ZEW DIFI Report Published – German Real Estate Index Turns Positive Territory
ResearchIn the second quarter of 2013, the German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI) brightened up slightly. Compared to the previous quarter it improved by 2.5 points, reaching a value of 0.9 points. For the first time since the survey’s introduction in 2011 the DIFI reached positive territory. These are the findings of the quarterly ZEW survey among real estate market experts concerning the real estate financing market in Germany. 30 experts participated in the August survey.
The favourable development of the index is largely due to the segments of office and logistics real estate. The respective partial indicators increased by 10.4 points (office real estate) and 4.6 points (logistics real estate). However, expectations for residential real estate remained on the zero-points mark and forecasts for retail real estate even dropped by 4.7 points in the current survey.
The German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI)
The German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI) represents the expectations of the participants in the survey concerning the real estate financing market on a six-month horizon. It is conducted on a quarterly basis and calculated as the average value of the balances between the following four segments: office, retail, logistics and residential real estate. The balances of the segments reflect the difference between the percentage of participants who are optimistic and the percentage of participants who are pessimistic about the development of the financing conditions on the German real estate financing market. The share of those who expect unchanged financing conditions is not taken into consideration for the calculation of the balance.
