BUYING A HOME

How Suncorp Insurance is helping with sustainable and resilient homes

1 January 2022

If you’re considering buying or building a house, you probably have a long list of things to include. From specific colour paint, to cladding, land size, style and more –how you design your house is what makes it home. That’s why Suncorp Insurance has teamed up with industry experts to investigate the best ways to not only build, but design, sustainably and resiliently.

How is Suncorp Insurance exploring more resilient homes?

You may have seen our newest initiative: One House. One House is a prototype created by Suncorp Insurance, in collaboration with James Cook University, CSIRO and Room11 Architects, to help us understand how resilience against extreme weather can be incorporated into house design. This work has been a long journey to understanding how — regardless of house type, location and weather conditions — building concepts and architectural design can help you build or renovate with resilience.

we australians

are a resilient bunch

we've battled earth moving storms

devastating sidelines

catastrophic floods

and fires so fierce the whole world took

notice

now as our weather becomes more extreme

we need homes as resilient as us

that's why suncorp the csiro and james

cook university

have designed one house to save many one

house

we can all learn from see how it could

help save yours

building a more resilient australia

that's the suncorp spirit

What if my house is already built?

Through Suncorp Insurance’s research, alongside industry experts, we were able to analyse current house design types and future concepts. This helped us identify improvements, additions and changes that could increase a home's ability to help withstand events such as floods, cyclones and fires.

This research not only birthed the concept of One House, but gave Suncorp Insurance the ability to introduce Build it Back Better™ - an Australian first for Home Insurance.

Build it Back Better™ is Suncorp Insurance's way of ensuring that if your home is substantially damaged after an insured event, we'll Build it Back Better™ with recommended resilience options up to $5,000 - $10,000 (depending on your level of cover), designed to help improve the home’s resilience to natural hazards, water damage, fire and theft*.

Get a Home Insurance quote

Why is Suncorp Insurance investigating sustainable and resilient building?

It’s no secret that Australia has had its fair share of extreme weather. From extreme bushfires to the cyclones up north - every year we see homes destroyed and communities changed forever. Not only have we consistently helped those communities as they rebuild, but we want to continue to help by finding out each and every way that we can reduce the need to rebuild at all. That’s the Suncorp Spirit.

Why does Suncorp Insurance want to achieve this?

Did you know that last year over 134,000 Australian homes were damaged by extreme weather last season? The frequency of weather events is rapidly increasing year on year¹. Our aim is for homeowners, future builders, and institutions to view resilience as a crucial part of homes today, and in the future. We are continuing to look at ways that homes can be more resilient to this increase in weather. This is where One House comes in; we aim to generate this conversation, and to show communities everywhere that there are ways in which homeowners can safeguard themselves as best they can against extreme weather events.

We aren’t necessarily done in our trials and designs — rather, we’re just starting. We imagine a future with less community destruction and more community uplift. Whether that’s through design builds or renovations, we aim to help protect you through education and research, whilst improving on new-age building resilience and adapting to a the future of weather events.

Until these considerations are the normal in building concepts, you can help by regularly maintaining your home, following storm, fire and cyclone preparation guidance, having an emergency plan and kit in place and, if you have insurance, checking that it’s up to date.

Learn more about One House

One House is a prototype created by Suncorp in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (“CSIRO”), James Cook University (the Cyclone Testing Station and Centre for Disaster Studies) and Room11 Architects (together, “the Experts”). To find out more information about One House you can go here.

Insurance is issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 (AAI) trading as Suncorp Insurance. Please read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before buying any insurance products. Target Market Determination is also available. Any 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.

*Cover applies to Home Cover only claims with building damage over $50,000 or 10% of the home sum insured, whichever is highest. Limits, conditions and exclusions apply. Read the PDS for full details.

¹Build to Last: A Protecting the North Initiative