The private equity real estate fund group of Goldman Sachs has made its first European debt investment since the beginning of the slump, marking the start of a new push into the distressed property market.

Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall fund group, one of the largest investors in property debt over the past two decades, has acquired almost 900 non-performing and sub-performing loans backed by Italian residential property, which had an original value of about €120m ($174m).