Summoning @lordnigel to have a look at your musings here, this is relevant to his last post about passive incomes and the two different rulesets that exist depending on which side of the coin you're on.
There are some smart people snapping up industrial land on the fringes of suburbia (about 15-20km from where my house is) - in anticipation of the urban sprawl that will develop - close(r) to the freeway, and close(ish) to railway corridors.
They're going to make a fucking mint if the sprawl makes the rural change to suburban, - but, they're still going to make a mint, because the rural will need the industrial regardless.
commercial real estate is already in BIG trouble. They will be trying to make those office buildings into more apartments. But, we have passed the peak of population, and are in decline. So, that real estate is on its way down.
I am unsure what will happens with industrial. We need more small industrial And the reshoring to The US will want more huge warehouses. So, it will not be profitable to turn them into housing, but may be profitable to build more small industrial.
Different story in Australia - industrial is likely to be used for local infrastructure and the like - provided the whole stack of cards doesn't come crashing down. While Australia isn't in as much disrepair as the US, there are parts ...
We do not have the benefit of those cheap rural towns. Everything is unsustainably increasing in price when it comes to real estate. Australia's economy is entirely built around it. The biggest "profit" was posted by a bank.
No productivity here other than minerals coming out of the ground and being pushed out to other countries. :)
But - yes, sovereign high tech (and low tech) - manufacturing base are important so you can get basic shit done - like say, make nails and screws, fence posts, or the like.