Regional mall vacancy rates in the U.S. hit an all-time high of 11.4 percent for the first quarter of this year, according to the commercial real estate arm of Moody’s Analytics.
“Malls are absolutely still on the ropes,” said Victor Calanog, lead of the commercial real estate economics division within Moody’s. “They were on the ropes even before Covid. … It’s almost passe now to say that we have a record vacancy rate for malls because we’ve been breaking that record all year.”
The increase of 90 basis-points over fourth quarter 2020 vacancies of 10.5 percent marks the largest spike the firm has seen – besting the 80 basis-point jump in first quarter 2009 during the Great Recession, reports CNBC.