Orlando · Orange County, Florida · Updated September 2026
In Florida, the insurance premium is the number that decides how much equity you can actually pull out. Here is how the premium flows through the coverage test, what each dollar of it costs in loan proceeds, and where the market stands after the reforms.
By Michael McGovern, Founder | 25+ Years in Commercial LendingCommercial Mortgage Connection · Yonkers, NY The short answer
A cash-out refinance apartment Orlando owners plan is sized off net operating income, and in Florida the operating expense that has moved most violently is insurance. The honest part first: nobody can promise you a premium, a rate or an approval, and this page will not try. What it can show you is the mechanism: the premium is an operating expense, and operating expenses are what the loan is sized on, so every insurance dollar flows straight through to your proceeds.
- The premium history: Florida multifamily insurance jumped from roughly $800 per unit in 2022 to about $2,000 per unit by 2024, a 150% rise in two years, per industry reporting.
- The turn: Florida's insurance market has been stabilizing since the reforms: state regulators report insurers returned to aggregate underwriting gains in 2024 after nine straight years of losses, 17 new carriers entered, and the catastrophe fund cut rates 9.51% on average.
- The loan math: at a 1.25x coverage test, 6.5% example rate and 30-year amortization, every $1 of annual premium removes roughly $10.50 of maximum loan; a $120,000 premium jump on a 100-unit building is about $1,265,000 of lost proceeds.
- Related read: the full menu of permanent programs behind a refinance is on our apartment building loans page.
Data points checked 30 September 2026 against Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Fannie Mae Multifamily Guide, Federal Reserve and industry sources. Premiums and lender terms move constantly; every figure here is dated or an example.
What this page covers
- The anatomy of an Orlando apartment cash-out refinance
- What Florida multifamily premiums did, and where they stand now
- What a premium jump actually costs in proceeds
- Why the premium and the appraisal hit you twice
- Lender insurance requirements: the invisible third channel
- What owners can actually control: 4 levers
- What this page will not tell you: three honest limits
- Does this apply in your state?
- Cash-out refinance on an Orlando apartment building: FAQ
The anatomy of an Orlando apartment cash-out refinance
A cash-out refinance replaces your existing loan with a larger one and hands you the difference, and two tests decide how large: loan to value, usually capped around 70 to 75 percent on stabilized apartments, and debt service coverage, usually 1.20x to 1.25x on in-place income. The smaller answer wins. Both tests start from the same number, net operating income, which is rents minus operating expenses, and in Florida the expense line that has moved most in this decade is the insurance premium.
Orlando sits in an unusual position inside that story. It is inland, roughly an hour from either coast, so it avoids the coastal wind-zone pricing that hits Miami and Tampa hardest; but it buys insurance in the same statutory market, from the same shrunken carrier pool, under the same reinsurance costs. The result is that Orlando owners pay less than coastal owners for the same building and still saw premiums multiply. The rest of the file, package, term sheets, third-party reports, follows the standard sequence in our commercial real estate financing process guide.
On a stabilized Orlando apartment building, the cash-out refinance is sized off in-place income, which makes the insurance line as important as the rent roll.
What Florida multifamily premiums did, and where they stand now
The run-up is well documented: Florida multifamily insurance rose from roughly $800 per unit in 2022 to about $2,000 per unit by 2024, a 150% increase in two years, while the number of active carriers in the state fell from 166 in 2015 to 99 by late 2023. On a 100-unit Orlando apartment building, that per-unit move alone is $120,000 a year of new operating expense that produces nothing and can be passed to tenants only as fast as leases roll.
The current chapter is different, and a refinance signed this year should price it in. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's January 2026 stability report shows the market turning: Florida insurers posted aggregate net underwriting gains in 2024 after nine consecutive years of losses, 17 new companies have been approved to write property business since the legislative reforms, over a million policies moved from state-run Citizens back to private carriers across 2024 and 2025, and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund cut its rates by 9.51% on statewide average.
Those are residential-market signals, but the same reforms, court decisions and reinsurance pricing feed commercial renewals, and owners re-marketing their program in 2026 are seeing competition they did not see in 2023. A premium is no longer a number to accept; it is a number to shop, right before you shop the loan.
| Period | Indicative premium per unit | Annual premium, 100 units | Market signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | about $800 | about $80,000 | Carriers exiting; 9 straight years of insurer losses |
| 2024 | about $2,000 | about $200,000 | Peak stress; 99 active carriers, down from 166 in 2015 |
| 2026 | renewal-specific; shop it | renewal-specific | 17 new carriers, underwriting gains in 2024, cat fund rates down 9.51% |
What a premium jump actually costs in proceeds
Here is the mechanism in numbers. Take an example 100-unit Orlando apartment building producing $970,000 of net operating income at the old $80,000 premium, refinancing at an example 6.5% rate, 30-year amortization and a 1.25x coverage test. Watch what the premium jump to $200,000 does to the maximum loan. These are illustrations of the math, not quotes or predictions.
| Scenario | Annual insurance | NOI the lender sizes on | Maximum loan at 1.25x |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-level premium | $80,000 | $970,000 | $10,230,966 |
| 2024-level premium | $200,000 | $850,000 | $8,965,280 |
| Difference | +$120,000 | -$120,000 | -$1,265,687 |
The ratio to remember: at these example terms, every $1 of annual insurance premium removes about $10.50 of loan. It cuts both ways, which is the practical point of the 2026 market turn: a re-marketed program that saves $40,000 a year adds roughly $420,000 of borrowing capacity at the same coverage test. Before any lender call, run your own numbers in the free loan calculator with the insurance line at your actual bound premium, and again at the renewal quote you fear.
Two questions
What is the cash-out for?
Where does your insurance stand?
Why the premium and the appraisal hit you twice
The coverage test is only the first place the premium bites. The second is the appraisal, because an income-approach valuation capitalizes the same net operating income the coverage test uses. At an example 5.5% capitalization rate, the $120,000 premium jump in the table above cuts the appraised value by roughly $2.18 million, which drags the 75% loan-to-value ceiling down by about $1.64 million. Whichever test binds on your file, the premium moved it.
This is why two Orlando owners with identical rent rolls can walk away with proceeds more than a million dollars apart: one renewed into a hard market with a single quote, the other re-marketed the program across carriers before applying. It is also why lender appetite matters.
The Federal Reserve's July 2026 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey shows banks easing standards for multifamily loans on net, a moderate share of large banks reporting stronger demand, while smaller banks reported weaker demand and standards still sit near the tighter end of their range since 2005. Same market, different desks, different answers; the quotes will disagree, and the disagreement is your margin. How the rate side of those quotes is built is covered in our guide to commercial mortgage rates.
The bound premium, the wind deductible and the appraisal all read off the same insurance program, which is why the insurance file is underwritten as hard as the rent roll.
Lender insurance requirements: the invisible third channel
Between your premium and your proceeds sits a channel most owners meet for the first time at closing: the lender's own insurance requirements. Agency lenders publish theirs. Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide, for example, requires named storm coverage of at least 90% of total insurable value and caps the named storm deductible at 7.5% of insurable value, with business income coverage carrying its own limits. A policy that keeps your premium down with a 10% wind deductible or a lower coverage limit can fail those tests, forcing a mid-closing endorsement that hands back part of the premium saving.
The practical consequence: the cheapest compliant program wins, not the cheapest program. In Florida that trade is real money, because wind deductibles and named storm sub-limits are exactly where carriers discount. The right sequence is to hand your insurance broker the lender's requirement sheet before binding, then hand the lender the bound program before sizing, so neither one reprices the other at the closing table.
If a bank has already declined the file over the insurance load, our guide on what to do after a bank denial maps the lenders whose insurance boxes differ, and for owners with several Florida buildings, one blanket program under a portfolio lending facility often prices better than five standalone policies.
What owners can actually control: 4 levers
1. The renewal calendar. Sequence the refinance around the insurance renewal, not the other way. A loan sized a month before renewal inherits the stressed number; a loan sized on a freshly bound, competitively shopped program captures the saving at roughly $10.50 of proceeds per premium dollar.
2. The building's insurability. Roof age, opening protection and water mitigation move Florida premiums more than negotiation does. A documented capital improvement history, with wind mitigation inspection reports, is underwriting collateral for both the carrier and the lender.
3. The escrow and deductible lines. Ask every loan quote what premium sits in its escrow and what deductible its insurance requirements allow, in writing. Two quotes at the same rate can differ by six figures of proceeds purely on those two lines.
4. Matching. Because insurance requirements and premium stresses are lender policy choices, the same Orlando file supports different loan amounts at different desks. Commercial Mortgage Connection works a 750+ lender network with 500K+ programs across all 50 states, with $1B+ originated, every engagement led personally by founder Michael McGovern, and a loan review response within 4 hours.
What this page will not tell you: three honest limits
It will not quote your premium. Florida pricing is building-specific: roof, vintage, construction type, distance to coast and claims history all move it. The per-unit figures above are market history with dates on them, not a promise of what your renewal brings.
It will not time the insurance market for you. The 2024 to 2026 stabilization is real and documented, and one bad hurricane season can still reprice reinsurance for the whole state. A cash-out refinance sized to survive a stressed premium is a plan; one that needs the soft market to hold is a bet.
It is written by a brokerage. Commercial Mortgage Connection is paid when loans close, which is exactly why this page tells you to shop the insurance before the loan, that a pending renewal is a reason to wait, and that if your own bank's quote already carries a fair premium assumption and full proceeds, that quote deserves to win. CMC gives no insurance, tax or legal advice.
Does this apply in your state?
Commercial Mortgage Connection is headquartered in Yonkers, NY and places loans through its 750+ lender network in all 50 states, with Florida among its most active markets. The mechanism on this page, premiums flowing through NOI into both loan tests, applies to every apartment refinance everywhere; Florida is simply where the premium line moved most.
Insurance markets, wind zones, and lender deductible rules vary by state and by county, and within Florida an inland Orlando apartment building prices differently from a coastal one. Confirm the requirements that apply to your property and your loan program before you bind coverage or sign a term sheet.
Cash-out refinance on an Orlando apartment building: FAQ
How do Florida insurance costs affect a cash-out refinance on an Orlando apartment building?
The premium is an operating expense, so it reduces the net operating income that both loan tests are built on. At a typical 1.25x coverage test with an example 6.5% rate and 30-year amortization, every $1 of annual premium removes about $10.50 of maximum loan; a $120,000 premium increase on a 100-unit building costs roughly $1,265,000 of proceeds. The same NOI reduction also lowers the appraised value under the income approach.
How much did apartment insurance go up in Florida?
Industry reporting puts Florida multifamily insurance at roughly $800 per unit in 2022 rising to about $2,000 per unit by 2024, a 150% increase in two years, while active carriers in the state fell from 166 in 2015 to 99 by late 2023. Individual buildings varied widely by roof age, construction and location, and inland Orlando generally priced below the coasts.
Are Florida insurance costs coming down in 2026?
The market has been stabilizing. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's January 2026 report shows insurers returned to aggregate underwriting gains in 2024 after nine years of losses, 17 new carriers entered since the reforms, over a million policies moved from Citizens to private carriers across 2024 and 2025, and the state catastrophe fund cut rates 9.51% on average. Those signals favor owners who re-market their program at renewal, but no individual renewal outcome is guaranteed.
What insurance do lenders require on a Florida apartment loan?
Requirements vary by program, and agency rules are the common benchmark: Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide requires named storm coverage of at least 90% of total insurable value and caps the named storm deductible at 7.5% of insurable value, alongside replacement-cost property coverage and business income insurance. A cheaper policy with a larger wind deductible can fail the lender's test, so the insurance broker should see the lender's requirements before binding.
Should I shop my insurance before refinancing?
In Florida, usually yes. Because each premium dollar moves roughly $10.50 of loan capacity at the example terms on this page, re-marketing the insurance program across carriers just before the refinance is often worth more than negotiating the loan spread. The sequence that works: get the lender's insurance requirements, bind the most competitive compliant program, then size the loan on the bound premium.
Sources
- Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, Florida Multifamily: Impact of Soaring Insurance Costs. Insurance from about $800 to about $2,000 per unit, 2022 to 2024; carrier count from 166 to 99. Checked 30 September 2026.
- Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Property Insurance Stability Report, January 2026. Underwriting gains in 2024 after nine years of losses; 17 new carriers; Citizens depopulation; cat fund rates down 9.51%. Checked 30 September 2026.
- Fannie Mae, Multifamily Selling and Servicing Guide, Property and Liability Insurance. Named storm coverage at least 90% of total insurable value; maximum named storm deductible 7.5%. Checked 30 September 2026.
- Federal Reserve Board, July 2026 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices. Multifamily standards eased on net; large banks reported stronger demand, other banks weaker. Checked 30 September 2026.
- FRED, Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity (DGS10). 24 September 2026 observation, 5.18%. Checked 29 September 2026.
Michael McGovernFounder, Commercial Mortgage Connection. Michael wrote this guide drawing on a career that began at Bear Stearns & Co. in 1997, ran through structuring billions of dollars in CMBS and MBS in Bear's F.A.S.T. group and selling mortgage product at Lehman Brothers, and now spans more than $1 billion in originated mortgages.
Stop pricing the loan first. Price the insurance, then the loan.
A senior banker reviews your Orlando file, bound premium, renewal calendar and rent roll included, against the lenders actually quoting Florida multifamily cash-outs this quarter, with a response within 4 hours. If your bank's offer is already the best answer, we will say so. Call 888-656-9812, live operator 24/7.
Facts on this page were verified against the cited Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Fannie Mae, Federal Reserve, FRED and industry sources on 30 September 2026. Premiums, carrier appetite, lender requirements and rates change, and every figure shown above is a dated observation or an example, never an offer or a forecast. Nothing on this page is a loan offer, a rate quote, an insurance quote, a prediction, or personalized financial, insurance, tax or legal advice; all financing is subject to lender approval, credit review and property underwriting, and no approval is guaranteed.
Terms depend on the asset, the leverage, the sponsor profile and the lender program on the day you apply. Broker licensing and closing rules vary by state. Commercial Mortgage Connection is a commercial mortgage brokerage, is paid when loans close, and sells the service described on this page. Equal Housing Opportunity. Call 888-656-9812 to discuss your scenario.
