Whilst many borrowers were able to scrape over the line with the March rents to pay their quarterly interest to the lenders, the same may not be true for the June quarter. Lenders will need to work with the borrowers to find a way through this. Many lenders have been helpful to date with covenant resets and short term waivers but can this continue? Lenders will be asked to roll up interest payments and allow borrowers breathing space with the income drastically eroded particularly in the retail sector. Watch and wait.
“The expectation is that tenants will find it much harder to pay rent in June, and that landlords will have less in reserve, so we are more likely to see actual interest payments needing to be restructured, or defaulting.”