The European non-performing loans market is on track for its second-most active year, with €32.5bn of distressed real estate loans closed in the third quarter.
A total €77.1bn of real estate loans and real estate owned portfolios have been sold so far this year – about 2% below this time in 2017, according to the latest Evercore Distressed Real Estate Market report.
Last year was by far the most active year for NPL sales, with €101bn transacted across Europe.
Volumes have been driven by strong activity in southern Europe, combined with the growing size of the average deal. Some 18 “mega-deals” – deals with a face value of more than €1bn – have already completed this year, compared with just eight in the whole of 2017.
Transaction volumes in Spain have been more than double those in Italy, the second-most active market. Spain’s €33.3bn total for the year to date was bolstered by Banco Sabadell completing €13bn of sales in Q3.
Meanwhile, the wave of NPLs keeps moving south in Europe, with Cyprus recording its first large NPL deal – the sale of Project Helix to Apollo for €2.8bn.
The UK has been the fourth-most active market, despite winding down its activity many years after the financial crisis.
There are almost no planned or live transactions outside southern Europe: Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal account for close to 99% of all known upcoming deals.
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