Financial distress is a complex problem and continues to exist because all companies in the world have the same potential to experience this condition, so many factors are needed to determine the status of financial distress as an early warning system in volatile economic conditions. This study aims to analyze the effect of leverage, operating cash flow, operating capacity, and agency managerial costs on financial distress and compare it between Indonesia and Malaysia. This research was conducted on real estate and property industry classification companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the Malaysia Stock Exchange for the 2018- 2020 period. Sampling was done by the purposive sampling method and yielded 135 data samples. Multiple regression methods, the classical assumption test, and the paired t test were used to test the data. The results of this study indicate that leverage, operating cash flow, and operating capacity have an effect on financial distress conditions in Indonesia and Malaysia, while agency managerial costs have no effect on financial distress conditions. Then, based on the results of the different paired t tests, it shows that there are differences in financial distress conditions in Indonesia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, there is no difference between the financial distress conditions before and after the pandemic in Malaysia

Keywords : Financial Distress; Leverage; Operating Capacity; Operating Cash Flow; Agency Cost Managerial; Pandemic Covid 19.