The best-value home and contents insurance in Australia

Budget Direct has been named Money's Best-Value Home and Contents Insurance as part of the 2026 Best of the Best awards.

• Find out how we chose the winners
• Order your copy of the bumper awards issue
• Check out more from Best of the Best 2026

Chances are, the cost of your home and contents insurance has skyrocketed this year. But one insurer, Budget Direct, has a track record of delivering great value, having also taken out this award in 2017 to 2020, and again from 2022 to 2025.

Jonathan Kerr is chief growth officer at Auto & General Holdings, which owns Budget Direct.

"Every day our goal is to be Australia's best insurer, and for us that starts with trying to deliver the best value insurance to our customers. It is this mindset and focus that sets us apart and leads to our consistent award-winning performance," he says.

In terms of Budget Direct's ability to keep premiums low, Kerr says, "A big part of delivering the best value for our customers is finding the win-wins for our customers and 
our business in the key processes in the insurance value chain.

"Customers value a claim being processed quickly. If we can do that better than our competitors it also leads to a more efficient business for us, which can contribute to very competitive pricing from Budget Direct."

And Budget Direct is well-placed to continue offering value on home and contents cover in the future.

"We are a fast-growing business, and part of that means we inevitably handle more claims every year," says Kerr. "So building capacity and capability to respond to our customers' claims is core 
to what we do."

Kerr adds that winning this award for the fifth year in a row "means the world to us".

Want more Best of the Best? Best-value term deposits revealed

How do you find the best insurance for 2026?

Insurance premiums have been one of the major consumer categories to have seen costs rise substantially over recent years. Insurance is one of the most important financial products for consumers, but it's hard to compare providers because premium costs can vary according to the value of what you want to insure, and how risky the insurer assesses the situation to be.

Home and contents insurance is determined by where you live, type of building (house versus apartment), home security system and whether someone is at home during daytime hours. Weather events and natural disasters can severely add to your premium costs.

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