A recent white paper on risk management and insurance innovation in China's property management sector reveals the scale and key challenges of the industry. The report, jointly released by industry research body and insurtech firm, shows that by the end of 2025, the total managed area of the national property services industry reached approximately 32.74 billion square meters, generating total operating revenue of about 1.83 trillion yuan. Concurrently, with the urbanization rate climbing to 67.89%, around 954 million permanent residents are concentrated in urban communities, which are becoming high-incidence zones for various risk events.
The insurtech platform, specializing in home insurance, conducted a multi-dimensional quantitative analysis of risk distribution, liability determination, insurance allocation, and coverage gaps in property management. This analysis was based on actual claims records from over 15,000 communities across 86 cities. The white paper indicates that residential communities face several major categories of risks. The highest probability is associated with piping-related issues, accounting for 41.40% of incidents. This means that out of every 10 property risk events, more than 4 are related to pipelines.
Within pipeline risks, the most common problem scenario is sewer blockage and backflow, followed by water leakage. This implies that whether it's aging pipe networks in old residential areas, construction quality issues in newly delivered communities, or blockages caused by improper use by homeowners, the risks ultimately converge on the single point of "water."
Other high-frequency risks in community life include falling objects from heights, uneven road surfaces, ditches, manhole covers, and malfunctions of gates, barrier poles, and rolling doors. While the probability of electrical circuit and fire risks is not high, once they occur, the resulting losses can exceed the sum of all other risks.
Elevator risks share a similar characteristic. An elevator that is improperly maintained or operated with faults may show no signs in daily use, but once an incident like a top collision or a fall occurs, the consequences are often catastrophic, involving multiple casualties.
The white paper suggests this data reveals a long-underestimated governance dilemma in property management: the starting point of a large number of risk events lies within homeowners' private spaces, but the consequences of accidents often spill over to neighbors, public corridors, and even the entire property management area. Although incidents occur in exclusive areas, the tasks of dispute management, evidence collection, liability coordination, homeowner communication, and complaint handling ultimately fall mostly to on-site property services.
The report argues that insurance arrangements for the property industry should not be designed solely around the liability of property companies themselves. It is essential to incorporate the risk spillover from homeowners' exclusive areas into the overall community governance framework. Inclusive home insurance, neighbor liability insurance, third-party liability insurance, and home maintenance services should, together with public liability insurance, elevator liability insurance, parking lot liability insurance, etc., form a risk protection network covering all community scenarios.
The white paper also proposes three sets of quantitative indices to assess the insurance protection capacity of the property industry: the Insurance Coverage Rate Index, the Sum Insured Adequacy Index, and the Effective Insurance Protection Index. These respectively measure whether risks enter the insurance system, whether the sum insured for already covered parts is sufficient, and the comprehensive real protection capability.
The results show that the current Insurance Coverage Rate Index for the property industry is 27.3, indicating a relatively low proportion of risks entering the insurance system. The Sum Insured Adequacy Index is 77.0, suggesting there is still room for strengthening the coverage of insured parts. The Effective Insurance Protection Index stands at 18.1, which is the core indicator most in need of improvement for the industry as a whole.