It's way more than that.
In commercial real estate, space is considered "occupied" if it has a lease in place and the tenant is paying the rent on a timely basis -- even if the space has been empty since the COVID fiasco began. The space goes from "occupied" to "vacant" when the lease expires and it goes on the market for prospective new tenants.
What we are seeing now is the expiration of leases and decisions by the tenants not to renew them. More and more companies -- including many that have tried to impose strict "return to office" orders in the last couple of years -- are going to see the wisdom of closing down (or dramatically downsizing) their offices entirely.
This is only going to get worse for commercial space in major cities even as everything else pretty much returns to normal.
“space is considered “occupied” if it has a lease in place and the tenant is paying the rent on a timely basis”
I would want to drill a lot deeper into those stats to make sure exactly when delinquent rent changes the occupancy status.
I would also want a full audit of actual lease payment receipts.
Landlords/owners have been know to play a lot of silly games with these numbers.
In this game you trust nobody.