(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s top banking regulator said a few banks in the country may have taken too much risk in commercial property, while the industry by and large is strong enough to weather the turmoil in the asset class.

“There’s certainly the one or other bank that is especially exposed, that may have found this field of growth very late on and entered the market with miserable timing, maybe lured by high returns,” said Raimund Roeseler, who leads oversight at watchdog BaFin. “We have concerns in individual cases, but not for the market as a whole.”

Roeseler, who spoke at a Handelsblatt conference in Frankfurt on Monday, didn’t name any banks.

Commercial real estate has been in turmoil after a spike in interest rates put developers out of business and left their lenders facing losses. While that’s sent the stocks and bonds of some German banks lower, nine of the country’s top banks have so far been easily able to absorb €2.2 billion ($2.4 billion) in provisions for losses on such debt.

BaFin primarily sees commercial real estate risks in the US and there’s a limited number of German banks active there, Roeseler said. Still, the German market has also shown weakness, he said.

“Banks are taking their first balance sheet hits, but there’s very few where you have to worry that they could be existentially affected,” Roeseler said. The vast majority of German banks are “very well capitalized,” he added. 

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