Being A Happy Landlord

The three key actions to living a happy life as a landlord are undertaking rigorous due diligence on prospective tenants, conducting regular property inspections and having a watertight landlord insurance policy in place.

We can?t help you with the first two of those, but we can help you find a landlord insurance policy to suit your needs. It?s important: that?s why each year CANSTAR researches and rates landlord insurance policies across the country.

In 2015 our research team has compared 41 policies and 2,663 quotes across individual houses and strata dwellings. We have, once again, separated North Queensland into its own region, as it is treated very differently by insurers, thanks to cyclones and floods prevalent in the area. Including land north of the Tropic of Capricorn would be a disservice to the rest of the sunshine state and would skew the results unfairly. You can view our research results here.

What does landlord insurance cost?

It goes without saying that premiums will vary significantly across the country – and also depending on the specific location, value and style of your property. Average landlord insurance premiums also vary in term of the percentage of rental income they account for. The tables below show median rental income, average insurance costs and percentage of rental income across eight different locations.

Houses

Source: www.canstar.com.auLandlord Insurance report. Median rental income from Australian Property Monitors

Investors in Perth are benefiting from high rental income and relatively low insurance costs compared to some other states. In contrast, those in Queensland are paying higher premiums and aren?t getting the same return, particularly in the north of the state. But when it comes to units, property owners in Sydney are clear winners, seeing almost the same rental income as houses but with considerably lower insurance premiums.

Units

Source: www.canstar.com.auLandlord Insurance report. Median rental income from Australian Property Monitors

Five mistakes landlords make

Be aware of the cost before you buy

Buying a “cheap” property in North Queensland, for example, might sound like a great investment strategy for either yourself or your SMSF fund – but what will the holding costs of the property be?  Landlord insurance will be just one of those costs.  We?re not saying that it?s not a great idea – but make sure you do your homework on costs (in any location) before signing on the dotted line.

Compare Landlord Insurance