Florida’s post-reform insurance market is showing a split picture for multifamily housing: property premiums have fallen sharply over the past two years, but liability coverage prices are climbing — driven, data suggest, by litigation and large lawsuit awards.
Florida apartments (Credits: Insurance Journal)
Florida has an estimated 1.7 million multifamily units, from duplexes and fourplexes to apartment complexes housing hundreds of residents, with more being built every week. For much of the market, attention has focused on homeowners’ property rates after the state’s 2022 and 2023 legislative reforms. The multifamily segment, however, tells a more complicated story.
Florida Multifamily Property Premiums Fall Sharply
Data from Advocate Technologies, a data analytics firm tracking commercial and commercial-residential rates nationwide, show that multifamily property premiums in Florida have dropped steeply. Across more than 1,000 Florida properties, the median premium per door fell from $797 in early 2025 — almost double the rate in other Southeastern states — to $472 in April of this year, for all structure categories except condominiums, with primary and excess coverage included.
The firm’s data also name the lowest-priced carriers in the state’s multifamily market, including Steadfast Insurance, Axis Specialty Europe SE, Mt. Hawley Insurance, XL Insurance America and Old Republic Union Insurance, all offering median rates well below the state average.
Florida Multifamily Liability Rates Climb Despite Reforms
Liability coverage, however, is moving the other way. Advocate’s report attributes the rise partly to litigation and large jury awards, and describes the pattern bluntly: “Property softening is cyclical and can reverse on one bad catastrophe season. Casualty hardening from social inflation and larger jury verdicts is considered structural. Until that changes, liability’s share of the book should keep growing even without new business.”
In other words, the reforms appear to have curbed excessive claims litigation on the property side, but liability claims and lawsuits continue to cost insurers and insureds in the multifamily segment. Rents have also dropped in some areas amid an oversupply of units, according to a University of Florida report and other research, adding further pressure to the sector.
Also Read: AM Best: ‘Social Inflation’ Is Driving a Surge in Commercial Auto Liability Claims
Source: Insurance Journal — read the full story there.
