In recession, director has rooms built on side of mansion (9)
I believe the answer is:
downswing
'in recession' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'director has rooms built on side of mansion' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'director' could be 'd' (abbreviation eg in film reviews) and 'd' is found in the answer.
'has' could be 'owns' ('own' can be a synonym of 'have') and 'owns' is found within the answer.
'side' could be 'wing' (as in left and right wings) and 'wing' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for downswing that I've seen before include "Part of drive" , "worsening of economy" , "decline" , "trend towards recession?" .)