Spain is guaranteed to have a record-breaking year in terms of commercial real estate loan sales, according to Cushman & Wakefield's latest update on the European market.
Spain is guaranteed to have a record-breaking year in terms of commercial real estate loan sales, according to Cushman & Wakefield's latest update on the European market.
Transaction volumes in Spain 'ballooned' in the first half of this year, bolstered by the sale of Project Octopus, a portfolio owned by Hypothekenbank Frankfurt, formerly Eurohypo. The €4.4 bn package was sold earlier this year to JP Morgan and Lone Star, who purchased the performing and non-performing loans respectively.
Whilst the UK and Ireland continued to account for the majority - 63% - of the closed volume in H1 2014, 29% of closed sales in Q2 and over a third of the €28 bn of live transactions relate to Spain, C&W said.
'The Spanish market has sparked in to life in H1 2014 and is now at the top of investors' target lists,' according to Reno Cardiff, parner and head of capital markets Spain at C&W. 'With almost €200 bn of non-core real estate exposure on the books of Spanish banks and SAREB, many of the big name investors are well positioned to take advantage of any potential opportunities. Sale volumes in Spain will only go one way!'
The second quarter also marked the first reported commercial real estate (CRE) loan of the year in Italy with HIG Bayside purchasing a €40 mln loan from Cassa di risparmio di Ravenna, although there has been plenty of actiivty with regards to unsecured debt. With Unicredit and Intesa Sanpoalo announcing their clear deleveraging ambitions, it is only a matter of time before there is a wealth of opportunities from the pair, the report concluded.
Further afield in Europe, opportunities are also starting to appear in Greece and Central and Eastern Europe. However, there is an expectation that these markets will be more suited to local investors, with the majority of the large US firms preferring markets with more liquidity and a stable economic and legal environment.