Real estate loan sales in Europe will increase to more than €25bn (£21.3bn) this year, according to research released by Cushman & Wakefield.

In 2012, a total of 33 completed loan sale transactions were completed, totalling €21.7bn, which was a 146% rise on 2011. Of the 2012 loan sales, approximately half (€10.6bn) were secured against commercial real estate. The remainder were made up of just over €4bn each for mixed and residential loans, €2.6bn of real estate owned (REO) sales, and €213m of infrastructure loan sales.

The average size of loan sale in 2012 increased from €549m to €658m, compared with 2011, but there was a wide divergence in the individual sales making up these averages, ranging from €50m to €1.8bn in 2011 and from €40m to €2.5bn in 2012.

Michael Lindsay, head of corporate finance at Cushman & Wakefield, said: "2013 is going to be a very active year in the CRE and REO loan sales sector with the volume of transactions increasing considerably. Whilst large loan sales of €500m-plus are still expected to hit the market, there is a wall of capital available, much of it from end-user investors, for smaller transactions in the €200m-€300m range."

More than 90% of the 2012 transactions took place in the UK and three other countries - Germany, Spain and Ireland. The UK accounted for 28% of loan sales, followed by Spain (26%), Germany (21%) and Ireland 18%). The UK had 11 transactions, against six each in Germany, Spain and Ireland.

Nine of the top 10 sellers were banks based in the UK, with Lloyds TSB topping the list by offloading £6bn of DRE loans.