Ministers are planning to sell the property arm of nationalised financial services group SNS Reaal via an auction, finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has told MPs.

The unit, renamed Propertize following the nationalisation, has generated considerable interest among property investors and will realise an ‘attractive price’ for the treasury, Dijsselbloem said in a briefing.

SNS Reaal was nationalised in 2013 because of problems at its property division, then named SNS Property Finance. The portfolio was then valued at €7bn but is now put at €4.3bn.

The government had originally considered selling Propertize in stages.