In October 2026 The Gazette published 659 winding-up petitions against UK companies, up 39.9% on September's 471. 71 of them (10.8%) were against companies that own registered property in England and Wales, up from 45 (9.6%) in September. Greater London had the most property-owning companies facing a petition (21), and 8 companies in East Anglia between them hold 131 titles. New receiver appointments were not measured this month.
This is issue #5 of the UK Property Distress Index. It joins HM Land Registry, Companies House and The Gazette to show the legal distress building up under UK property-owning companies. One rule applies to every figure: where DealBrief measured something, the number is printed. Where it did not, this issue says so instead of printing a zero.
Winding-up petitions in October 2026
- 659 winding-up petitions were gazetted in October (code 2450), against 471 in September. That is a rise of 39.9%.
- 71 of them were against companies DealBrief can match to registered property titles in England and Wales, against 45 in September.
- That is 10.8% of October's petitions, against 9.6% in September. Roughly one petition in ten still involves a company that owns land or buildings.
Both months were counted the same way: The Gazette feed, dated by publication date, matched to the same set of registered titles. So this comparison is like for like. One month is not a trend, though, and I am not calling it one.
A winding-up petition is an early public signal of a corporate insolvency. A creditor asks the court to wind the company up, and the petition is advertised in The Gazette before the hearing. It can still be paid, dismissed or withdrawn. It is a leading indicator, not a confirmed insolvency.
All Gazette corporate-insolvency notices
October counts by notice type, dated by Gazette publication date. The second figure is how many of those companies own registered titles in England and Wales. September is shown in brackets.
- Administration appointments (code 2410): 107, of which 34 property-owning (September: 93, of which 38).
- Creditors' voluntary liquidations (code 2441): 1,134, of which 118 property-owning (September: 1,105, of which 111).
- Creditors' voluntary liquidation resolutions (code 2443): 1,178, of which 131 property-owning (September: 1,172, of which 131).
- Winding-up petitions (code 2450): 659, of which 71 property-owning (September: 471, of which 45).
Administrations still involve property owners more often than liquidations do. In October 34 of 107 administration appointments (32%) were at companies holding registered titles. That is lower than September's 41% (38 of 93). Both liquidation lines sit at around 10% to 11%.
Where the property-owning petitions were
Regions are HM Land Registry's own region field on each title. A company with titles in more than one region is counted in each, so the regional figures add up to more than the national 71.
- Greater London: 21 companies, holding 41 titles.
- South East: 15 companies, holding 44 titles.
- East Anglia: 8 companies, holding 131 titles.
- South West: 8 companies, holding 31 titles.
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 6 companies, holding 13 titles.
- East Midlands: 5 companies, holding 6 titles.
- Wales: 4 companies, holding 6 titles.
- West Midlands: 4 companies, holding 13 titles.
- North West: 3 companies, holding 7 titles.
- North: 1 company, holding 1 title.
Two things stand out. Greater London had 21 property-owning companies facing a petition, up from 12 in September, and overtook the South East (15, from 17). And East Anglia's 8 companies hold 131 titles between them, far more per company than any other region. Regional counts are small, so they can swing a lot from one month to the next.
Receiverships
- New receiver appointments in October: not measured. Receiver appointments come from each company's Companies House filing history, and an appointment only shows up once the company is re-checked after it happens. Only 104 of the 17,828 owners DealBrief tracks (0.6%) had been re-checked since October closed. A count from that would be a near-empty floor, so this issue does not print one.
- Companies known to be in receivership: 73, holding 4,030 registered titles. This is a floor, not a census. Owners that have not been re-checked recently may have entered receivership since.
- September's issue reported 59 companies holding 3,878 titles. The tracked corpus grew between the two runs (from 15,243 to 17,828 companies), so the two figures are not like for like and the gap is not a measured rise.
Strike-offs
17 property-holding companies received a first strike-off notice in October. When a company is struck off, its property passes to the Crown as bona vacantia, which puts a hard deadline on any deal.
The generator shows this as 54.1% down on September's 37. I would not read it as a fall. September was first published as 3 strike-offs. Re-run on 1 November, it stands at 37, most likely because more filings were picked up. October's 17 is an early count of the same kind and may well rise in the next issue.
Not yet publishable
- MEES exposure: not published. MEES classification currently runs only on owners that have been through DealBrief's briefing pipeline, and 0 owners in the index corpus are classified.
- Modelled equity pressure: not published. 0 owners have an equity band, so there is no share to report.
- Stress-score readings: this month's generator output does not include them, so they are left out rather than carried over from an earlier month.
What I am NOT claiming
- I am not claiming property distress is rising overall. One month of higher petition counts is one month.
- I am not saying there were zero new receiverships in October. They were not measured, and this issue says so.
- I am not claiming strike-offs fell. The October count is early and September's was revised up a long way.
- A petition can be paid, dismissed or withdrawn. Nothing here is financial or investment advice.
Methodology
- Insolvency notices: The Gazette official notice feed, corporate-insolvency codes only (2410, 2441, 2443, 2450), dated by publication date. The store holds 15,814 notices from 27 November 2025 to 30 October 2026. Late notices can revise a month upward in the next issue.
- Property ownership: a company counts as property-owning when it appears as proprietor on at least one HM Land Registry CCOD/OCOD title (4,504,327 titles, England and Wales).
- Corpus: 17,828 tracked corporate owners, all with full Companies House enrichment.
- Receivers and strike-offs: Companies House filing history for tracked owners, deduplicated per company. Coverage depends on when each owner was last re-checked, which is why it is reported explicitly. Companies House filings appear days to weeks after the underlying event.
- Geography: England and Wales only for property. Regional attribution uses HM Land Registry's region field per title.
The current issue always lives at dealbrief.co.uk/distress-index, where you can sign up to get each issue by email.
Sources and licences: Companies House (Companies House licence); The Gazette, which contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0; HM Land Registry CCOD/OCOD, data produced by HM Land Registry © Crown copyright.