Construction Insurance Market Update

The construction insurance market is in a state of transition from a market that has seen generally stable or declining pricing for over a decade to one in which prices are generally rising. This is being driven by:

• Changing underwriter appetites.
• A reduction in available capacity from specialist construction insurers.
• A series of losses.
  
• Insurance market conditions more generally.
  

Talking about market trends across all of continental Europe is very challenging. Europe has a very diverse insurance market and the approach to risk varies substantially across countries. But there is common characteristics: 

• The market had been flat or declining for several years with a lot of capacity and many new carriers entering the construction field over the past 10 years.
• Growing losses and poor investment returns, are resulting in rate increases and reduced capacity for most lines of coverage.
• Underwriters have become more selective on the accounts/projects scrutinizing each project.
  

Below Philippe Onteniente (Head of Construction, Continental Europe) and Alistair Urquhart (Global Head of Construction Placement) provide an overview of the insurance market conditions which are being faced by the construction industry, within the region and globally, how they expect them to change and what clients can do to minimize the effect of the changing market.

Please download the documents to access more in depth analysis for each of the key construction insurance lines.