2026 Property Market Update: Are We Approaching the Bottom?

Written by: Cottingham & Butler Food & Agribusiness Group

Six months ago, we entered 2026 expecting a favorable property insurance environment driven by abundant capacity, healthy reinsurer balance sheets, and increasing competition among carriers. At the halfway point of the year, that thesis has largely played out exactly as anticipated.

Capacity remains plentiful. Carriers continue to compete aggressively for well-performing accounts; rate reductions remain common, and buyers are finding increased flexibility around program structure, deductibles, limits, and coverage enhancements.

Perhaps most notably, the collision between admitted and non-admitted markets that we discussed in our January outlook has become a reality. In many placements, buyers are evaluating competing options from both admitted & E&S channels that look increasingly similar from a pricing, capacity, and coverage standpoint.

Why Has the Market Continued to Soften?

The answer remains simple: there is more capacity than demand.

Reinsurers entered the year with strong balance sheets, new capital continues to seek attractive insurance returns, and carriers remain under pressure to deploy capacity. While catastrophe activity has continued globally, losses have not been severe enough to materially alter the industry's overall capital position or disrupt the competitive landscape.

The result has been a market that continues to favor buyers.

The Question Everyone Is Asking: Are We at the Bottom?

No—but we're closer than we were six months ago.

While the broader market remains highly competitive, we're beginning to hear a different tone from portions of the marketplace, particularly within London.

Several markets are indicating they have achieved technical rate adequacy on many accounts. In some instances, pricing has moved below what certain underwriters consider technically adequate levels. Whenever that occurs, carriers eventually begin reassessing appetite, deployment strategies, and portfolio objectives.

We're also seeing isolated examples of domestic carriers reevaluating growth strategies. Some markets that entered aggressively over the last 12-24 months appear to be becoming more selective as they assess profitability and portfolio performance.

These are not indications of a hard market.

They are, however, the type of early signals that often emerge near the bottom of a cycle.

What to Expect Through the Remainder of 2026

Despite these subtle indicators, our near-term outlook remains unchanged.

There is still a significant amount of capacity looking for quality business. For organizations with strong risk profiles, credible underwriting data, and a commitment to risk improvement, we expect favorable conditions to continue throughout the remainder of 2026.

The market's trajectory into 2027 will depend largely on catastrophe activity, capital availability, and carrier profitability. For now, those factors continue to support a buyer-friendly environment.

Strategies for Buyers in Today's Market

As a reminder, a soft market is not just an opportunity to reduce cost. It is an opportunity to improve your overall risk position.

We encourage buyers to:

• Evaluate whether deductible levels still align with risk tolerance.

• Reassess property limits and values.

• Review restrictive endorsements that were accepted during the hard market.

• Explore opportunities to broaden coverage.

• Continue investing in valuations, engineering, and underwriting data quality.

• Build relationships with carriers while market conditions are favorable.

The organizations that gain the most value from a soft market are often those that use it to strengthen their long-term position—not simply lower premium.

Closing Thoughts 

The industry remains awash with capacity, and we expect competitive conditions to continue. But after almost 3 years of relentless softening, we're beginning to observe the first signs that some carriers are becoming less enthusiastic about chasing rate.

Will those signals fade away? Or are they the first clues that the market is preparing for its next move?

It's too early to know.

What we do know is that the most sophisticated buyers aren't asking how low rates can go. They're asking what the market will look like 12 to 24 months from now.

Today's market is creating opportunities that would have been difficult to imagine just a few years ago. The key isn't simply taking advantage of them—it's recognizing that market windows don't remain open forever. The organizations that emerge strongest from every cycle are rarely the ones that react first; they're the ones that prepared before everyone else saw the change coming.