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David Hall’s inspections include thermal imaging and moisture testing. Some inspectors do visual-only assessments.

The shocking truth about home inspections costing buyers millions

Red flags are rising around pre-purchase home inspections amid inadequate reports, real estate agent manipulation and a lack of inspector qualifications or standards.

  • Nigel Gladstone

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The housing industry has warned Treasurer Jim Chalmers that high interest rates and rapidly rising costs are crushing the pipeline for new homes.

Insurance premiums have soared in Perth. See what your suburb pays

Industry figures suggest home owners in one Perth suburb are paying double thanks to one particular risk.

  • Holly Thompson
An aerial view of the Taree floods in May 2025.

Extreme weather costs Australia more than any other rich country, bar one

Floods, bushfires and storms have cost in economic and insured losses every decade since 1980, the insurance industry says.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Brisbane has some of the highest average insurance premiums in the country.

See how Brisbane insurance premiums have soared in your suburb

Check how your premium compares with other suburbs, and where insurers are pricing up the risks of floods and storms.

  • Marissa Calligeros
This tree fell onto a restaurant in the Brisbane suburb of Teneriffe during Cyclone Alfred.

Surge in wild weather claims threatens insurance as we know it

One major insurer has received 32,000 claims for wild-weather-related damage to both vehicles and property between January and May this year, more than for the whole of last year.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons and Nick O'Malley
Workers at a Suburban Rail Loop construction site in Heatherton.

New charge for Victoria’s state-backed insurer of Suburban Rail Loop

The government is raising a “capital management” fee to help bring its Victorian Managed Insurance Authority back to financial health.

  • Kieran Rooney
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Storms like those in Victoria ate into Suncorp’s insurance earnings.

The maps that show how climate change is driving up the cost of insuring Melbourne homes

Check how your insurance premium compares with other suburbs, and where insurers are pricing up the risks of bushfires and floods the most.

  • Bianca Hall
Illustration by Simon Letch

The outlook for house insurance is much worse than we’re being told

Insurance companies, the banks and the government know what’s coming, but they don’t want to talk about it before it happens, mainly because they don’t know what to do about it.

  • Ross Gittins
How premiums for home insurance have climbed since 2020, by Sydney LGA.

The maps that reveal how climate disasters are driving up insurance premiums in Sydney

The accelerating risk of climate disasters including floods, bushfires and storms means Sydneysiders in some parts of the city are paying over three times more for home insurance than others.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Darren and family Donna, Summer 9, Ruby 7, Dylan 7, at their home in Ryde.

Darren’s defect-riddled Sydney home had no roof for six months. Now he’s $600,000 short

The state government-run insurance scheme, the Home Building Compensation Fund, was designed to help families such as the Ayres. The reality shows the safety net is too small.

  • Max Maddison

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/building-insurance-1n6l