I believe (but would love someone to prove) that it has to do with the way real estate is financed. The value of the property for loan collateral is based on r

I believe (but would love someone to prove) that it has to do with the way real estate is financed. The value of the property for loan collateral is based on rental rates and assessors understand vacancies happen. Therefore it makes more sense to have some vacancy to trade up for a higher rental rate. Given how leveraged commercial real estate companies are it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that they optimize around this rather than true cash flow.