Don't know if it's true, but I've been told that loan renewals for commercial properties use the most recently rented unit as an anchoring point, so if you lower rents too much, you end up under-water in your loan.
Lenders are smarter than that. CMBS (commercial mortgage backed securities) lenders require borrowers to maintain a certain debt service coverage ratio.
If the landlord happens to own the comps (he owns the building after all) He will run into trouble in multiple ways if hes lowering rent, for example with resets (every 10yrs or so), rolling the debt, refi, , lowering the floor for units in negotiation or renewal etc
Still it doesnt mitigate the fact that there is a real estate loan that must be paid.
