Home insurance for first time buyers

Buying your first home is exciting! And home insurance is a useful and important way of taking care of your new home. It may also be a condition of approval for your home loan. So it’s important to understand how it works and how to find a policy that suits your needs. 

What does home insurance cover?

Home insurance typically can help you repair or rebuild your home following a specific event. The exact events covered can vary between insurers and policy types, so refer to the relevant policy documents for details.

What are the types of home insurance?

Building and contents insurance

Building insurance covers the building itself – that’s your walls, windows, roof and so on.

Contents insurance covers the stuff in it – things like your couch, home computer, and coffee machine.

With AAMI, you can choose to have Building Only or Contents Only Insurance. If you’re an owner-occupier, you should consider Home & Contents Insurance to protect both your home and your belongings.

Before you buy a policy, read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)  to make sure the policy includes what you need.

Explore AAMI Home and Contents Insurance 

Strata insurance 

If your first home is a townhouse or unit, your building (or parts of) may be insured by the strata title, body corporate, owner’s corporation or strata manager. Check what type of building insurance they may already have to establish what you may need.

But your contents inside the apartment aren’t usually covered under any strata, body corporate policy. So you may still want to consider contents insurance.

When should I get home insurance?

There’s a stage in the home buying journey where the buyer becomes responsible for damages to the home building. This occurs at different times in each state and territory. You should consider buying home insurance before you reach this stage.

And while home insurance isn’t a legal requirement, some lenders may require you to have home insurance as a condition for mortgage approval.

Once you’ve moved in, you can consider Home & Contents Insurance to cover your home and precious possessions against loss or damage from insured events.

How much home insurance do I need?

When taking out a new home insurance policy, you’ll need to choose a sum insured. Your total sum insured is the amount listed on your policy as the most you will be paid to repair, replace or rebuild your home and/or contents in the event of a claim.

AAMI also offers Complete Replacement Cover.  For an additional premium, this optional cover gives you peace of mind that if your building is damaged or destroyed by an insured event, we'll repair or rebuild your house as it was, or pay you the amount of the assessed quote to repair or rebuild it.

Our Home Building and Contents Calculators can help you estimate the right figure. You can also contact a builder or professional valuer for a more accurate number.

Get a Home Insurance quote

What are insured events?

An insured event is an accidental or unexpected event that your home insurance policy covers. Insurance companies list what they consider insured events in the relevant PDS. Reading it can help you understand what events your policy covers.

AAMI Home Insurance covers lots of events. Flood, storm, lightning strikes, earthquakes – even meteorites! You’ll also be covered for things like burglary and vandalism, or damage caused by animals that aren’t yours.

What else should be considered with home insurance cover?

You can consider a range of optional extras. These cost more to insure but can help you customise your cover to better fit your needs. 

Accidental Damage at Home cover

Worried about accidentally dropping, knocking, spilling or damaging something at home? We’ve all done it! Say hello to AAMI’s Accidental Damage at Home cover.

For an additional excess, this optional extra can help cover the costs associated with repairing or replacing parts of your home, contents or both if they're accidentally damaged. 

Extra Portable Valuables cover

With AAMI Home and Contents or Contents Only Insurance, you have the option to add Extra Portable Valuables Cover. For an extra premium, we provide additional cover for items you're likely to take outside your home.

Extra Cover Portable valuables - unspecified items cover

You can choose a sum insured from the options we offer, however, there’s a $1,000 limit per item, pair, set or collection. The most we’ll pay for all extra cover unspecified items in total is the sum insured shown on your certificate of insurance.

Covered items include:

• jewellery and watches
• handbags and wallets
• sporting, recreational and leisure goods when not in use, and
• photographic and optical equipment.

Extra Cover Portable valuable - specified items cover

You can ask us to insure an item by giving us the full description and its replacement value. If we agree, the item will be listed individually on your certificate of insurance together with its sum insured.

Covered items may include to:

• mobile or satellite phones, laptops, electronic tablets (for example, iPads)
• drones
• personal transportation vehicles, and
• GPS or navigational devices.

The PDS will help you understand any exclusions and limitations.

Excess-Free Glass cover

Fixed glass, like that found in fixed mirrors and windows in your home, is covered under AAMI’s Home Insurance policy – but you’ll have to pay an excess if you make a claim. With optional AAMI Excess-Free Glass cover, you won’t!

Complete Replacement Cover®

With AAMI Complete Replacement Cover® (CRC) you don’t need to set a sum insured for your policy. That is, there is no set maximum amount that we’ll pay to repair or replace your home after an insured event.

Instead, we’ll repair or rebuild your house as it was or pay you the amount of the assessed quote to repair or rebuild it. If you’re not sure of how much it would cost to rebuild your home, you might like this option.

To see how much your premium will be if you choose CRC, just get a quick quote. You can easily add and remove the CRC option during the quote process to see how it affects the price.

How do I make a home insurance claim?

Need to make a claim? Use our handy Home Insurance Claims Checklist  to help you prepare your documents. Then, just jump online or log in to the AAMI App and follow the steps to easily make a claim. 

Make a claim

Read more:

• Are broken windows covered by home insurance?
• A guide to creating your first home inventory
• Are outdoor living areas covered by home insurance?

Insurance issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as AAMI. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement before making a decision about this insurance. Target Market Determination 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. Actions or movements of the sea and storm surge are not covered (unless the storm surge damage occurs at the same time as damage caused by storm). Other exclusions apply.

The information is intended to be of general nature only. Subject to any rights you may have under any law, we do not accept any legal responsibility for any loss or damage, including loss of business or profits or any other indirect loss, incurred as a result of reliance upon the information. Please make your own enquiries.