BofA turns bearish on West Coast office REITs, downgrades on weak demand

Hudson Pacific Properties

13/11/2023 19:40

** Bank of America Global Research downgrades office real
estate investment trusts (REITs) on weak leasing volumes and
challenging office space market conditions
    ** BofA projects occupancy declines by 220 basis points for
REITs in the U.S. West Coast; says increased AI office
requirements not enough to offset slow supply headwinds
    ** Hudson Pacific Properties  HPP.N  and Paramount Group
 PGRE.N  fall over 3% after BofA downgrades both stocks to
"underperform" from "neutral"
    ** Highwoods Properties  HIW.N  falls 1.8% on downgrade to
"neutral" from "buy"
    ** Funds from operations compressed since the beginning of
FY23, remained negative in Q3 on account of interest rate
headwinds - BofA
    ** HPP down 47.4%, HIW down 36.58%, vs a 29% decline in S&P
600-Office REITs sub index  .SPSMORI  YTD

 (Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru)
 ((Purvi.Agarwal@thomsonreuters.com))