Finance & economics | The next shoe to drop

Commercial-property losses will add to banks’ woes

Real-estate investors see a hellish-perfect-dumpster-fire-storm

A conference table and empty room in an office building in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. The capital citys main business district remains strangely desolate and depopulated long after pandemic lockdowns ended with federal employees, who account for one-in-three downtown jobs, embracing working from home. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Image: Getty Images

Mar 29th 2023|Washington, DC

Ask an investor to describe the outlook for commercial property and you will get a colourful response. “Office is a dumpster fire,” says Daniel McNamara of Polpo, an investment fund. His view of the wider market, which includes shops and warehouses, is only a little less grim: “It really is the perfect storm.” Tom Capasse of Waterfall Asset Management, an investment firm, has nicknamed places where the tech bubble has burst, including San Francisco and Seattle, “office hell.”

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Run from offices”