Who We Insure

Insurance for PropTech Companies

A proptech company sits between software and the physical, high-dollar world of real estate, and that is what makes its risk distinctive. The product may price a home, screen a tenant, route a rent payment, or open a door — and when it fails, the consequence is rarely a cosmetic bug. A mispriced valuation a lender relied on, a redirected closing wire, a resident locked out of a smart-lock building overnight, or an intruder admitted by a faulty access system all translate software error into real-world, litigable harm.

Why proptech companies carry specialized insurance

That is why insurance requirements arrive early for proptech. Property managers, brokerages, REITs, lenders, and title and closing firms are heavily contracted and, in many cases, regulated, so their vendor agreements demand certificates of insurance, additional-insured status, and stated limit floors before a proptech tool is given API access to listings, resident data, or transaction workflows. Enterprise property owners fold insurance exhibits into onboarding, and investors expect D&O before a round closes. A OnePark Risk advisor structures a proptech program around what the product actually does: whether it merely informs a decision, moves money through rent or closing flows, or controls physical access to a building. Those answers determine which policies respond — technology errors and omissions, crime and funds-transfer, or general liability for bodily injury and property damage — and where the seams between them need to be closed.

The risk profile of a proptech company

Proptech risk concentrates where software meets money, personal data, and the physical building — three exposures that generic SaaS coverage tends to treat as one. Key exposures: Software errors in valuations, automated pricing models, listing data, or lease and transaction workflows that cause a customer financial loss; Business-email-compromise and funds-transfer fraud around earnest money, closing wires, or rent-payment flows; Breach of resident and applicant data — screening records, payment details, lease documents, and identity information; Smart-lock, access-control, and building-sensor failures that lock out residents or admit intruders, creating bodily-injury and property-damage exposure; Tenant-screening and consumer-report handling that draws consumer-protection and fair-treatment scrutiny; Contract liability to property managers, brokerages, and lenders through broad indemnification clauses; Employment and securities exposure that grows with each funding round.

Technology E&O + Cyber (combined form) for proptech companies

The centerpiece for proptech. Tech E&O responds when the product or service fails and a customer claims financial harm — a valuation that was wrong, a transaction that broke, a workflow that misfired — while the cyber side funds breach response and third-party privacy liability. Proptech should buy these together on one form, because a resident-data breach and a service failure frequently arrive as the same incident, and two separate carriers can each point at the other. Typically responds to: client claims for financial loss from software failure, pricing errors, or service outages; breach response for resident and applicant data: forensics, notification, credit monitoring; cyber extortion and ransomware response; network-security and privacy liability defense.

General Liability for proptech companies

When a proptech company ships or integrates physical hardware — smart locks, access panels, building sensors — a failure that injures a resident or damages property is not a software claim, and technology E&O generally will not reach it. General liability answers premises and bodily-injury exposure, and where the company deploys devices on a customer's property, owners routinely require it with additional-insured status before installation. Typically responds to: bodily injury or property damage tied to installed devices or on-site work; premises liability for the company's own offices and staff.

Crime / Funds-Transfer Fraud for proptech companies

Real estate is a favorite target for wire-redirection fraud, and any proptech touching earnest money, closing funds, or rent flows inherits that exposure. Crime coverage responds to employee theft and, with the right endorsements, funds-transfer fraud — backstopping the social-engineering sublimits on the cyber form where a fraudulent instruction moves a customer's money.

Directors & Officers (D&O) for proptech companies

D&O protects founders' and directors' personal assets against claims from investors, regulators, and creditors, and most institutional term sheets require it as a closing condition. For proptech operating alongside lenders and regulated real-estate counterparties, the regulatory-investigation terms deserve a close read.

Employment Practices Liability (EPLI) for proptech companies

Hiring velocity generates discrimination, harassment, wrongful-termination, and wage-and-hour claims that cost money to defend even when unfounded. EPLI funds that defense and is commonly bundled with D&O in a management-liability package for venture-backed companies.

Workers' Compensation for proptech companies

Legally required in the states where the company employs anyone, including single remote hires and any field technicians who install hardware. Multi-state teams should confirm coverage tracks every state where employees actually sit or work.

Contract and certificate requirements

Property-management companies, brokerages, and enterprise owners write vendor requirements into their agreements: Tech E&O and cyber at stated limits — commonly $1 million to $5 million depending on the data and dollars involved — additional-insured status, and certificates of insurance before a tool is connected to listing, resident, or transaction systems. Where a proptech company installs devices on a customer's property, owners typically require general liability naming them as additional insured, and lender and title relationships often add crime or fidelity expectations around funds flow. These obligations do not always line up with what a generic startup policy actually covers, particularly the split between software errors and physical-device liability. A OnePark Risk advisor reads the customer's insurance exhibit against the current program so limits, endorsements, and additional-insured language match what the company has promised — before a procurement team flags a gap or an incident tests it.

What coverage costs

As of 2026, proptech pricing turns on what the product does rather than revenue alone. Carriers underwrite whether the platform handles funds, holds resident and applicant data at scale, or ships physical access hardware — each pushes pricing above a pure back-office SaaS tool. Companies that touch closing or rent money, or that control building access, price differently from analytics-only products. Security posture and money-movement controls move terms directly: multi-factor authentication, wire-verification procedures, secure device firmware and update practices, and tested incident response are what underwriters ask about first. For scale on why they press, IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026 put the global average cost of a breach at $4.99 million, and a platform holding thousands of resident identities carries notification and fraud consequences that reinforce the point. Rather than quoting a single figure, a OnePark Risk advisor benchmarks the specific proptech company across the carriers active in the space and shows how limits, deductibles, and the software-versus-hardware classification move the premium so the tradeoffs are visible before renewal.

AI exposure note

If the product uses automated valuation models, algorithmic pricing, or automated tenant screening, disclose it during underwriting and review how the Tech E&O form treats model error and discrimination claims tied to automated decisions. Automated screening and valuation carry fair-treatment exposure that plaintiffs and regulators increasingly test, and carriers are adding both AI-specific exclusions and AI-specific affirmative coverage — the difference between forms is now a standard part of a proptech coverage review.

Illustrative example: The redirected closing wire

A transaction platform facilitates a home closing. An attacker who has monitored a party's mailbox sends spoofed instructions to redirect the buyer's funds to a fraudulent account, and a six-figure wire lands with the fraudster before the lookalike domain is noticed. The cyber form's social-engineering and funds-transfer-fraud coverage responds for the recoverable portion and funds the forensic review of the compromised mailbox; the crime policy's endorsements answer where the cyber sublimit is exhausted, and Tech E&O stands behind any customer claim that the platform's verification process fell short.

Illustrative example: The smart-lock outage

A firmware update pushed to a building's smart locks bricks the devices overnight. Residents are locked out; one forces entry and is injured, and the property owner demands the company cover the damage and the emergency locksmith costs. General liability responds to the bodily-injury and property-damage claims arising from the device failure — exposure that technology E&O would not reach — while Tech E&O addresses the owner's claim for the service disruption itself, which is exactly why the two coverages are structured to overlap for hardware-integrated proptech.

Illustrative example: The valuation miss

An automated valuation model systematically underprices a portfolio of properties, and a lender that extended credit on those figures alleges it suffered losses when the true values came in lower. Technology E&O assigns defense counsel and funds the response to the lender's financial-loss claim; how the form treats algorithmic error determines the outcome, which is why model use is disclosed and reviewed at placement rather than after a demand arrives.

How much does insurance cost for a proptech company?

There is no flat rate. As of 2026, pricing turns on what the product does — whether it handles funds, holds resident data at scale, or ships physical access hardware — along with revenue, funding stage, security controls, and the limits customers require. Many proptech companies structure Tech E&O and cyber at $1 million to $5 million driven by their property-management and lender agreements; the right way to size premium is to benchmark the specific company across several carriers rather than rely on a single quoted number.

Do we need general liability if we are a software company?

If the product is purely software, general liability is mostly the layer landlords and enterprise procurement require. But if the company ships or installs smart locks, access panels, or building sensors, a device failure that injures a resident or damages property is a general-liability and product exposure that technology E&O will not answer — and property owners will require it with additional-insured status before installation.

What insurance do property-management customers require?

The recurring core is Technology E&O and cyber at stated limits, often $1 million to $5 million, plus additional-insured status and certificates of insurance before the tool is connected to resident or transaction systems. Where hardware is installed, add general liability naming the owner; where the platform touches funds, expect crime or fidelity expectations. The customer's insurance exhibit is the checklist — bring it to your advisor before signing.

Does cyber insurance cover a wire redirected during a closing?

Often partially — through social-engineering or funds-transfer-fraud coverage — but those are frequently sublimited well below the full cyber limit. A crime policy with the right endorsements fills the remainder. Because real estate is a repeat target for wire-redirection fraud, closing that gap before an incident is exactly what a coverage review is for.

We only provide data and analytics — are we still exposed to screening claims?

Yes. If your data or scoring feeds a tenant-screening or leasing decision, you can be drawn into disputes over accuracy and fair treatment even without making the final call. Consumer-reporting and fair-treatment obligations apply to the screening ecosystem, and your Tech E&O program should be reviewed for how it treats those claims — described accurately in the application, since misstating the product surfaces in coverage disputes.

Will our smart-lock or building-IoT product change underwriting?

Yes. Physical access and safety turn a software risk into a bodily-injury and property-damage risk, so underwriters will ask about device security, update practices, and failure modes, and the program will need general liability and product coverage alongside technology E&O. Disclosing the hardware footprint accurately is what lets an advisor structure the two coverages to overlap rather than leave a gap.

Can OnePark Risk review a customer's insurance exhibit before we sign?

Yes — that review is one of the highest-leverage things an advisor does. We compare the customer's requirements against your current policies and flag every mismatch in limits, coverage triggers, and additional-insured language before it becomes a procurement finding or an uncovered claim.

Frequently asked questions