DIFI Report by ZEW and JLL – Commercial Property Financing Conditions Worsen for the First Time in Many Years

The German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI) by ZEW and JLL has decreased by 16.4 points in the first quarter of 2017 to a current reading of minus 12 points. Following its fourth decrease in a row, the sentiment indicator for commercial property financing found itself in negative figures for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2012. A decrease was observed not only in the assessment of the situation over the past six months, but also in expectations for the coming six months, with the corresponding balances of positive and negative assessments sinking by 17.7 points to minus 1.3 points and by 14.9 points to minus 22.6 points respectively.

What is important to bear in mind here is that for both questions almost three quarters of the surveyed experts reported no change in the financing situation, nor did they anticipate any changes to financing conditions over the course of the next six months. These are the key findings of the DIFI Report, a quarterly survey on the commercial real estate financing market in Germany carried out by ZEW in cooperation with JLL.