I think they're in real financial trouble and simply have no option but to sell assets to stay affloat. It's not part of a long term strategy, it's panic selling. What are they going to do when they run out of assets to sell?
Plus selling assets may produce a downward spiral, as morale goes down, contributions go down, and more assets need to be sold.
It's no wonder really when you think about it. JWs are a worldwide publishing company with dozens of expensive branches and tens of thousands of workers, but since the 1990s no reliable steady source of revenue. Voluntary donations clearly never made up for the charges for literature. Now they don't know what to do, except to sell the assets they accumulated during the good times.
Mexico was once a major area of growth for JWs at 5% plus increase per year. Now it's close to zero.