Real estate cyber attacks up 17%
The UK property services sector has seen a 17% rise in cyber attacks, from 178 to 208 in the year ended December 31, 2025, according to real estate finance and insurance specialist Karis Insurance.
Ravi Sejpal, director of insurance at Karis Insurance, said hackers are targeting property investor clients that property agents and BTL property managers have on their books since many are affluent, high-net-worth individuals.
Property firms are also collecting more personal data than ever before from buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants, including passports and driving licences (for AML/KYC checks), proof of address, bank account details, mortgage information and tenancy records.
This information is valuable to hackers, who target such businesses for ‘ransomware’ attacks, in which they lock the business out of its own data until it pays a ransom, identity theft of those on a property business’s books or selling the data (eg bank details) on the dark web.
Sejpal said information relating to property transactions was also at risk, with cybercriminals looking to substitute their bank details for the seller’s in a property purchase, in instances of payment diversion fraud.
Property businesses behind compared to other sectors
He said many businesses were leaving their data exposed, despite holding so much lucrative customer information. “In many cases, property businesses hold just as much detail about their client base as a bank would,” he said.
“However, there are very few businesses in the property sector who have bank-level data security arrangements. The sort of personal data that property agencies hold about their clients could be hugely valuable if it fell into the wrong hands. These figures show that hackers are increasingly realising that.”
He said that the property sector currently lags behind other firms who hold such data and urged companies to consider specialist insurance for data breaches.
“Every financial services business and law firm involved in property long ago understood the risks posed by hackers, which can be business-critical for those affected. The property industry itself hasn’t quite moved at the same pace in getting on top of the risks, however,” he said.
