Private equity firms are already positioning to take advantage. About 64% of the $400 billion of dry powder that the industry has set aside for property investment is targeted at North America, the highest share in two decades, according to data compiled by Preqin.

The fear elsewhere is that a strong US bias will mean other parts of the world won't draw the same demand, delaying the work out of troubled loans and properties there.

PE firms want to take advantage of deep American discounts after office values fell by almost a quarter last year, more than in Europe, following the pandemic work from home shift. Almost $1 trillion of debt linked to commercial real estate will mature this year in the US, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and rising defaults as borrowers fail to repay will create more options for buyers of distressed assets.

"Compared with the Savings & Loans crisis and 2008, we're still in the first or second innings" when it comes to troubled assets, said Rebel Cole, a finance professor at Florida Atlantic University who also advises Oaktree Capital Management. "There's a tsunami coming and the waters are pulling out from the beach."