Macquarie moves into German lending with RBS portfolio

Australia’s Macquarie Real Estate Lending made its first foray into German residential lending by buying up a portfolio of 700 German residential mortgages from Royal Bank of Scotland with a face value of €90m. The portfolio had been put up for competitive auction by RBS’s non core division, against a background of RBS’s almost complete withdrawal from the German market, and was bought by Macquarie’s corporate and asset finance division.

Macquarie’s divisional managing director Peter Vega said the German residential sector was compelling, given the strong borrower covenants, stable regulatory environment and steady prices. “This was a great opportunity for Macquarie to continue to expand its property lending book by acquiring good quality assets.”

The deal marks Macquarie’s tenth in Europe, but first in Germany, since it started lending in 2010, and Vega suggested that it was looking to add to this deal. Across Europe, Macquarie indicated it was also targeting new direct lending across a variety of asset classes for between €25m and €100m a deal, with German real estate among its preferred sectors. Worldwide the real estate lending group has raised over €37bn in equity commitments since its founding in 2003.