(Bloomberg) --Global commercial real estate prices slipped late last year, the first quarterly decline since 2009.
An index of office, industrial and retail properties fell 0.5% in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, breaking a 13-year streak of gains, MSCI Real Assets said in a report Thursday that analyzed 18 metro areas in North America, Asia, Australia and Europe. The last period of negative quarterly change was in late 2009, toward the end of the Global Financial Crisis, according to the report.
For all of 2022, the biggest losers were San Jose, California, where prices fell 7.5%, and Manhattan, with a 7.2% drop. The San Jose area, home to Silicon Valley giants such as Apple Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc., has had one of the lowest office-utilization rates since the pandemic, data from Kastle Systems show. In Manhattan, the office-vacancy rate climbed as tenants reassessed their footprints.
Transactions worldwide tumbled amid a standoff between sellers, who were reluctant to mark down prices, and buyers who offered less for properties in light of higher borrowing costs. Investment volume globally fell 22% last year, led by a 62% decrease in central Boston, according to MSCI Real Assets.
To contact the author of this story: John Gittelsohn in Los Angeles at [email protected]
© 2023 Bloomberg L.P.
