Selling a CFD short is mechanically identical to buying one: there is nothing to locate or borrow, because no share changes hands. The broker manages any hedge it needs on its own side, which is why shorting a CFD feels easier than shorting stock through a traditional broker.
The costs are still present, just repackaged. Shorts pay the full dividend-adjustment across ex-dates, may receive little or nothing on financing, and can face an additional borrow charge where the underlying is expensive to locate. Brokers also raise margin or close short availability entirely on hard-to-borrow names.
Regulatory short-selling bans, imposed on specific shares or sectors during stress, apply to CFDs as well, since regulators treat them as short exposure regardless of wrapper.
Example: short 1,000 CFDs on a share across an ex-dividend date of $0.45. The position gains about $450 on the price drop and is debited $450, netting roughly zero before an additional borrow fee.
Related: share-cfd, dividend-adjustment, short-selling, cfd-margin-tiering