MIPIM: The debt market looks set for growth in 2013, according to Cushman & Wakefield's latest European Real Estate Lending Survey, published at the annual MIPIM conference in Cannes today.

The survey of more than 100 global real estate finance providers has found increases in the number of lenders, the amount of cash they were willing to lend and the propensity to lend larger amounts.

Since Q1 2012, the number of lenders open for business has increased by 29%, with 10 new entrants to the senior debt market, and 10 returning lenders.

While the increase in active banks is a welcome sight for the property industry, C&W warns that lending criteria remains mostly rigid and selective, with lenders focusing on prime assets in core and domestic locations.

There will also be an increase in available capital for European real estate debt this year, with C&W estimating a 22% growth. A large proportion of this will be used for refinancing purposes, however, rather than new product.

And lenders are also getting more confident about lending larger amounts. Over recent years the number of debt providers willing to underwrite loans of €100m (£87.3m) or more has been in decline, but this year some 28% of lenders surveyed said that they would underwrite such loans. This compares with 18% during the first quarter of 2012.

C&W's head of EMEA corporate finance, Michael Lindsay, said: "The European real estate lending landscape remains dominated by the mainstream UK and German banks but more recent market entrants - especially those from the US - have started to make their mark.

"The fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 witnessed a significant improvement in lending conditions; for the right assets, healthy competition exists among lenders, something that has not been seen since before the financial crisis."