Insurance News Archive

Property owners set to bid for distressed loans

Increased numbers of property owners will be bidding for distressed property loans in 2012 and this could have a big impact on the sector according to Roger Southam, chairman of Chainbow.

Mr Southam suggests that the amount of distressed property loans purported to be available could have a big knock-on effect with the property industry, because this leads to other deals.

He added that the challenge for the market will be when it comes down to the crunch matter of who will buy up such a large amount of loans, claiming someone would have to "bite the bullet".

Mr Southam said: "In terms of the banks, [they] are shoring up their balance sheets and are needing to sort things out. There are an awful lot of loans that will be falling in place over 2012."

Lloyds Banking Group recently entered exclusive talks with Lone Star, the US private equity group, over the sale of £900 million of distressed property loans.

Posted by Michael Brown

22 Dec 2011