Soft P/C Market Conditions Prevail in Q3 2025
Premium increases slowed significantly across the board, with decreases in six lines during the quarter.
Premiums across all property and casualty account sizes increased by an average of just 1.6% in Q3 2025, according to The Council's latest P/C Market Survey.
This was a 57% decrease from the 3.7% average increase in Q2. Premiums for small accounts increased the least, by an average of 1.2%, which respondents attributed to competition among carriers for smaller business.
Across the lines of business, premiums increased by an average of 2.7% in Q3, a 45% decrease from the 4.9% average increase recorded in Q2. Premium increases largely either flatlined or dropped compared to the numbers from the previous quarter.
Premiums for business interruption, commercial property, cyber, D&O, employment practices, and workers compensation all decreased during the latest quarter. Cyber decreased the most, at an average of 2.6%, the fourth record premium decrease for the line in the past seven quarters. The average decrease of 0.2% in commercial property premiums also represented the first recorded decrease for that line since Q2 2017.
Respondents and industry sources suggested that the same factors drove the cyber and commercial property decreases: more capacity for both lines of business and a more favorable reinsurance market (recall that survey respondents attributed the hard property market in 2023 to difficulties with reinsurance). More than half of respondents observed an increase in commercial property capacity, for example; 45% said they had seen an increase in cyber capacity.
