A new insurance catastrophe resilience report from Insurance Council of Australia revealed the cost of rebuilding is now rising faster than inflation as the price of materials and trades continue to skyrocket.
$11.3 billion has been spent on more than 400,000 claims to repair or rebuild homes homes damaged in catastrophic weather events since 2022.
Materials like roof tiles, windows, plaster are all commonly damaged in hail storms or cyclones, and are experiencing some of the largest jumps in price.
Having to repair existing homes means that builders can't focus on adding homes to a market that is in desperate need of more supply.
New builds also perform much better in a natural disaster than older homes according to Shane Keating, the executive director of building policy at the Housing Industry association.
He said the government needs to do more to ensure homes in danger zones are prepared for the floods, fires or other devastating events they will need to endure.
"Governments aren't picking winners when it comes to the policies that they implement," Mr Keating told AAP.
"States target things like energy efficiency and livability requirements in renovated buildings or altered buildings and these come at the expense of money that could be spent elsewhere on things like resilience upgrades."
It's a belief shared by the Insurance Council's chief executive Andrew Hall.
"Australia will not tackle the housing shortage while disasters keep pushing existing homes back into the repair queue, which is why resilience investment must be a core part of the Government's national housing strategy," Mr Hall said.
These rising rebuild costs are also placing pressure on insurance premiums, which is sharpest where the weather is worst.
However, that's if you can get insured, with many properties now uninsurable in disaster-prone areas.
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