The coming commercial real estate crash

I'm not sure how residential real estate market turns out, but the commercial real estate market is doomed. It was in trouble before Covid, but since then it's become a crisis.

Office building prices are plunging over the next two years, and they likely aren't recovering for decades, according to Capital Economics deputy chief property economist Kiran Raichura.

"The reduction in office demand due to remote work will cause a hit to NOIs on a par with, or worse than, that experienced by malls over the last 6 years," he said in a note last week, referring to the net operating incomes of office building owners.

That could involve the value of office buildings crashing 35% by the end of 2025, Raichura predicted, pointing to a survey from Knight Frank and Cresa that found that 56% of firms globally allow hybrid work and 12% intend on allowing workers to work "fully flexibly" from home or at the office.

Meanwhile, data on office keycard swipes indicate that physical occupancy is just 35%.

The U.S. commercial real estate market is over $20 Trillion in size. More importantly, it's not regional.

The results are evident in mounting strain around the country — from New York developers handing back obsolete office buildings to lenders, to foreclosures on heavily indebted apartment complexes in Houston and defaults on hotels and shopping malls in San Francisco. Banks, under scrutiny from regulators and investors, are now beginning to offload even performing property loans at a loss.

The housing market that we all know is unlikely to collapse like it did in 2008, although some amount of price correction is inevitable.
That doesn't mean that the global economy is in good shape.
China's real estate market is in real trouble.

“We see persistent weaknesses in the property sector, mainly related to lower-tier cities and private developer financing, and believe there appears no quick fix for them,” Goldman Sachs economists led by China economist Lisheng Wang said in a weekend note.

Goldman’s economists said the property market is expected to see an “L-shaped recovery” — defined as steep declines followed by a slow recovery rate.
..
According to Reuters, the government invested some $144 billion for the first seven months of 2018 to compensate residents of homes that were demolished in a bid to boost home sales and prices in smaller cities struggling with unsold homes.

China has been over-investing in real estate for decades.
An even more serious issue is a developing world economic crisis.

The interview revealed that three of the world’s largest economies – the EU, the U.S. and China – are all slowing simultaneously. Georgieva pointed out that as bad as that looks for the three governances, it’s even worse for emerging and developing economies across the globe. She says that one-third of the world economy will be in recession in 2023.

The world borrows in dollars. This is terrible for impoverished nations during a period of rising interest rates.

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Cassiodorus's picture

-- and then I remind myself that what I really miss is the California of the past, when rents and property values weren't so ridiculously high. The California of today is ridiculously gentrified, full of homeless people (which it hates), and just thoroughly narcissistic and not fun.

So would a property value crash be a way of bringing back the California of the past?

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"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Cassiodorus Also, does this foretell an opportunity to invest in real estate, like the forest-fire that levels the overgrown forest and makes opportunity for the bluebells...?

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Pricknick's picture

Frisco has a huge target on it. I don't see it working out well for commercial projects. Lose the workers who fill the buildings, lose everything that supports the buildings.
You're living in the crosshairs and even Oakland looks more promising.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Pricknick's picture

@Pricknick
Had a Ball in Oakland last year.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

when employers figure out that they can reduce payrolls by 70%. Right now it doesn't quite work and would cost too much to try - both of which are just a matter of time.

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On to Biden since 1973

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@doh1304 What/how/why exactly are you foreseeing here?

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat
and most of those costs are recurring. An automaton costs a given amount one time, followed by maintenance costs that are relatively minor. As of mow those systems are inadequate (ever have to deal with automated tech support?) and robots and computers are seen as very expensive. But soon robots and computers will cost less than people. (they probably already are) and people will be replaced.
This is already happening. Self checkout at the grocery store, robot warehouses for Amazon, self driving taxis, etc. etc. Thirty years ago companies needed 24 maintenance programmers, twenty years ago they needed a mass marketed program and one programmer to adjust it. Now when they need adjustments they hire a contractor, or more likely they will have already adjusted their practices to fit the program. I knew a fluid engineer who had the same downward trajectory. No one is safe. It's just a matter of time.

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On to Biden since 1973

@doh1304

mainly because there will be so few of us left

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