Opinion
It’s time to be honest about America’s commercial real estate hangover
Commercial real estate has tumbled into a debilitating pattern of “extend and pretend”: lenders have essentially rolled over troubled loans, hoping for a miraculous future Fed rescue.
Gillian TettContributorThat doughty – somewhat dull – Canadian insurance company known as Manulife does not often attract attention. This week, however, it caused a frisson in the real estate world.
Shortly before Jay Powell, Federal Reserve chairman, announced that the central bank was keeping benchmark rates at 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent, Colin Simpson, Manulife’s chief financial officer, revealed that the group had written down the value of its US office investments by 40 per cent from a pre-COVID-19 peak.
Financial Times
Subscribe to gift this article
Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.
Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?
Introducing your Newsfeed
Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.
Find out moreRead More
Latest In North America
Fetching latest articles