In congressional testimony this week, Real Estate Roundtable CEO Jeffrey DeBoer addressed issues facing commercial real estate. As part, he offered the organization's suggestions on "removing regulatory hurdles" to aid the industry.

"Uncertainties surrounding office and other spaces uses following the pandemic, combined with higher operating costs and interest rates induced by inflation, created a perfect storm of significant challenges that linger for the industry," he said. In some markets, a lack of liquidity is the largest hurdle. In others, demand uncertainty and changing usage patterns are providing the greatest stress.

"The government should continue to take appropriate steps to create incentives to restructure maturing loans and create an environment conducive for businesses and investors to invest and deploy capital. At the same time, it is important that unnecessary barriers to equity investment be lowered and that taxes on risk taking not be increased," he said.