Half of all REITs gone seems like an unlikely dooms day scenario...

Half of all REITs gone seems like an unlikely dooms day scenario to me. Were any of the speakers property analysts? It's not as if these things have photocopiers and office desks as assets. It's bricks and mortar. There is somewhat of a gravity defying force on a total downside.

I suppose they are assuming that banks are going to take a very tough stance. But they can't do that for half the listed market. They'd get themselves in an awful mess and destabilise the market further.

Not sure many are ready to pounce on bargains either. Most of the cash that they hold they are likely to need to deleverage once those writedowns they quite rightly mentioned, come to fruition.

I think they are right though to be very cautious on the sector this year. Who knows, but my very foggy crystal ball tells me that most if not all, will be lower mid year than they are today. Sweeping generalist statement I appreciate, but most are only in phases 1 to 3 of a 10 phase complex debt untanglement. This combined with consistently sliding values isn't a happy place to be.