Many property owners who face refinancing difficulties have hoped that changing economic and market conditions would save them. Either interest rates would get cut enough and fast enough to offer better options or rising property values would effectively return enough leverage to spring past problems.

Landlords should not hang on to the former, if recent markets by Fed Chair Jerome Powell are any indication. "Ultimately, we will be guided by the incoming data. And if the economy slows more than we expect, then we can cut faster. If it slows less than we expect, we can cut slower."

That leaves waiting for valuations to climb sufficiently. Blackstone President Jonathan Gray in an interview with the Financial Times has undercut that argument. He believes the commercial property market has finally hit bottom, which should mean that property values are rising.