The vacancy rate for regional malls in the U.S. reached record 11.4% in the first quarter, from 10.5% in the fourth quarter, according to Moody’s Analytics’ commercial real estate division.
The vacancy rate for regional malls in the United States hit a record 11.4% in the first quarter of 2021 from 10.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Moody’s Analytics’ commercial real estate division.
The 90 basis-points increase marked the highest the firm has ever seen, surpassing the record 80 basis-point spike in the first quarter of 2009, at the height of the Great Recession.
“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 U.S. has about 1,000 commercial shopping malls, according to the real estate services firm Green Street. Moody’s tracked about 700 of them for its analysis.
