European Real Estate: Crowding, short interest & active ownership – July 2026 update

Research evidence excerpt

European Real Estate: Crowding, short interest & active ownership – July 2026 update

Global Research

7 July 2026ab

European Real Estate Equities

Europe including UKCrowding, short interest & active ownership –

July 2026 update Real Estate

Charles Boissier, CFA

Analyst

charles.boissier@ubs.com

+44-20-7568 4415

Crowding factor and active ownership – an aid for stock positioning and alpha Zachary Gauge

How has crowding changed in the sector amid recent newsflow? Using UBS proprietary Analyst

crowding data curated from prime brokers, regulatory filings, stock loan and other zachary.gauge@ubs.com

internal data, the UBS Quant team identifies daily stocks that institutional managers are +44-20-7901 5534

crowding into on both the long and short sides: finding it can help boost alpha. Nadir Rahman

What is crowding? How can the data be used? nadir.rahman@ubs.com

+44-20-7567 1750Crowding refers to too many of the same type of market participants holding the same

or similar positions. It can occur on the long or short sides of names. In this note, we

review how crowding has changed recently at country, subsector and stock levels. The

data could be useful in assessing upside and downside risks: e.g. Which stocks may see a

short-covering rally in case of better-than-anticipated results? Which stocks are already

actively owned by generalists and may see more downside than upside risk?

Four key takeaways for this month

(1) The aggregate crowding factor in both the UK and Europe ex-UK remained in

negative territory at the start of July 2026, with UK improving to -0.09 from -0.24, while

Europe ex-UK weakened further to -0.37 from -0.14. (slide 3). (2) Short interest in real

estate stocks increased 40bps m/m to 4.6% at the start of July 2026, remaining above