America`s offices are about to see a wave of distress that could result in a billion square feet of fresh housing supply

• Real estate experts told BI that the office sector will experience a wave of distress in coming years.
• Run-down, vacant offices could be sold in fire sales as owners cut their losses.
• That might be good news for housing supply as former offices get converted to apartments, industry vets said.

A seismic event is brewing in a corner of the commercial real estate market , with many office buildings facing distress as they approach a wall of maturing debt and struggle against enduring work-from-home trends.

Those factors — which have left some of the worst office buildings nearly deserted — are about to spark a handful of fire sales, potentially kicking off a wave of office-to-apartment conversions that will add more housing supply to the pipeline, real estate pros said.

Richard Barkham, the chief global economist of commercial real estate investment firm CBRE, says he sees an upheaval of Class B office buildings — a segment of office properties that struggle to attract tenants, mainly due to being older and in need of renovation...