The United Kingdom remains the third most distressed market measured by the WEDI Index
(Press Release โ Europe โ Wednesday 15 July 2026): Corporate distress across Europe increased during the second quarter of 2026, according to the latest Weil European Distress Index (WEDI), as the modest improvement seen earlier in the year gave way to a more challenging economic backdrop marked by weaker growth, fragile confidence and renewed energy-market uncertainty.
The latest data shows that distress rose across every market measured between February and May, reversing the easing recorded in the previous quarter and leaving overall distress above its long-run average. The findings suggest that many European businesses are entering the latest period of geopolitical and energy-market volatility from an already fragile position.
Whilst the full impact of the conflict in the Middle East has yet to be reflected in company results, the disruption has significantly darkened the economic outlook. Higher energy costs, inflationary pressures and increased uncertainty around the path of interest rates risk adding further strain to businesses already facing pressure on margins, liquidity and investment.
Profitability is now the single largest driver of distress across Europe, reflecting the combined impact of softer demand, elevated operating costs and growing uncertainty around future trading conditions. The International Monetary Fund now expects Euro Area GDP growth of 1.1% in 2026, down from its previous forecast of 1.3%. Whilst financial markets have remained comparatively resilient, supported by expectations of potential policy support and energy-market normalisation, the latest WEDI data suggests that company fundamentals are already coming under increasing pressure from higher costs, weaker demand and tighter financing conditions.
Sector trends: Q2 2026 data and outlook
Retail and Consumer Goods recorded the largest increase in distress during the quarter and remains by far the most distressed sector measured by the WEDI. On a rolling basis, distress reached its highest level since the global financial crisis in the latest quarter.
The latest data points to a broad-based squeeze across profitability, liquidity, investment and valuation. Weak consumer confidence, softer discretionary spending and rising operating costs continue to weigh on the sector, whilst renewed pressure from energy and transport costs threatens to further erode margins.
Industrials remains the second most distressed sector, although distress remains lower than a year ago. The latest increase suggests that signs of stabilisation seen earlier in 2026 remain fragile. Weak investment conditions, subdued demand and a challenging export environment continue to weigh on manufacturers. The war in Iran has compounded these pressures by increasing uncertainty around energy costs, supply chains and global demand, leaving energy-intensive businesses particularly exposed.
Infrastructure, Utilities and Power recorded one of the sharpest deteriorations in the index, rising to become the third most distressed sector. Growing pressure on investment, liquidity and risk suggests financing conditions and project economics have become more challenging, whilst delayed procurement decisions and uncertainty around energy markets continue to weigh on capital-intensive operators.
Travel, Leisure and Hospitality also recorded one of the largest increases in distress during the quarter. Whilst overall distress remains below its long-run average, higher wage costs, weaker consumer confidence and growing exposure to geopolitical disruption are beginning to weigh on profitability and liquidity. As higher fuel costs feed through to company results, distress is expected to continue rising in the months ahead.
Andrew Wilkinson, Partner and Head of Weilโs London Restructuring practice, said:
โEuropean businesses entered 2026 expecting operating conditions to improve gradually. Instead, the outlook has become more uncertain. Distress is now rising across every market we track, profitability has emerged as the biggest source of pressure and the prospect of lower interest rates looks less certain than it did at the start of the year.
One of the more striking features of the current environment is the disconnect between market sentiment and underlying company fundamentals. Equity markets have proved remarkably resilient and credit markets remain relatively stable, reflecting expectations that the disruption caused by the war in Iran will prove temporary and that policymakers will ultimately be able to support growth.
The WEDI points to a different picture beneath the surface. Many businesses are already absorbing higher energy and operating costs, while profitability, liquidity and investment continue to deteriorate. If inflation proves more persistent, interest rates remain higher for longer and energy prices take longer to normalise, markets may need to reprice those risks more fully.โ
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
How Prevou created the worldโs most enthusiastic salesperson for estate agents
A fly on the wall analysis of how and why successful technology companies solve big problems for small estate agencies in the UK
Every successful business starts with a problem. For Prevou, that problem was not discovered in a boardroom or during a strategy meeting. It began around a kitchen table. Founders Robert Horwood and his wife, Houda, (Houda Chelli) had spent years investing in property. Like millions of buyers before them, they found themselves repeatedly scrolling through property websites, applying filters, filling in enquiry forms, and then waitingโsometimes hours, sometimes daysโfor estate agents to respond. It was a frustrating and repetitive process.
One evening, after yet another property search, Houda, who comes from an IT background, posed a simple question: โWouldnโt it be great if, instead of endlessly searching websites and filling in forms, you could simply tell the website what youโre looking for, and it found everything for you?โ It was not intended as the beginning of a new business. It was simply an observation. But it planted a seed.
As artificial intelligence was beginning to evolve beyond simple chatbots into genuinely conversational technology, Robert and Houda realised that perhaps the traditional way people searched for property was about to change. What if buyers and tenants no longer had to search websites? What if they could simply have a conversation? That simple idea became the starting point for what would eventually become Prevou.
(Pic โ Robert Horwood co-founder Prevou)
A Lunch That Changed Everything
Excited by the concept, Robert and Houda shared the idea with Sam, (Sam Bowles โ Director) who had a background in estate agency. They expected him to focus on how buyers would benefit. Instead, he looked at the idea from a completely different perspective. โItโs a great idea,โ he said. โBut youโre only solving half the problem.โ
He explained that while consumers would undoubtedly appreciate a conversational property search experience, estate agents faced an even greater challenge. Every month, estate agency operations invest significant sums generating enquiries through portals, websites, and marketing. Yet many of those opportunities are lost simply because buyers and tenants expect immediate engagement.
Because, todayโs consumers rarely enquire with just one agent. They enquire with several. Whoever responds first often has the greatest opportunity to build the relationship. That conversation fundamentally changed the direction of the business. Prevou was no longer simply about improving the consumer experience. It was about helping estate agents convert more of the leads they were already paying for.
(Pic โ Houda Chelli co-founder Prevou)
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
REVIEW: The Future of Real Estate Education: From Pedagogy to Technology
Author Mr. Hugh Kelly, Ph.D., CRE Emeritus
Edited by Karen M. McGrath, Elaine M. Worzala, and Pernille H. Christensen. (Routledge, New York and London, 2026). 330 pp. ISBN 9781032625041. Paperback $70.99; hardcover $170.00; ebook $56.79.
As many in my circle know I (Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR, and owner of Proptech-X, independent proptech analyst, journalist and editor) get involved in numerous projects, and I would like to thank Olayiwola Oladiran Associate Professor in Real Estate at Sheffield University who asked me to contribute to the recently published book โ The Future of Real Estate Education: From Pedagogy to Technology.
โThis book is a collection of nineteen essays, contributed by 29 individual authors and edited by three highly respected scholars. Its general level of quality is very strong, although the reader will find it stylistically uneven. And, as a compendium, the book lends itself to a โcafeteriaโ approach: there is no need to read straight through from the first to last chapter, although (as suggested by its subtitle) there is an apparent logical direction in the procession of topics. I will have some reflections on this apparent progression toward the conclusion of this review.
The social psychologists Erik Erikson and Abraham Maslow identified generativity โ the desire to mentor, teach, and create a lasting legacy โ as a mark of human maturity. Education is more than just passing down skills and/or knowledge from one generation to another. It is about building communities, deepening values, and enriching culture. Real estate, with its ubiquitous presence across all dimensions of human life, has a profound stake in understanding education as an expression of generativity in the common wealth.
Who Should Read This Book?
The contributors are an international line-up with impeccable academic credentials. The essays are replete with references to classroom experience and citations of research literature. Certainly, the title indicates a focus on professional education, both in the sense of โeducation for professionalsโ and โeducation with high academic standards.โ The notion that this bookโs primary value lies within the specific confines of universities, however, unduly constrains its scope, in my opinion.
One signal of broader value can be found in its many discussions of how real estate interacts with other domains, almost as a matter of daily practice. An entire chapter (by German scholar Annette Kรคmpf-Dern) is devoted to โinterdisciplinary educationโ, in fact. Another chapter, by Meagan McCollum of the University of Tulsa, speaks of โbuilding real estate bridges across the university curriculum.โ Real estate practitioners can testify to their need to understand and be fluent in realms including law, finance, urban planning, architecture, marketing, negotiation, construction, management, and other areas of knowledge and skill.
Such a perspective is a healthy corrective to the phenomenon of โsilosโ in academic specialization, a tendency to stress โknowing more and more about less and less.โ Thus do departmental faculties become academic fiefdoms with subject matters walled off from each other as, for instance, when a real estate finance major may graduate without much understanding of economic geography or the built environment.
This suggests a practical way in which experts in disciplines connected to real estate, but with applications beyond real property, can enhance the project of real estate education. Most colleges and universities seek to bolster their links to the business world by establishing advisory boards of senior executives. One way to enrich the intellectual content of real estate programs, stimulating cross-disciplinary discussion while introducing faculty and students alike to external developments affecting properties, would be to deliberately structure such boards heterogeneously.
Two principles would be critical to such an approach. First, the advisory board would be truly formed to give advice, not merely as โletterheadโ board whose obligations were primarily to channel financial donations. Second, faculty and students would benefit by access to the board members by a variety of activities (including classroom visits/guest lectures, field trips for students to workplaces, arranging mentorships and/or internships, and social events such as receptions where the academic and business communities would come together).
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
