The French and Dutch real estate markets were badly affected by increasing nervousness due to the weakening economic climate in the last quarter of 2011, according to the Royal Institution of Charters Surveyors (RICS).

The two countries stand out as weak performers in Europe during the period, while other European countries held up better as the darkening economic outlook hindered commercial real estate markets around the world, RICS said in its latest Global Commercial Property Survey.

Germany, the survey found, continued to demonstrate resilience to the sovereign debt crisis and the accompanying economic slowdown. Respondents indicated positive occupier demand and were still anticipating rising rents and investment activity, albeit at a slightly slower pace than at the end of last year.

The results for the Polish and Russian markets were largely similar. Though rental expectations seemed to be levelling off, respondents in both countries anticipated rising capital values and investment activity.

Elsewhere in Europe, ongoing instability in financial markets led to an increasing number of countries finding themselves struggling.

Amongst these, France recorded particularly disappointing results, RICS said, pointing to rising supply, falling occupier demand and pessimistic indicators for the first quarter of 2012. French respondents to the survey reported a further drop in investment enquiries (from -13 to -24) and capital value expectations (from -12 to -34). The picture in the Netherlands and Italy was broadly similar.

Greece, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Spain - the weakest markets in Europe - continued to perform poorly, though indicators were falling at a more moderate pace than earlier in 2011.