Sweden’s Corporate Vulnerabilities: A Focus on Commercial Real Estate

Commercial Real Estate (CRE) debt constitute a large portion of corporate debt. Due to the funding structure this creates substantial risks for the financial system and the real economy, in general, due to broader spillover effects. Stress tests, conducted to assess the resilience of CRE sector, show that the median interest rate coverage would drop below one in a severe scenario, resulting in a 3⁄4 of firms with debt-at-risk. CRE sector’s concentration, interconnectedness and insufficient disclosure of liabilities calls for close monitoring of liabilities structure and adjusting banks’ capital levels to better reflect current risks.