Manulife US REIT ("MUST") has seen its unit price diving from US$0.708 to US$0.375 in over a year. This is a whopping <47%> slump in its market price. US office REITS (MUST, Keppel Pacific Oak & Prime REIT) had all previously held up extremely well during the COVID 2020-2021 lock-down crisis but lately, their unit price had all plummeted and is offering an enticing 14% high distribution yield (as per StocksCafe). What is happening to US commercial office sector? While today's higher interest rate environment as well as concerns over implication of new withholding tax rule played a part in contributing to its downfall, there is another critical unresolved issue on hand which I should elaborate further below.

1. Physical occupancy is well below 50% and at some US offices, just 33% had returned to office

While MUST reported that its overall occupancy for the recent period is 88.1% (down from 90% recorded as at end