• SirNuke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    Commercial real estate loans are interest only? I had never heard of that before, but it makes sense with the buried lede:

    borrowers prefer handing the property keys over to creditors over putting good money after bad

    Which is what happens whenever a company has an asset they don’t own and no longer want. Shrug and handover the keys. Seems to me like the lenders are going to be the ones taking the haircut, despite what the article asserts.

    • droans@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They’re called balloon loans. They’re pretty common for mortgages anywhere outside the US. Instead of paying principal plus interest each period, you only pay the interest. At the end of the term, you pay the principal itself.

      They also can’t just hand the keys back unless it’s in the original contract or the bank agrees. If a lot of companies are choosing to ditch their properties, the banks will choose to refuse this option.