office and the tenancy has been a workshop for two years, you may be paying for exposure you no longer carry. Worse, the insurer can challenge a claim because what happened does not match what it was told.
A change of tenant is a repricing event, better handled before the lease is signed. A proposed tenant's trade can reduce the number of insurers willing to quote your building. A tenant who looks reliable on paper can be expensive to insure, and that cost is yours.
Expanded polystyrene and sandwich panel often come with a tenant who wants a cool room, and past a threshold most insurers on our business pack panel stop quoting: see what commercial building insurance costs.
What did five real commercial landlords pay?
Five real quotes Consolidated Insurance Brokers placed on 12/09/2026 came back between $4,013 and $13,885 a year for the building section alone, with no loss of rent, glass, or liability. That is the range on one day, not a price for your building. Call Consolidated Insurance Brokers on 07 3292 1111 for a quote on yours.
| The building | Construction and excess | Gross annual premium, building section only, including our broker fee |
|---|---|---|
| A. A $1 million industrial shed in Brisbane, leased to a light engineering business, no claims in five years | Metal shed, $1,000 excess | $4,456 |
| B. A $2 million shop in a Brisbane suburban strip, leased to a takeaway with a deep fryer | Non-combustible, $1,000 excess | $10,731 |
| C. A $2 million office building in Brisbane, leased to two professional tenants | Non-combustible, $1,000 excess | $4,013 |
| D. A $3 million warehouse in Bundaberg, leased to a transport business | Non-combustible, $2,000 excess | $10,174 |
| E. A $5 million building in Brisbane with five tenancies in it, a mix of shops and offices | Non-combustible, $2,000 excess | $13,885 |
Each figure is the most competitive insurer on our panel for that building on that day, not an average and not a market rate.
B and C make the point. Both are $2 million non-combustible buildings with a $1,000 excess, yet B costs more than two and a half times what C costs. The difference is the tenant's trade: two professional offices in C, a takeaway with a deep fryer in B. The landlord chose that price when they signed the lease.
The same building prices differently a year later or after a claim, and loss of rent and property owners liability sit on top of every figure. The only way to know your number is a quote against your actual risk.
Which covers are yours as an owner is set out on commercial property insurance, and the building cover itself on commercial building insurance. For a shed or factory like A, industrial building insurance covers what insurers ask about panel walls and asbestos roofs. If you occupy part of the building yourself, the cover for your own business inside it is on warehouse insurance, retail insurance for shops, or office insurance.
Your lease is a pricing document
Insurance responsibility follows the lease, not who owns what. Whatever the lease pushes onto your tenant comes off your policy, and whatever it leaves with you goes onto your premium.
A well-drafted commercial lease typically makes the tenant responsible for their fitout and glass, and often for the day-to-day servicing of plant such as air conditioning. Capital items commonly stay with the landlord. Servicing an air conditioning unit and replacing a failed one are different obligations, and the gap between them is where landlords get caught. Our commercial landlord's insurance guide works through the fitout question, including where you provided the fitout but the lease makes the tenant insure it.
Glass. Shopfront glass is, in our experience, a modest and recurring claim, and which side of the lease it sits on can show up in the price. A lease can transfer the obligation to insure without transferring ownership, so check your tenant has arranged the cover the lease requires.
We do not insist on seeing your lease, but when you share it, we set the covers to match what it says.
What multi-tenancy does to the number
A building with several tenants is one policy in the owner's name, priced for the riskiest activity in it. A bookshop beside a commercial kitchen is not priced like two bookshops.
A flat split of the premium by floor area charges the low-risk tenant for the high-risk one's exposure. Consolidated Insurance Brokers prepares individual per-tenant premium invoices for multi-tenant commercial buildings rather than one bill for you to divide. The invoices are a service, not a legal ruling: your lease still decides what each tenant owes.
How a broker actually builds the quote
From your building, your lease, and your tenant, in that order. Get those three right and every quote is comparable; get one wrong and you are comparing policies that do not cover the same thing.
The rebuild figure is not last year's sum insured with the insurer's automatic increase on top. On the commercial buildings that come to us after a renewal shock we usually find the sum insured sitting 30 to 40 per cent below what a rebuild would actually cost. Consolidated Insurance Brokers commissions a desktop building replacement estimate at no cost to you and to inform the advice we give you.
The market. Nine insurers subscribe to the Steadfast Client Trading Platform business pack wording, so a properly presented risk can draw up to nine quotes rather than one renewal. On one real placement of ours in August 2026, a $1 million warehouse drew nine quotes from $5,000 to $20,000 on the same day. That is one case rather than a typical result, and not a saving we can promise anyone. A poor claims history adds a loading and cuts the number of insurers willing to quote, usually the cheaper markets first, which is how it raises the price twice.
The sum insured against the clause. On several of the wordings we place, insuring at the full figure in a current professional valuation by an approved valuer takes the underinsurance penalty clause off your policy altogether. Without that, a partial loss is scaled down in proportion to the shortfall, and on a total loss the gap is yours: see the co-insurance clause explained and our underinsurance guide.
A cheaper premium from a removed section, a cut limit, or an understated sum insured is a deferred cost, not a saving: why your commercial insurance went up shows it falling due.
Call us on 07 3292 1111 and tell us what your tenant does, which is usually enough to start.
FAQ
How much does commercial landlord insurance cost in Australia?
There is no single figure, because a landlord policy that Consolidated Insurance Brokers places has three separately rated sections: the building, loss of rent, and property owners liability. The building section turns on your sum insured, construction, location, tenant's trade, claims history, and excess. The only way to know your number is a quote against your actual risk.
What did real commercial landlords pay in 2026?
Consolidated Insurance Brokers placed five real quotes on 12/09/2026, on five tenanted commercial buildings. Each is set out on this page with its sum insured, construction, excess, and tenant, because a premium without those cannot be compared. The quotes cover the building section only, with no loss of rent, glass, or liability, and are indicative, not a quote.
Does it cost more to insure a building I lease out than one I occupy myself?
Not automatically. In one recent panel run by Consolidated Insurance Brokers, eight of nine insurers returned the same price on the same building, presented either as a property owner risk or a business tenant risk. A landlord's policy usually adds loss of rent cover, but a landlord leasing to a low-hazard professional tenant can pay less than an owner-occupier running a workshop in an identical shed.
Will my premium change when my tenant changes?
It can, and Consolidated Insurance Brokers treats a change of tenant as a repricing event. Insurers rate a building around the activity inside it, so a new trade changes the risk and can reduce the number of insurers willing to quote. Tell your broker as soon as a new tenancy is agreed, ideally before the lease is signed.
How much does loss of rent cover add to the premium?
The cost turns on two figures you choose, and Consolidated Insurance Brokers works the first out with you from your lease: the annual rental income you insure, including recoverable outgoings where the lease allows. The second is how many months the cover keeps paying, the indemnity period, best set for a worst case rather than an average one.
If my lease makes the tenant insure the glass and the air conditioning, do I pay less?
It can. When Consolidated Insurance Brokers has your lease, it sets your covers to match, so what the lease hands to your tenant comes off your sums insured, and that amount decides the difference. A lease can move the obligation to insure without moving ownership, so check your tenant has arranged the cover.
I own more than one commercial building. Is one policy cheaper than separate ones?
Sometimes, as it turns on the total sum insured. Consolidated Insurance Brokers quotes one policy and separate policies, shows you both, and keeps one account manager across a portfolio placed together. One policy gives one renewal date but aggregates the sum insured, which can move the account into another market or past the federal cyclone reinsurance pool's $5 million line for northern buildings: see what commercial building insurance costs.
What does a broker need from me to quote a commercial landlord policy?
Consolidated Insurance Brokers needs six things: the building's address and construction details, a current rebuild figure or permission to commission a desktop building replacement estimate, and what each tenancy does. It also needs your annual rental income and whether outgoings are recoverable, your claims history for the last five years, and a copy of the lease if you have it.
Have most of that to hand? Ring 07 3292 1111 and we will work through it with you on the call.