Banks aim to auction another 100,000 properties by 2021
Banks intend to put properties worth a total of 2 billion euros under the hammer next year, while the total value of properties to be auctioned in the period from 2019 to 2021 stands at 8 billion euros.
Asset liquidations represent a key instrument in the reduction of nonperforming loan stocks and according to bank figures the number of real estate assets set for auction will soar in the coming years, reaching up to 40,000 in 2021.
The same data reveal that 2018 will close with 20,000 auctions, rising to 25,000 next year and 35,000 in 2020. The value of the properties to go under the hammer will also soar, from 1.6 billion euros this year to 2 billion euros in 2019, 2.8 billion in 2020 and 3.2 billion euros in 2021.
Banks have already scheduled 4,000 auctions through the e-auction online platform (www.eauction.gr) up to July 2019. The list contains a multitude of small- and medium-value flats – worth up to 100,000 euros each – whose owners, according to banks, have failed to respond to their creditors’ attempts to reach a settlement arrangement. The list also includes a wide range of commercial spaces.
In 2018, the first full year that the online platform has been in operation, the majority of properties auctioned returned to the banks, which have opted for this solution in an effort to force strategic defaulters to cooperate with their creditors in the arrangement of their dues.
Data point to some 85 percent of auctioned properties ending up in the hands of the banks; the lenders intend to transfer them at a later date, either as a package of properties or separately. One of the reasons banks are buying the properties they auction is that the eauction platform offers limited information on the kind of assets up for sale, meaning that it is not operating efficiently as an instrument for activating demand from candidate buyers. For that reason, most local lenders have proceeded to the interconnection of the eauction platform with their own platforms that supply information about the assets to potential investors.
