Bankruptcy Filings Are Coming, But How Many Will Hit the Real Estate Market?

Globe St.

September 15, 2020

Bankruptcy filings are a certainty at this point.  We are more than six months into the pandemic and businesses are continuing to lose revenue, leading to rent losses for landlords.  However, there is still some debate about the number of bankruptcy filings anticipated to hit the real estate market.  Some predict waves of bankruptcies, while Danning, Gill, Israel & Krasnoff, LLP Partner Uzzi Raanan told Globe St. that it is still too early to know whether COVID-19 will result in a surge or merely an uptick in future bankruptcies.

“It is difficult to predict whether we will see a surge in bankruptcy filings, or merely an uptick,” said Raanan. “We are still in the midst of an unprecedented—at least in recent times—pandemic that shuttered or greatly impacted most businesses, significantly increased unemployment, reduced economic activities in multiple sectors, and disrupted operations of the judicial system.  The reasons we have not experienced a deluge of bankruptcies include a large infusion of funds from the federal government through the CARES Act to businesses and the unemployed, as well as various statutes and emergency orders at the federal and local levels that effectively suspended evictions/foreclosures throughout the country.”

To read Mr. Raanan’s full interview with Globe St., click on this link.