This week, the VDP banking association said that in the last three months of 2023, German commercial property prices fell 12.1 percent compared with a year earlier, their highest-ever decline.

Germany’s struggling property industry is suffering from its worst crisis in decades.

VDP’s data showed that after small drops of less than one percent in 2022 and 2021, the drop in commercial real estate prices in Germany accelerated to 10.2 percent for the full year.

Jens Tolckmitt, chief executive of VDP, said, “A trend reversal is not yet in sight for property prices, despite frequent public speculation. The situation will remain difficult for the time being in 2024.”

Being the hardest hit in Europe, Germany’s commercial property industry has called for emergency aid.