Owner-Occupied Warehouse, Melbourne West

An owner-occupied commercial warehouse in Melbourne's western suburbs, part of a multi-property portfolio. The owner used the warehouse for their own business operations and needed building, contents, and liability cover.

As a portfolio client, the goal was to ensure each property in the portfolio was placed with the right insurer for its specific risk profile rather than forcing everything into one policy that might not be competitive across the board.

We submitted the warehouse to our panel separately from the other properties in the portfolio. For owner-occupied commercial buildings, the occupation type is the primary rating factor, and different insurers have different appetites depending on what the building is used for.

By treating each property in the portfolio individually, we could match each one with the insurer that offered the best terms for that specific risk.

Multiple insurers declined the risk. Some couldn't accommodate the sum insured requirements, others didn't have appetite for the occupation type. The only quote initially available was over $9,000, which felt excessive compared to the risk.

Owner-occupied warehouses can be tricky to place because the insurer needs to assess both the building risk and the business activity inside it. If the occupation doesn't fit their standard categories, premiums can be significantly inflated.

The saving came from finding an insurer who properly understood the occupation type and priced the risk accordingly, rather than applying a generic loading for an unfamiliar business category.

For portfolio clients, this approach - placing each property with the best-fit insurer rather than bundling everything together - can result in significant savings across the total programme.