The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that some of the world's most sophisticated private real estate investors, including Canadian pension plans, say scores of properties they own are holding most of their value. The Globe's James Bradshaw and Tim Kiladze write that by contrast, investors are dumping shares of publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), particularly those that own skyscrapers. In Canada, the national vacancy rate of office towers just hit an all-time high, and in New York, there are enough empty offices to fill 26 Empire State Buildings. Who is right? The answer affects trillions of dollars worth of office towers, malls, warehouses and apartment buildings, affecting everyone from banks that lend to the sector -- including U.S. regional lenders whose share prices are already under siege -- to the millions of Canadians whose pensions are managed by major property owners such as the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). Shares of Allied Properties REIT, once viewed as one of the most desirable REITs because it owns offices in downtown cores of Canada's big cities, are down 62 per cent from their prepandemic high.