March 21, 2008—Investment in commercial real estate could fall dramatically this year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
NAR said the value of US commercial real estate deals could decline by more than a third due to the global credit crunch.
“Investment is waning,” the National Association of Realtors said in a report that predicts the volume of deals could shrink by as much as 40 percent from last year’s record $427.2 billion.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said tighter lending standards are hitting the commercial sector as vacancies and rents are holding steady, which indicates the commercial fundamentals are holding steady.
“Under normal circumstances, near-full occupancy coupled with positive rent growth would be of strong interest to investors, but were not seeing that. The credit crunch has filtered into the commercial real estate market,” Yun said.
For more information, see the Web site of the National Association of Realtors.
