ZEW-JLL DIFI Report Published: Financing Conditions Improved Again Despite Economic Slowdown

In the fourth quarter of 2014, the German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI) has reached a new all-time high of 28.9 points. The increase of 4.7 points is exclusively attributable to a further improvement of the financing situation’s evaluation: The corresponding sub-indicator has increased by 10.0 points to 50.8 points. A slight decline in financing expectations by 0.6 to 7.0 points accompanies the strong growth. This opposite trend has already been observed over the past two quarters.

In view of the currently tense overall economic situation, the DIFI record level is impressive. Nearly all forecasts for Germany's economic performance were revised downwards this year. In October, the federal government decreased its forecast for real output growth in 2014 by 0.4 percentage points to 1.2 per cent. The DIFI remains resilient due to the continuing, very expansionary monetary policy and the overall positive results of the stress test – particularly among German banks.  The continued favourable refinancing conditions are reflected in the experts' positive assessment.