Commercial insurance brokers for Emerald and the Central Highlands
Emerald and Central Highlands clients are looked after from our Bundaberg office.
Central Highlands business premises are insured on figures set a long way from the Central Highlands, where rebuilding costs more and takes longer.
For owners of commercial buildings, business premises, sheds and rural enterprises in Emerald and across the Central Highlands. Looking for the office itself? Our Queensland offices are New Farm and Bundaberg.
Emerald and Central Highlands clients are looked after from Bundaberg
Most of our clients are spread across Australia, and have been since 2010, so looking after a business a long way from the nearest office is how we have always worked. The team that looks after Emerald and the surrounding Central Highlands works from our Bundaberg office. For a commercial policy that is a change of address rather than a change of service: the same book, handled the same way, from a different desk.
The reading, the market work, the renewal conversation and the claim are all done by phone, email and video, and one named account manager stays on your file rather than passing you around.
You can see the Bundaberg team, the address and the office number on the Bundaberg office page. For a new commercial enquiry, 07 4980 4222 reaches an account manager directly.
Why does a Central Highlands rebuild cost more than a city one?
Quick answerBecause the trades and the materials have to travel. A figure benchmarked on capital-city rebuild costs does not carry freight, accommodation or the wait for a builder who is already booked, and none of that shows up on a renewal notice. It is the reason we would rather a valuer produced the number for your building than have you carry a city rule of thumb into a regional town.
Rebuilding in a regional centre is not the same job as rebuilding in a capital city, and it is not only the bill that is different. The job takes longer, because trades and materials have to get there before anything starts. Both of those belong in the figure your policy is built on.
Across 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. That figure comes from a self-selected group, owners who ring because the premium jumped, so it is what we see and not a market average. The point stands either way: nobody discovers a shortfall at a convenient moment.
So we commission a desktop valuation at no cost to you, a registered valuer's desktop assessment of the rebuild figure, commissioned for our purposes as your broker, to inform the advice we give you. On the commercial-building business pack policies we place, we will not put cover below 60% of that figure. That is a floor rather than full protection, and we would rather say so: these wordings test the sum insured against at least 80 per cent of the building's value, so at 60 per cent a partial loss still pays only around three-quarters of it.
The two loss cases are worth keeping apart, because they fail differently. On a partial loss the average clause cuts the payout in proportion to how far short the sum insured was. On a total loss you are paid the full sum insured and only then find out whether it rebuilds the building, and out here that is the case where a city benchmark hurts most.
The rent or the income that stops while you rebuild
The longer a rebuild takes, the more the business interruption period matters, and regional rebuilds take longer. In our experience most business pack policies we review have no business interruption cover at all, or a period too short to survive a rebuild.
Our default indemnity period is 18 months, we recommend 24 wherever we can, and 12 months is a floor given only on a client's express instruction. Where a rebuild depends on trades and materials that have to travel, 24 months is worth costing before you settle for 12.
We remarket every policy we hold at each renewal rather than rolling the incumbent over, which matters more in a regional town where the number of insurers genuinely interested in a risk is smaller than it looks.
What Emerald clients say
Cyndie from the Bundaberg office has been extremely helpful to arrange insurance for the transition from our mobile business to bricks and mortar. Cyndie has made coverage and claims an easy process over the past years.
Daniel Roussounis was amazing in his promptness and advice. Within a day I had 3 new policies and the certificate of currencies that I needed for my estate agent. Now I can move onto other things knowing that I'm covered.
We can’t thank the Team at Consolidated Insurance Brokers for what they do for our business. Daniel makes the whole process very easy and straightforward for our busy business. We would recommend Consolidated Insurance Brokers to everyone needing insurance.
Read every review - shown as written, straight from Google →
Insuring in Emerald: the common questions
Is there still an office in Emerald?
Do I have to change anything if my policy was set up through Emerald?
Can you handle rural and farm risks as well as commercial buildings?
What to read before you ring
Don't see your area?
We work with commercial clients in every state, by phone and video. Call 07 3292 1111.
Talk to a broker about your Emerald building
One call, no obligation, and no pressure to move your policy today.
Call now, most enquiries are settled in one conversation - or leave your details and we'll ring within 90 minutes on a new enquiry (8am–6pm Mon–Fri).
The information on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on it, consider whether it is appropriate for your circumstances. Where the information relates to a particular insurance product, consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before making a decision.