Maintaining a home

Will my Suncorp Home Insurance policy cover the costs to rebuild my home?

25 March 2025

If you have home insurance, you might assume that – if your home is deemed a total loss and needs rebuilding after an insured event – it will be rebuilt exactly as it was. And if you have a sufficient building sum insured, Suncorp Insurance can can help rebuild your home, subject to the terms of your policy.

But if your sum insured isn’t enough, there might be some issues when it comes to rebuilding your home. This is why having an accurate sum insured for your policy is so important.

What is my sum insured?

The sum insured for your home is the maximum amount we will pay for loss or damage to your home due to an insured event covered by your policy. When you take out or renew a Suncorp Home Insurance policy, you’ll be able to specify the sum insured you’d like for your home, within a range.

You can also adjust your home sum insured mid-term. For example, if you have completed renovations and want to up the amount for which your home is insured. If the sum insured for your home isn’t quite right, you may wind up underinsured.

What is underinsurance?

If your sum insured is less than what your home would cost to rebuild – that’s called underinsurance. It may still allow you to rebuild a home, but you might have to sacrifice on features. So, for example, a four-bedroom house with high-end fixtures might be replaced with a three-bedroom house with mid-range fixtures.

Or you could rebuild your home as it was but have to cover the shortfall out of your own pocket.

How can I avoid underinsurance?

If you find it difficult to calculate how much you should insure your home for, you’re not alone! Our Home Building Calculator can help you get an estimated cost of rebuilding your home from scratch. Once you have your estimate, that can inform how much you might want to insure your home for.

What if rebuilding costs exceeds my sum insured?

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a sum insured for your home that seemed okay when you took out your policy may not be when you need to make a claim — especially if it’s been a while since you reviewed it. Here’s where Safety net home protection can help.

What is Safety net home protection?

This provides a further percentage on your nominated sum insured in the event that the costs to rebuild your home exceeds your nominated sum insured. The amount that applies depends on your level of cover:

Classic Home Insurance policies offer up to a further 25% of your home sum insured safety net (available as an optional cover).
Classic Extras policies have up to a further 25% of your home sum insured safety net automatically included.
Classic Advantages policies have up to a further 30% of your home sum insured safety net automatically included.

Here’s an example: Say your home is destroyed by fire and the sum insured for your home is $300,000. You realise it’ll cost at least $350,000 to rebuild. You either have to fork out the extra money yourself or your home will be rebuilt within the sum insured — but a 25% safety net could mean you may have up to $375,000 to rebuild.

Conditions apply. Learn more about Safety net home protection by reading the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).

Have you thought about Suncorp Contents Insurance?

When you’re considering insurance for your home, it may help to also think about insuring your contents as well.

Like the Home Building Calculator, the Suncorp Insurance Contents Calculator can help you get an estimated replacement cost for your contents. Once you’ve narrowed down a figure, why not compare the different Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance covers to see which one may suit your needs?

Compare Home and Contents Insurance

Read more:

Insurance is issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as Suncorp Insurance. Limits, conditions and exclusions apply. Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before buying this insurance. The Target Market Determination is also available. This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.

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