Rescued by government bailouts during the financial crisis, Germany's property lenders are on the verge of a shake-up that could have an impact on future financing for property development and investment.

The first German property lender to go on the block is Westdeutsche Immobilienbank, a Wiesbaden-based subsidiary of state-owned WestLB, which is studying several bids for its real-estate bank. In exchange for allowing the German government to bail out WestLB with €3bn ($4bn), the European Commission is forcing WestLB to sell its real-estate bank.

Wall Street Journal