Media reports this week suggested the New-York listed flexible workspace provider - once privately valued at $47 billion - was weighing a petition for bankruptcy next week.
Some leveraged property investors could struggle to earn enough rental income to service rising debt costs, they said. The number and volume of real estate loans due for refinancing in 2024 is unclear because many deals are struck privately between borrower and lender, Ed Daubeney, co-head, debt and structured finance, EMEA, at real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, told Reuters.
Real-estate loan refinancings have already been complicated by a plunge in transactions, which are crucial in tracking changes in asset values. Global lenders to UK real estate holding and development companies, which supplied credit risk assessments to data provider Credit Benchmark in October, said those firms were now 9% more likely to default than they estimated 12 months ago.
But flexible workspace demand in Britain is still 11% below pre-pandemic levels, the Instant Group's 2023 State of the UK Flex Market report in September showed.