The European debt gap has closed, creating a robust lending market across Europe, according to panellists at PropertyEU's European Debt Financing and Investment Briefing which was held on Tuesday.

The European debt gap has closed, creating a robust lending market across Europe, according to panellists at PropertyEU's European Debt Financing and Investment Briefing which was held on Tuesday.

'There's not much of a debt gap anymore,' says Paul Dittman, head of senior commercial mortgage lending at M&G Investments in the UK. 'Some loans that were sub-performing a few years ago are now performing again. Margins have compressed a lot in the past 15 months but you still typically have 4-5 banks competing per deal.'

And there have been other changes afoot over the past 12 months, according to Norbert Kellner, head of debt capital markets at Helaba in the UK. 'There have been a lot of changes in the UK in the past year, it doesn't stop,' says Kellner. 'A whole range of lenders, including debt funds, are trying to define how to be more flexible in structuring and holding loans.'

Debt funds have also become more flexible in the past year, according to Kellner. However, he notes that not all players are likely to still be in the game two years from now.

Ultimately, Europe would benefit hugely from a more homogenous lending environment, says Anthony Shayle, head of global real estate, UK debt, at UBS Asset Management in the UK. 'We need a much more harmonised approach. Liquidity is not uniformly spread in Europe in terms of country and the size of the transaction.'