Property catastrophe insurance prices have increased consistently since mid-2011, and while capacity remains adequate, market experts see some owners of catastrophe-exposed property taking steps to get the best prices they can in the market.

One of the most significant of those steps is providing comprehensive information about the company's properties to underwriters.

“We have several large portfolios in the U.S., and about all of those have cat exposure,” said Janice Ochenkowski, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. in Chicago. “We have found that the market is hardening and prices are increasing.”

“If you think about how a risk manager needs to respond, this is where relationships with insurers are important, especially if your account has been profitable,” Ms. Ochenkowski said.

During any time of market hardening, attention to risk management fundamentals is essential, she said.

“Data is key,” said Ms. Ochenkowski, adding that it's critical that owners of catastrophe-exposed areas have as much information about properties as possible.

Beyond that, she said, insurance buyers need to understand insurers' concerns and address them proactively. “Should you have mitigating factors to make your risk more attractive, you need to understand those yourself and communicate those to your underwriter,” Ms. Ochenkowski said.

“We're seeing more and more in the property market statistics, and analytics are really driving the pricing of property programs,” said Duncan Ellis, U.S. property practice leader at Marsh Inc. in New York. “That's the major message that we're trying to get out there to our clients: "How is your premium developed?'”

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Once a buyer understands the factors that contribute to the company's premium, he or she can take steps to influence it, Mr. Ellis said.

“It's how your individual account contributes to the (probable maximum loss) of an underwriter's portfolio,” he said. If a buyer tries to market a heavily windstorm-exposed program to an underwriter that has a heavily wind-exposed portfolio, they can expect to see a higher price than if they take that account to an underwriter with less windstorm exposure, he said.

David Finnis, executive vp and national property practice leader at Willis North America in Atlanta, is advising owners of property in cat-exposed areas to start the renewal process early and have good information. “If you don't have very detailed information about all your physical assets and meet starting at least 90 days out, you could be asking for trouble,” he said.

From an insurer's perspective, Dan Kleiman, head of the real estate practice at Zurich North America Commercial in Schaumburg, Ill., said that with the combination of the industry's recent hurricane experience and the impact of industry catastrophe models, “there's been a shift in the way the marketplace views wind.”

“And I think a number of the larger purchasers of wind capacity have changed their views, so you're seeing a difference in the way the marketplace views cat,” Mr. Kleiman said.

“In general, it's clear that the price of catastrophe lines capacity is going up, in some cases severely,” Mr. Kleiman said. At the same time, though, “I don't think I've seen an acute reaction out of the real estate marketplace,” he said.

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“I think they've done their homework more now,” Mr. Kleiman said of many real estate company property catastrophe insurance buyers. “But I don't think I've seen a shift in anybody's buying strategy. It's always going to be expensive to buy windstorm in Florida.”

One change Mr. Kleiman said he has seen is that some buyers who previously might have been more comfortable buying all their windstorm capacity from a single insurer now are willing to carve the program up and bring several excess and surplus lines insurers into their programs.

“They may be buying less. They may decide to take a higher deductible,” Mr. Kleiman said. “Our underwriting teams are being asked to provide far more options than they have in the past. Buyers want to see a number of options on the table.”

In general, the brokers questioned said most property catastrophe price increases haven't been too extreme.

Willis' Mr. Finnis said he's seeing increases of 7.5% to 12.5% for cat cover. “It's not the end of the world, and the capacity's there, so that's a good thing,” he said. “There's not too many horror stories out there.”

“The important thing to note in the catastrophe property area is we don't have a supply problem,” said Al Tobin, managing principal, property practice at Aon Risk Solutions in New York. “There's adequate capacity out there.”

Like others, though, Mr. Tobin said it will be interesting to watch the experience of buyers who saw the first round of price hikes last year and see whether insurers seek additional increases from them at this year's midyear renewals.

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“If you're a May 15 or June 1 renewal, you probably paid a little bit more last year,” Mr. Tobin said. “You're not so happy about having to pay more on top of last year.”

“I think what you're going to hear from the underwriters is that on an overall basis, their books are underpriced,” said Marsh's Mr. Ellis, so they're likely to be looking for price increases from the “worst offenders”—those that have the greatest cat exposures or have previously produced losses.

“Probably everybody's going to get a rate uplift, but those who've been the most offensive will get the worst,” he said.

Stephan Upshaw, vp of risk management at Chicago-based Equity Residential, said his company had a good renewal experience recently, despite the fact that adding property assets in areas like Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Miami had worsened its property cat risk profile.

“We actually had a great property renewal, considering how our risk had changed,” Mr. Upshaw said. The overall increase was less than 20% even as the company increased catastrophe limits from $200 million to $250 million “because the capacity was there up top,” Mr. Upshaw said. The company increased the number of insurers on its property cat program to 34 this year up from 32 last year, he said.

“I've heard horror stories of people not buying limits, and it will be interesting to see how the lenders respond to that,” Mr. Upshaw said.

Lenders may force some of those property owners that have sought to reduce limits back into the insurance market to increase those limits to prior levels, and for some of those property owners, “I think that's going to be cost-prohibitive,” Mr. Upshaw said.