Despite the coronavirus pandemic, there are no signs of an abrupt correction in house prices in Germany, according to the Bundesbank’s assessment. However, this is contingent on the economic recovery not being “seriously” disrupted. According to the latest issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report, the pandemic has so far left little mark on the housing market.

“Economic output in Germany is likely to have risen sharply in the third quarter of 2020,” the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. As measured by quarterly gross domestic product, the German economy may have already recouped slightly more than half of the dramatic losses sustained in the first half of the year. According to the experts, there will probably be only a relatively small rise in economic output in the current quarter.

German banks have seen their interest margin narrow during the negative interest rate period that began in 2014. Yet their profits remained stable up until the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. And there has been no evidence so far to suggest that German banks have been any less willing to grant loans, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. 

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has expressed unease about the EU’s extensive joint borrowing to fund the Recovery and Resilience Facility in response to the coronavirus crisis. “This kind of borrowing should remain a one-off crisis measure,” he said, arguing that permanently raising joint debt does not square with the EU’s institutional framework.