Australian Homeowners TRAPPED by the Bills to Keep a Home They Already Own [2026]

The home you already own is quietly becoming unaffordable to keep — and the companies sending you the bills have never been richer. This is the story of a trap almost no one is warning older Australians about: not the mortgage, but the rising cost of simply KEEPING a home you already own. Home insurance premiums have climbed 51% in five years, to nearly $2,940 on average — the largest jump the Actuaries Institute has recorded in two decades — while 1.6 million households are now in insurance affordability stress. Behind those bills, IAG booked a $1.36 billion full-year profit and Suncorp's jumped 52%, in a market where four companies control roughly three-quarters of the cover. Then come the council rates, the 4.41% health-insurance rise, and the scrapped energy rebates — approved, one after another, by the people meant to protect you. If you own your home, or you're close to paying it off, this is about your money and your biggest asset. We walk the receipts in order — the regulators, the insurers' own results, the council rulings, and the Climate Council's map of homes sliding toward uninsurable — and land on a simple question: when the mortgage ends, why don't the bills? Every figure in this video is said out loud and sourced below. 📚 SOURCES CITED IN THIS VIDEO Insurance Business Australia — home premiums up 51% in five years; ~1.4M homes uninsured or under-insured; market concentration & APRA "Mind the Gap" Actuaries Institute — median premium +28% in a year (largest in two decades); 1.6M households in affordability stress; 1.24M households / flood costs Actuaries Institute (Home Loans at Risk report) — most-stressed households paying ~$5,216/yr; ~$57bn of home loans exposed Finity / Fenro — construction costs +40% (2020–2025); Canstar premium tracking; 15% of households now stressed IAG — FY25 full-year results: $1.36bn net profit, $1.74bn insurance profit, share buyback Insurance Business Australia — Suncorp FY25 profit +52% Veye — IAG consumer home premiums +10.2% IPART (NSW) — 2025–26 rate pegs 3.6–5.1%; North Sydney's rejected 87% application Northern Beaches Advocate — 25.2% cumulative rate rise / +$49.8m Get Involved Shoalhaven — 12% special rate variation approved The Leader (St George & Sutherland) — IPART rate rises exceed inflation Canstar — 2026 health rise 4.41% (+$330/yr, gold family policy) CHOICE — gold hospital policies up 8–13% in the prior round The Conversation — private health insurer net profits +48% over five years; Medibank $741.5m Dept. of Health / Minister Butler — 4.41% approved; "product phoenixing" law Climate Council (via Business News Australia) — 1 in 25 homes uninsurable by 2030; Queensland worst SBS News — 520,944 properties effectively uninsurable by 2030 r/AusFinance — homeowner & mortgage-stress threads (Vaucluse data; "risk amnesia"; keeping the mortgage vs the cover; tax-change discussion) 📺 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL AU Today — documentary investigations into the forces shaping Australia: housing, cost of living, the economy, and the decisions behind them. How it broke, who decided, what happens next. Every video is anchored to public data, public records, and public people. No interviews. No personal advice. No agendas. New documentary every day. ⚠️ FAIR USE NOTICE Brief news excerpts are used for criticism, commentary, and reporting on matters of public interest — fair dealing / fair use under Section 107 of the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and corresponding international provisions. All footage remains the property of its respective owners.