By all comparisons, the German commercial real estate sector is large. Despite this, however, the indirect (listed) real estate market is less mature than that in, for instance, the USA, Australia and the UK. The indirect market is not very liquid, as relatively few large investors dominate this market segment, and it has not witnessed so far a wide-scale conversion of direct real estate into indirect, securitized instruments as has been the case in some other countries. This paper explores how the German direct real estate market relates to the listed real estate market from a number of different perspectives. It examines the securitization process in the German real estate market in comparison to that in some other countries. It explores the types of performance indicator(s) that are used in the direct real estate market and how these measures compare to the performance indicator(s) used in the indirect real estate market. It also analyzes the financial performance of the two market segments over the past decade. This should provide some insights into the possible drivers of and constraints to securitization activities in future.