Much work remains to be done in the German market to restructure real estate loans that have turned sour, according to Daniel Mair, partner at the German restructuring practice of EY. Speaking during a panel discussion at PropertyEU’s debt finance investment briefing at UBS's Frankfurt office on Tuesday, Mair said sales of non-performing loans have started up again. ‘For 10 years I have focused on the real estate space and NPLs and I have never seen money this cheap. Our team is working on a number of acquisitions and disposals. It is a pretty good time to be an advisor in this segment.’Mair's comments about the German market contrast with those made recently by Jon Gray, Blackstone’s global head of real estate, who said there was ‘no question’ that Europe is past the distress phase. Speaking at the annual INREV conference in Barcelona at end-April, Gray said it was still a decent time to invest, but things are not nearly as cheap as they were three years ago.Pointing to Germany's bad banks FMS, EEA and some of the landesbanks or regional lenders, Mair said: 'Who am I to disagree with a player like Blackstone? At the same time, I don’t think the distress is gone in Germany. A lot of distressed assets have not been hitting the market yet. So far this year, we have seen the first tranches of large distressed debt coming to the market, so it's a little premature to say that distress is over in Europe.'The German market has dealt with its distressed assets more slowly than the UK, Ireland or Spain in a bid to retain a measure of stability, Mair continued. 'We haven’t worked through it all, there is more to run, very much so. And we’re already building our next wave of distressed debt that will hit the market in five years from now.' One of the cases EY is working on involves the restructuring of former listed German heavyweight IVG. IVG, Germany's largest property company by assets under management, entered self-administration in November 2013 and was subsequently declared insolvent after failing to reach agreement with creditors on the restructuring of its €3 bn debt pile. ‘In terms of individual real estate restructuring, this is the most interesting case I have seen so far,’ Mair said. He declined to provide further details. Earlier this year US investor Ares Management bought a 45,000 m2 office and retail portfolio located across five European countries from IVG Institutional Funds. The deal, valued at more than €100 mln, represents one of the first multi-country portfolio sales since the financial crisis more than six years ago. The eight properties in question are located in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands. Ares partnered on the deal with Forte Capital, a Frankfurt-based real estate firm, which will manage the assets on its behalf.
Much work remains to be done in the German market to restructure real estate loans that have gone sour , according to Daniel Klein , partner at the German restructuring arm of Goldman . Speaking at a debt finance investment briefing in Frankfurt , Mair said sales of non - performing loans have started up again . " For 10 years I have focused on the real estate market and David and I have never seen money this cheap . Our team is working on a number of acquisitions and disposals . "Mair 's comments contrast with those made recently by Jon Gray , Blackstone"s global head of real estate , who said there was " no question " that Europe is past the crisis phase .