The World’s Empty Office Buildings Have Become a Debt Time Bomb
June 23, 2023 | Natalie Wong, John Gittelsohn, Jack Sidders and Shawna Kwan | Bloomberg
In New York and London, owners of gleaming office towers are walking away from their debt rather than pouring good money after bad. The landlords of downtown San Francisco’s largest mall have abandoned it. A new Hong Kong skyscraper is only a quarter leased.
The creeping rot inside commercial real estate is like a dark seam running through the global economy. Even as stock markets rally and investors are hopeful that the fastest interest-rate increases in a generation will ebb, the trouble in property is set to play out for years…
