(Bloomberg) -- Real estate investors can point the finger at America’s much-maligned malls for the first decline in a measure of commercial-property prices in more than four years.
An index that tracks s for U.S. office buildings, apartments, hotels and shopping malls fell 1 percent in October, marking the biggest monthly drop since the aftermath of the financial crisis, according to Green Street Advisors LLC. A 5.5 percent slump in mall s was enough to drag down the entire group, leading to one of only two broad declines for the index in the past seven years. The other was a 0.6 percent decrease in July 2013.
Retail landlords have been squeezed by the rise of e-commerce, leading to a surge of store closures. Property owners have spent $8 billion in the past three years in an effort to update centers with a focus on entertainment and other types of experiences that can’t be found online, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.
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