Allianz Real Estate will look to take its lending activity into Italy next year.
The company’s country head, Mauro Montagner, told a press briefing at Expo Real in Munich that providing debt in Italy was a possibility in 2016.
At present, Italian regulation prohibits foreign institutional lenders from providing finance without partnering with a local bank.
That raises the prospect of Allianz’s collaborating with traditional lenders, something it has done in other European jurisdictions.
Regulatory reform, however, has made the country’s debt market slightly more accessible for insurance firms and non-bank lenders.
Speaking in March this year, Roland Fuchs, head of European real estate finance, said Italian Allianz entities could back real estate debt strategies domestically and abroad.
The lender has so far written loans in 10 European countries.
Year-to-date, Allianz has written €1.9bn in loans, typically at a 55% loan-to-value ratio and for a minimum five-year term.
The amount is some €500m more than it has so far invested in real estate assets this year.
Chief investment officer Olivier Téran said the company was unlikely to invest in London’s real estate market, given the UK capital’s significant yield compression.
The Allianz group is looking to increase its allocation to real estate debt and equity investment to as much as €60bn.
At present, it has €37.4bn of debt and equity assets under management, roughly 4% of the group’s total AUM.
Allianz recently bought a portfolio of Irish loans backed by retail property assets in a joint venture with UK REIT Hammerson.
Allianz said it was investing €900m in the portfolio, sold by Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency.
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