RCA Insights: The Show Must Go On: CRE in a Coronavirus Slowdown

For commercial real estate, the price declines needed to inspire buyers to come back to the market need not be as extreme as the 22% drop in the RCA CPPI seen from ’07 to ’10 during the Global Financial Crisis. Consider the office market in Manhattan in 2017. The top of the bidder pool disappeared as Chinese investors stepped away from the market and office sales plummeted as buyers and sellers wondered where the bottom would be found. A 20 bps change in cap rates, though, was enough to inspire buyers to come off the sidelines.