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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

How though? How would real estate interests influence tech companies' decisions?

Depends on how you define real estate interest. If you include the government, the corps might be facing tax ramifications. Many places got property tax deals since they brought people downtown. Those deals might evaporate if the seats aren’t being filled. The corps might face loan modifications if the value of the property drops a certain percentage.

Maybe the people in the board also have a stake on real estate?

Rich people have RE holdings, it's part of a diversified portfolio.

Why would it have to be just the board? Why not the many, many well-heeled execs at the companies themselves?

Wouldn't that require a concerted effort since rich people probably don't have a stake in the buildings they're forcing their employees to return to.

It would, that is why they make frequent appearances on CNBC to talk about RTO. And that's just the side of it we can see.

It doesn’t need to be a direct incentive. They just need to be aligned with the ideology in general.

You don't think rich people do things for their rich buddies?

They totally do. We all do things for people in our peer group. I just can't imagine someone being involved in the decision making for WFH/RTO thinking how good that would be for their buddies that are invested in commercial RE unless there's a direct link between their company and the RE they're returning to. Unlikely that someone makes decisions at Dell thinking it might influence the decisions of other companies doing the same which in turn might benefit one of their buddies.

If there was an investment company holding both big chunks of commercial RE and the companies that occupy said RE I'd think this was more likely.

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