article the australian today, page-32

Banks current security exposure is wholly related to current valuations on the real estate. *If* the banks think that those valuations will need to be continually downgraded in the tightening credit/real estate markets, the banks will have to decide weather to cut their losses now or face larger losses in the future.

It's the small traders in these large shopping centres that pay the high square meterage prices - if they slowly go to the wall, as recession takes hold, the value of the project plummets.