Office attendance has stabilized at 30% below pre-Covid norms and only 37% of workers are going into the office every day, McKinsey Global Institute said in a report Thursday. The research adds to a string of recent signs that lasting changes to working habits because of the pandemic are hurting the value of commercial real estate — a market also under strain from rising interest rates.
“Similarly, the impact could be stronger if troubled financial institutions decide to more quickly reduce the price of property they finance or own.” There are fears that a downturn in commercial real estate could cause losses at banks, which finance many of the industry’s deals. In the United States, where lending comes mostly from small and mid-sized banks, credit conditions have already tightened.