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

Research

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.

General documents

DIFI Report - First Quarter 2017 (in German)

The German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI)

The German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI) reflects the situation (including the previous six months) and expectations (for the coming six months) of survey participants concerning the commercial property financing market. It is conducted on a quarterly basis and calculated as the average value of the balances in the following four sectors of the property market: office, retail, logistics and residential. The balance for each segment is the difference between the percentage of participants who are optimistic and the percentage of participants who are pessimistic about the current state and future development of financing conditions in the German real estate market. The DIFI is a survey conducted and published by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). 45 experts participated in the January/February 2017 survey.