What Bust? European Banks Are Loading Up on Real Estate

When Spain’s Bankia SA received a bailout in 2012, it was prohibited from making the kind of real-estate loans that triggered the bank’s implosion.

That ban expired on Jan. 1 and, like other Spanish lenders, Bankia is now jumping at the opportunity to finance real-estate projects again.

“It’s a good time to be in the sector—in terms of growth,...