Risk Management Aug03

Risk Management

Apartment owners and management companies have a lot to worry about in keeping their communities safe and secure, and there are always new factors emerging to further add to the complexities of risk management. Multi-Housing News reached out to property owners, property managers and the insurance companies who cover them to see what the top risk concerns are in 2015, and the challenges of insuring those risks in the years ahead. What type of risk are you or your company most concerned about insuring against today? Mark Mascia: Cap rate expansion outpacing rental growth. The market has seen phenomenal growth in rents with limited new supply to slow it down. However now that cap rates are at historically low levels throughout most markets in the country there isn’t a whole lot of room for them to go anywhere but up. So as cap rates expand lowering the value of their property they need to keep increasing rents just to stay even on values. For longer-term cash flow owners this isn’t as much of a concern, but for REITS with mark to market pricing and for companies who had short-term business plans this is a real risk to their investments. Heidi A. Much: For Village Green, we’re trying to get our arms around our cyber exposure. We all use a multitude of providers in our industry—someone who does your accounting data, your rider insurance, your employee screening—and while we don’t necessarily have confidential information stored, we are using providers who have that information stored. We’re trying to understand what’s out there, what are they doing, what is their disaster plan and recovery plan? Steve Heimler: Number one is a data breach. Everyone is a target, and we do have information in the hands of a...