It wasn’t a question of if, but when. As the world went into lockdown in spring 2020 and the economies of the U.S. and UK fell off a cliff, real estate investors dusted off their playbooks and waited for the flood of distressed opportunities to come. They’re still waiting. In spite of the severe recessions of 2020 and the continued emergence of new variants of Covid-19, there has been very little in the way of debt distress in commercial real estate. In Q2 this year, just 1.3% of U.S. real estate sales came from distressed situations compared to a high of 9.8% in Q1 2009 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, according to Real Capital Analytics data. And experts predict that unless there is another severe and prolonged recession, that number is unlikely to tick up. 
The reasons why highlight the extent to which the fortunes of commercial real estate have become intertwined with decisions taken in the headquarters of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. But the lack of distress also shows how…  Read the full story here. | 
