The Atlantic hurricane season, already expected to be worse than usual, could be the tipping point for property insurance markets, according to global broker Marsh.

Its Insurance Market Midyear Update warns that property markets seem to be transitioning from the soft market cycle of the past few years, although competition and capacity remain high.

The report notes that between January and June, catastrophes have cost $US63 billion ($58.1 billion) compared with $US36 billion ($33.2 billion) for all of 2010.

“The property insurance market is not ‘hard’ in that capacity remains plentiful,’ says Marsh, warning that pricing “is in transition”.

It says clients can best position themselves by differentiating themselves and being prepared for insurers to demand more details of the risk.

The report says insurance programs with recent or “historically challenging” loss records are seeing rate increases of 15%, those with heavy catastrophe exposure are experiencing increases of 5-15%, and those with moderate to low cat exposure are achieving plus or minus 5%.

Programs with low to no catastrophe exposure could achieve a reduction or no movement in their 2011 rate.

Marsh says the casualty market also remains soft.