Because people still need a place to live, demand for rental housing has remained quite strong. Rental vacancy rates are very low. Reflecting this fact, multifamily construction has been quite high this year, at a level not seen since the mid-1980s, when the tax treatment of investment in structures was much more favorable than it is today.
This may increase the sensitivity of capital flows to higher foreign interest rates; d) liabilities in US dollars of the corporate sector in many EMEs have swelled in recent years, thus increasing the possibility of unpleasant surprises in some of them; and e) several oil and commodity-exporting countries and firms have been severely affected by falling asset valuations and rising credit risks.