Bankruptcy courts are becoming a staple source of good real estate deals for investors, a noted online columnist has noticed.

Dow Jones Newswires columnist Prabha Natarajan said that according to “anecdotal evidence,” investors are finding good deals in bankruptcy courts. These are properties that companies that filed for bankruptcy protection can no longer keep. “Though no tallies exist yet, anecdotal evidence suggests 363 sales are gaining popularity as another way to resolve a nonperforming loan backed by commercial real estate,” Natarajan said.

Meanwhile, John Kavill, a managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL) in Washington, said that such sales are one of the remedies available to creditors as the industry rebounds. “We’ve seen a few sales and expect to see an increase in numbers this year,” he said.

Such sales are called “363 sales,” owing its name to the section of the bankruptcy code that deals with this transaction. They are performed rather quickly and benefit both parties involved. For the buyer, he will be able to purchase the property free of liens. For the seller, it allows him to dispose of the properties without calling it “liquidation” of assets.

According to Natarajan, more real-estate companies are now approving of 363 sales. This results in the increase in the number of troubled assets available for investors to buy. He said that investors have been disappointed over the past six months due to the lack of properties under such state. The disappointment came as the delinquency rate in commercial real estate plays at the 10% mark.

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