[BLKNSLVR]

One element of this that I find interesting is that from the outside it can look somewhat like a decentralised monopoly given that it affects all (or most?) commercial rental properties; it looks like collusion to keep rents high. Where it's actually systemic to how commercial buildings are created in the first place: they do not account for a downturn, or at least a downturn on the scale that Covid wrought.

Store-fronts were already in decline due to 'internet shopping', but Covid probably brought a lot of physical close-down plans forward, such that any likelihood of recovery should be measured in decades or, more realistically, start being written off progressively to minimise a big hit down the track.

The longer extend and pretend lasts, the bigger the hit will be when it that strategy breaks.