With the US banking system in a state of unease, there is one certainty the commercial real estate market can count on: lending to the community will tighten even further. 

Commercial property loans are now perceived as a significant source of bank risk, particularly for the smaller banks that made loans to office borrowers—loans that are now imperiled by declining valuations, half-empty buildings and an ongoing remote work trend. It is not hard to imagine banks pulling back even further than they have from commercial real estate, either due to fear of further exposure to the asset class or worries about regulators scrutinizing their balance sheets for risky loans.

"Credit availability to CRE borrowers was already challenged coming into this year," JPMorgan securitization analyst Chong Sin said in a note to investors according to the Financial Times. He warned that if smaller banks were to retreat it could create a "a credit crunch in secondary and tertiary CRE markets".