I am an optimist.  As someone involved in the real estate sector I act for clients who by their nature are optimistic - why develop or buy a building if one queries that the building in question will not make you money.

In 2008 the fear was the collapse of the banking and financial system.  The fear now is the impact COVID will have on GDP and how the virus and associated lockdown affects everyone - short term the impact will be worse than it was in 2008 - its scary out there at the moment.

Notwithstanding that, my view is that a vaccine will be developed (even if this is 12/18 months away) and we will be back to normalcy or a new form of normalcy and capital (of which there is a wall of out there) will return to the real estate market in a significant way.  How we cope in the interim will be a challenge - businesses will need to be relevant and resilient.   However what 2008 taught us is that real estate will be back and the optimists in the 2008 gloom proved correct.