The pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders from governments and private employers has upended the commercial real estate market on a number of fronts. And we are now looking square into the Pandemic Recession which has just begun.
For now, it’s merely a matter of unpaid rents and empty spaces, which means short-term losses for building owners. But if working at home has lasting appeal—and the sometimes-resistant culture of American business changes—or if shopping from home stays at its currently heightened level of prevalence, commercial real estate could lose longer-term value.