Home insurance premiums keep rising — but APRA data show no profit windfall
Home insurance is becoming increasingly expensive, but new APRA data show the householders insurance service result fell from a $1.15 billion profit to a small loss in 2025–26.
APRA's latest General Insurance Performance Statistics provide detailed quarterly results for different classes of insurance, including householders insurance.
The June 2026 figures allow a full financial-year comparison. Across the four quarters to June, householders insurance generated $17.13 billion of insurance revenue, up 8.1% from $15.84 billion in 2024–25.
Yet profitability moved in the opposite direction.
APRA's insurance service result — broadly the result generated from providing insurance after allowing for reinsurance — fell from a $1.15 billion profit in 2024–25 to a $42 million loss in 2025–26.
That is important politically because Australian households are unquestionably paying much more for home insurance.
Separate ACCC data show the average combined home and contents premium increased from $1,612 in 2021–22 to $2,360 in 2024–25, an increase of more than 46% in three years.
But APRA's latest numbers demonstrate why simply blaming insurer profits misses much of the problem.
In the June quarter, householders insurance revenue was 5.9% higher than a year earlier. Gross claims incurred increased 22.6%, while the insurance service result fell 38.6% to $431 million.
The volatility is particularly striking. The householders insurance service result was a $633 million profit in September 2025, followed by a $1.09 billion loss in December, a small loss in March and a return to profit in June.
The policy challenge is therefore much broader than insurer margins.
APRA estimates home insurance premiums increased by an average 7.2% a year between 2010 and 2025, compared with wage growth of 3.1%. It also estimates that taxes, levies and government charges account for around 21% of the average premium nationally.
Home insurance affordability increasingly depends on disaster risk, reinsurance, construction costs, building resilience, planning decisions and government charges.
For households, premiums are becoming a serious cost-of-living problem. But APRA's numbers suggest the solution cannot simply be to squeeze insurer margins.
Source: APRA Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statistics, June 2026; ACCC Insurance Monitoring Report 2026. Benchmark Analytics calculations.
| Indicator | Previous | Latest | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| June qtr insurance revenue | $4.10b | $4.34b | +5.9% |
| June qtr gross claims incurred | $1.74b | $2.13b | +22.6% |
| June qtr insurance service result | $702m | $431m | −38.6% |
| FY insurance revenue | $15.84b | $17.13b | +8.1% |
| FY insurance service result | +$1.15b | −$42m | −$1.19b |
| FY service result / revenue | 7.2% | −0.2% | −7.5 pp |