Insurers may have their reasons for maintaining that market rates are holding up. But brokers taking part in the National Insurance Brokers Association's (NIBA) December renewals period survey say most commercial insurance rates are stabilising and in many cases falling.

The Market Conditions Questionnaire issued to NIBA’s 2600 brokers in January indicates the market is softening.

Not that the cuts are yet across the board. Surveyed on commercial rates, 38% of the brokers said their clients experienced increases, 24% said there were decreases and 38% said there was no change.

On a hardness scale of 1-10, 43% of brokers surveyed rated the market at 6. Only 6% of respondents rated it at this level as little as six months ago.

And this time around no brokers rated the market at 9 or 10 – a big contrast to returns in the past few years.

NIBA CEO Noel Pettersen says even liability rates, which have been climbing significantly over the past few years, are now stable.

45% of respondents said public liability rates rose less than 9%. “This is a completely different situation to two years ago, where some clients were experiencing rate increases of more than 150%,” Mr Pettersen said.

In the June 2004 survey, more than 50% said professional indemnity (PI) and public liability rates had increased 10-30%. This time 38% said PI rates rose by that much. And three-quarters of the brokers polled said personal lines rates didn’t change at all in December.

But brokers say industry consolidation has made underwriters much more “picky” about who and what they cover.