Given that owners that don't need to sell would typically not bring assets to market under current conditions, unless they felt they had no choice, Real Capital Analysts believes the growing imbalance may reflect an increase in the number of potentially distressed properties. The industrial sector currently accounts for the lowest volume of distressed properties among all major property sectors, with only $2.4 billion of assets in distress compared to $30.6 billion for retail, $17.9 billion for office, $18.7 billion for multifamily, $13.1 billion for development site and $11.3 billion for hotel.

But more than half the industrial amount, or $1.3 billion, has been added since January, suggesting the financial problems that beset the other sectors have begun to catch up with industrial as well. The report says the mountain of unsold property is almost certain to boost distress levels dramatically. The manufacturing sector is facing the lowest amount of trouble so far, while flex assets are seeing slightly higher incidents of default compared to warehouse properties. Real Capital says the chances of improved sales appear to be hampered by sellers' reluctance to lower prices.

Significantly, though investors accounted for two-thirds of April acquisitions, half the deals involved long-term single-tenant purchases, where buyers forfeit prospects of high yields in favor of low risk. User-occupiers accounted for the remaining third. The latter percentage is higher than usual, but the volume of user-occupier sales is not, making it unclear whether this group will be able to make up for some of the loss of investor interest. Falling prices typically bring more user-occupiers into the market, but with their businesses hit by the same forces slamming the rest of the economy, fewer of them will be in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.