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2024 Commercial Property Insurance Trends

It’s natural to feel skeptical when property insurance rates have steadily risen. The road to recovery for the property market is anything but straightforward. As past obstacles become opportunities, navigating this market requires optimism and careful insight. Fortunately, our team is here to help you remain resilient and find solutions that protect your investments. Download our 2024 Commercial Property Insurance Trends report to learn more.  

Defining the new normal

Storms, flooding, hail, and freezing temperatures are putting more assets in harm’s way than ever before. Despite these challenges, the market shows signs of increased stability for the first time in six years. With stability comes growth, and with growth comes increasing demand for broader coverage and increased limits. Still, insurers aren’t looking to start spending more money and are taking a more conservative “wait and see” approach until a new norm emerges. What will the new normal look like, though, and how will it affect your organization?

To learn more about other trends impacting the current business insurance landscape in 2024, visit our Business Insurance Trends report. To see more of our expertise visit our page on emerging insurance trends.

 

Defining and responding to a new normal

Read our report to understand the trends impacting commercial property rates and how you can ensure you are best positioned in today's market.

On demand webinar | How to adapt in a transitioning commercial property market

Did we miss you? Join us on your own time and watch our industry experts dive into the dynamic landscape of the 2024 commercial property insurance market and learn how you can stay ahead of the curve.

Download the report

Property Insurance Trends FAQs

Learn more about the key property insurance trends impacting the commercial property market and how Marsh McLennan Agency can help your company manage costs and plan for the future.

While the price of property insurance depends on a business owner’s industry, associated risks, location, and building age, other factors can impact the property market. These factors include drastic rate increases, growing underwriting losses, a difficult reinsurance renewal period, and reduced capacity.

Additionally, the frequency of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and tornadoes can significantly impact insurance claims and premiums for the carrier. This is due in part to climate change, which leads to more frequent and severe weather events. Rising sea levels, changing precipitation patterns, and extreme temperatures can also affect commercial property insurance costs.

The three property insurance market trends we identified are:

  • An increase in losses driven by historically non-modeled secondary perils
  • Reinsurance costs
  • Underinsured properties

By understanding and adapting to these trends, companies can better navigate uncertainty and emerge more resilient.

Businesses should protect against events like data breaches, property damage, or equipment failure that are often overlooked and underestimated to ensure they lose less money. To determine if companies are moving in the right direction, they can benchmark their property insurance program against industry peers and best practices to identify successes and areas for improvement. By setting key performance indicators, companies can measure the effectiveness of their risk management and insurance strategies over time and determine if they’re properly adapting to trends.

In 2023, reinsurance was at an all-time low. However, as more optimism enters the reinsurance market, companies can think about what types of previously restricted perils they’d like to cover. This will help them be better protected and prepared for events they might not have been able to afford.

Commercial property insurance can be helpful coverage for businesses of all sizes. Without it, company owners must pay for damages out of pocket. This requires large sums of money and could pause business operations.

The types of business owners who should purchase this type of coverage include those who:

  • Own or rent an office or building
  • Own or rent equipment or expensive tools
  • Store inventory or products in-house
  • Depend on business assets like computers and office equipment
  • Have business records and other documents within their business 

Our team of commercial property insurance specialists has several strategies to manage insurance coverage costs:

  • Risk assessment: We’ll conduct a thorough risk assessment of a company’s business operations and properties to identify potential hazards, vulnerabilities, and exposures. By understanding what specific risks our clients face, we can tailor insurance solutions to mitigate them effectively, which can help lower insurance premiums.

  • Loss control and prevention: Our team will implement loss control and prevention methods to reduce the frequency and severity of property losses. This could include safety protocols, training employees in risk management practices, or conducting property inspections.

  • Claims management: We’ll provide claims management services to efficiently reduce claims costs and premium growth. Prompt and effective claims management can positively impact future insurance premiums despite the global insurance market index and inflation issues.