Bank Santander is putting EUR 5 bn of bad property loans and another EUR 3 bn of foreclosed real estate assets on the market to clean up its balance sheet.

According to local press reports, the Spanish financial giant is meeting investors in London this week to present the assets in the portfolio which consist of housing, offices, and plots of land across the country. Earlier this year, the bank hired Mac Group to value the assets, and has been in talks with the country's major brokers to study a sales programme for the past months.

Santander has become one of the country's largest property owners since the onset of the credit crisis in 2008. It has taken control of over EUR 8 bn of real estate in the past three years, including EUR 826 mln of assets in the first half of 2011.

The move comes in tandem with other major property sell-offs by European banks. Last week, Lloyds reportedly put a £1 bn (EUR 1.1 bn) commercial property loan portfolio on the market. JPMorgan Cazenove has been appointed to run the divestment process, which is said to be the first block sale to be executed by Lloyds. It involves loans secured against office, retail and industrial assets all outside of London.

Meanwhile, PropertyWeek has reported that the Bundesbank, Germany's Central Bank, has mandated AgFe to advise on the sale of over EUR 4 bn of property loans left by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

The process - named Excalibur - represents one of the biggest distressed sales in the European property history. The loans and bonds were swapped by Lehman Brothers with the European Central Bank (ECB) in 2008, in an effort to prevent bankruptcy.