UK property market statistics 2026: the key numbers

Market coverage

GalimAI analyses the entire population of UK property-holding companies, joining Companies House to HM Land Registry. Coverage is England and Wales only.

• more than 460,000 UK property-holding companies tracked (Companies House).
• 31 million-plus HM Land Registry transactions analysed.
• 160,000-plus direct-mail letter outcomes feeding the response model.
• Data refreshed daily from source.

Distress and insolvency

• 1,058 owners of property-holding companies have faced Gazette winding-up or insolvency notices since 2023. Full report.
• 729 of those appeared in the first five months of 2026 alone.
• 277 percent year-on-year growth in newly distressed owners, 2025 to 2026 to date.
• UK property company dissolutions are running 85 to 95 percent above the five-year average. Report.
• 1 in 6 UK property SPVs dissolve within 24 months. Report.

Where distress concentrates (2023 to 2026 to date)

Region	Distressed owners
South East	315
Greater London	183
South West	142
North West	126
Yorkshire and Humber	109
East Midlands	108
West Midlands	90
Other regions	85

The South East and Greater London together account for 498 owners, 47 percent of all distressed property companies in England and Wales. London detail.

Finance and bridging

• 38,000 to 45,000 UK property companies carry short-term bridge debt. Report.
• 11,000 to 15,000 of them hold charges already two years overdue.
• 10,000 companies carry 10 or more active charges. Report.
• 50,000-plus UK property owners are behind on Companies House filings. Report.

Ownership and tenure

• 85,000 to 100,000 companies have held the same freehold since 2003 or earlier. Report.
• 38,000 to 45,000 of those have a director aged 65 or over, a classic succession sell signal. Report.

Buyer activity

• About 90,000 UK companies bought property in the last 24 months. Report.
• 23,853 companies actively bought property in Greater London over the last three years. Detail.

Highest-conviction sellers

• 480 owners show stacked distress signals, the highest-conviction sell cohort in the data. Report.

Empty commercial property

• ~1,404 empty commercial premises in England and Wales, held by roughly 1,368 owners paying empty-property business rates. Report.
• ~49.7 million sq ft of empty commercial floorspace across the top 15 areas, of which Greater London holds about 70% (~34.8m sq ft). Report.
• ~58% of the empty-commercial pool is retail, around 790 owners. Report.
• 148 owners are empty and EPC F/G at once, legally unable to re-let under MEES. Report.

Condition: EPC and MEES

• 5,365 owners across 2,740 companies hold an EPC F/G property they cannot re-let, refinance or sell while low on cash. Report.
• 113,096 owners across 62,166 companies sit below the EPC C standard ahead of the 2030 deadline. Report.

Landlord enforcement

• £4.5M in penalties across 412 published enforcement actions, 180 of them against company landlords. Report.
• 16,503 First-tier Tribunal cases indexed nationally, 524 also showing a financial-distress signal. Report.

Recent buyers vs long-held owners

• 78,473 recent buyers (first bought within 10 years) are low or negative on cash, versus just 3,038 owners who have held for 30+ years, around 26x more recent buyers under cash strain. Report.

About this data

All figures are aggregate, owner-counted, and drawn from public sources: Companies House, HM Land Registry, and the London and Edinburgh Gazettes, cross-referenced and refreshed daily. Coverage is England and Wales; the underlying data does not extend to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Figures are point-in-time snapshots and update continuously. Cite as GalimAI with a link to this page.