According to Artex’s Alternative View — Spring 2026 report, insureds in the US property insurance space are “eagerly taking advantage” of the most favourable market they have experienced in several years.
With ample market capacity and carriers eager to expand their property portfolios, Artex noted in its latest report that many insureds have taken advantage of the favourable conditions to renegotiate previously restrictive terms and conditions and, in some cases, secure lower deductibles.
The firm’s report continued, “From a NatCat-insured-loss perspective, 2025 came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. For the first time since 2015, a hurricane didn’t make landfall in the US. This helped offset insured losses from the January 2025 California wildfires.”
Artex explained that, following years of higher-than-average rate increases, catastrophe-driven layered and shared property programs have finally experienced rate relief.
Elsewhere in the Spring 2026 report, Artex said that accurate property valuations remain a challenge in the property insurance market and are particularly critical for data centres, one of the fastest-growing segments of the commercial property sector.
“Across the US, hyperscalers and colocation providers are responding to the AI boom by building these massive structures that store and transmit digital information.
“One consulting firm has estimated that by 2030, companies will invest nearly USD7 trillion globally on data centre infrastructure, with 40% of that spend deployed in the US.
“These high-tech facilities often have property total insured values of USD1 billion to USD5 billion, depending on the equipment, such as servers and cooling systems, they house. And because of their size, many of these facilities are located in remote areas with a history of SCS and/or wildfires.”
Read more about the challenges and opportunities associated with hyperscale data centre projects in a new S&P report, which highlighted the sector as a growing but increasingly selective area of interest for re/insurers.
Meanwhile, Artex’s Alternative View — Spring 2026 report also examined the US casualty market, arguing that rate increases alone are unlikely to restore the sector to health.
“External trends, notably litigation funding and social inflation, continue to impair most of the casualty coverage lines. Social inflation, which is more difficult to contain than economic inflation, plays a larger role in casualty claim severity than rising costs,” Artex said.
The firm continued, “The result is a rise in claim size, particularly nuclear verdicts, those with jury awards exceeding USD10 million. The risk of future nuclear verdicts makes it challenging for carriers to price their casualty risks and adjust limits and pricing.
“Umbrella/excess policies that provide additional protection against business-crippling verdicts exceeding primary limits are under significant strain from nuclear verdicts.
“Carriers are responding to nuclear verdicts with higher attachment points, particularly for general liability and commercial auto, and more exclusions. No casualty line has suffered from nuclear verdicts to the extent of commercial auto.
“The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) reported in 2025 that nuclear verdicts had increased in terms of both frequency and severity. By 2022, the median verdict reached USD36 million. This represented a 50% increase over the median nuclear verdict in 2013.”
