Loan sales in Europe top $55b in H1

European commercial real estate loan and REO sales totaled €40.9 billion ($55.3 billion) in the first half of 2013, according to Cushman & Wakefield, as loan sales transaction volume begins to accelerate in the region.

The European loan sales volume in the first six months of 2014 was 30 percent higher than the total for all of 2013. Part of the increase was owing to the great number of mega-deals, which made up 71 percent of the closed transactions, Cushman & Wakefield reports. Average loan sale transaction size increased from €346 million ($468 million) in 2013 to €621 million ($840 million) in the first half of 2014.

In particular, record loan sales volumes are taking place in Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom. For example, Ireland’s loan sales volume in the first six months of the year is up 116 percent compared with the total for the entirety of 2013. And tran