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Reuse radar

Aachen

Aachen's cadastre flags 131 buildings as unused or ruined (46 large enough to map), the city's brownfield register lists 167 sites — 91 still with buildings — and the federal property agency reported empty space at 18 properties in 2023. Homes are scarce rather than empty (4.2% of flats in 2023 by the meter method, 2.2% after modernisation vacancy). The reuse story is the eastern city centre, fixed as an urban-renewal area in July 2026: the former Horten store becomes a public learning house, the long-empty Wehmeyer block about 325 units, and the city wants many new flats on the Bushof site.
An empty building in Aachen with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
120
and 19 more with an empty shop, flat or floor
Vacant office space
—
not yet measured
Homes potential
—
not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: No published Aachen office vacancy figure was found; the regional development agency AGIT reports commercial land only (70.3 ha immediately marketable in the region on 1 Jan 2026, no sales in the city in 2025). Map built 2026-10-15.

Empty buildings in Aachen

One point per building, from public records, open data and cited reports. Filter by type, size and how sure the evidence is; open one to see who says so and whether it could become homes.

Loading map…
Colour = type of building named officially likely reported
Missing a building?

Check any building in Aachen: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?

Where conversion makes sense, and who to talk to

The districts where empty space, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together, and the owners and programmes that open a door.

A hand outlining a neighbourhood on a city map, with small houses drawn inside

Östliche Innenstadt (Adalbertstraße – Bushof – Büchel)

Urban-renewal area fixed on 15 July 2026 with three key projects; housing is planned at the Bushof and on Büchel's upper floors, and concept tenders are already in use.

  • Wehmeyer block: about 325 units planned, design commission July 2026
  • Horten store empty since 2017, to open as Haus der Neugier in 2029
  • Büchel: B-Plan 999S with housing on upper floors on display June–July 2026

Risk: The big plots go to institutions and developers (Fraunhofer, Midstad); renewal funding is expected only from mid-2027.

2 sources

Bahnhof / Marschiertor – Wilhelmstraße – Panneschopp

The highest flat vacancy in the city: above 6% in these statistical areas in 2023 (electricity-meter method).

  • City-wide 4.2% of flats empty in 2023 (about 5,700), 2.2% adjusted
  • More than 200 empty flats each in Panneschopp, Burtscheid-Mitte, Bahnhof/Marschiertor, Haaren and others

Risk: Small buildings with many separate owners; the city-wide market is tight, so vacancy is scattered rather than concentrated.

1 source

Aachen-Nord: Jülicher Straße / Grüner Weg

The densest cluster of disused commercial buildings in the brownfield register, and the largest building the cadastre flags unused (12,205 m² footprint, Jülicher Straße).

  • Former Kaiserbrunnen works empty since 2009 (12,759 m² site)
  • Former gas holders, Grüner Weg 96: site sold, masterplan exists (register, 2023)

Risk: B-Plan 1019 (early participation 2024) secures commercial use and a mobility corridor; contamination is likely.

1 source

Signals to watch

Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.

  1. 2026-09-16Housing market report 2026

    Over 1,000 flats left rent and occupancy limits within a year; 318 new units approved; record asking rents.

    1 source
  2. 2026-07-28Cadastre flags 131 buildings

    The July 2026 NRW cadastre records 91 of the city's 92,632 buildings as unused and 40 as ruined; 46 have a footprint of at least 150 m².

    1 source
  3. 2026-07-21Wehmeyer block: design commission

    Four practices develop ideas for about 325 units on the long-empty block.

    1 source
2 earlier signals
  1. 2026-07-15
    Urban-renewal area 'Östliche Innenstadt' fixed

    Funding expected from mid-2027; Bushof, Büchel and Haus der Neugier are the key projects.

    1 source
  2. 2026-05-05
    Diocese starts church-property plans

    Pastoral areas draw up property plans; a support unit for conversion and sale from early 2027.

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

27 sources connected, 1 waiting for access. We only use data we may lawfully reuse; where a publisher blocks automated access we do not work around it — a person downloads it, or we ask for permission.

Every source, its licence and when we last read it
SourceAccessRecordsStatusLicence
Federal property for sale (BImA)
Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (BImA)
Live sales of federal buildings and land (the open API behind the BImA property search; rentals, garages and parking left out). A disposal is an open route in; it does not say the building stands empty.
Open API0Live
2026-10-15
No licence stated — public sale offers, credited to the BImA
Forced auctions of commercial property (zvg-portal)
Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder
Non-residential objects only; shown until the hearing date. Hamburg courts do not publish here.
Open API0Live
2026-10-15
Official public notice (§ 39 ZVG)
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API86Live
2026-10-15
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-15
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Building heights: GlobalBuildingAtlas (TU Munich)
Zhu, X. X., Chen, S., Zhang, F., Shi, Y., Wang, Y. (2025), Technical University of Munich
GlobalBuildingAtlas: an open global and complete dataset of building polygons, heights and LoD1 3D models. Earth System Science Data 17(12), 6647–6668, doi:10.5194/essd-17-6647-2025. Read from the Parquet copy on Source Cooperative. Satellite-derived heights (typically 1.5–3 m error in Europe), turned into storeys with storey heights fitted on Berlin; used only where no register or official 3D model sizes the building.
Open download17 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-15
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Heights: 3D building models LoD2 (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Bezirksregierung Köln, Geobasis NRW
© Geobasis NRW (Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero – Version 2.0). The models record no storeys, so the eaves height (lowest roof edge − ground, tallest part) is turned into storeys. Read per building from the state’s OGC API (CityJSON); the same model as the 1 km CityGML tiles on opengeodata.nrw.de. robots.txt: none on ogc-api.nrw.de (9 Oct 2026).
Open API241 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-15
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden)
European Environment Agency
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-15
EEA standard re-use policy (attribution)
Leerstandsmelder.de — public reports of empty buildings
Leerstandsmelder (Gängeviertel e.V., Hamburg)
Shown while we ask Leerstandsmelder for permission. Reports since 2016 only, with the address, the month reported and a link to each entry; not checked by EHC. Each point says when a report has since been marked demolished, lived in, in interim use or rebuilt on Leerstandsmelder, and the owner type the reporter gave (private owners are never named).
Asking for permission7Live
2026-10-15
Credited to Leerstandsmelder.de; asking for permission
Open-ended property funds: buildings they report partly empty
Open-ended real-estate funds (each point names its fund and report)
German and Austrian open-ended public property funds must list every property with its vacancy (or letting) rate in their annual and half-year reports. scripts/reuse/import-fund-reports.ts reads those lists; properties at 10 % vacancy or more are shown, those at 25 % or more count as evidence.
Open download1Live
2026-10-15
Published fund report (KAGB / KARBV property list), cited per point
Co-working spaces, department stores, banks, hotels and cinemas listed as permanently closed
Overture Maps Foundation (closure data: BrightQuery company records)
Places with operating_status "permanently_closed" in the monthly Overture release, read by scripts/reuse/import-overture-closures.ts and matched to the building they sit in. A closed business is usually one unit; names are shown only for companies, never for sole traders.
Open download0Live
2026-10-15
CDLA Permissive 2.0 (Overture Maps Foundation)
Land without current use and stalled construction, mapped from satellite imagery (Copernicus Urban Atlas 2006–2018)
European Environment Agency — Copernicus Land Monitoring Service
Urban Atlas class 13400 (brownfields, demolition sites and gaps in the built-up area, 0.25 ha and up) compared across the 2006, 2012 and 2018 editions, so each plot says how long it has stood unused; plus construction sites (13300) already under way in 2012, and 2012 construction sites left unused by 2018. Read from the EEA's open ArcGIS services, the same way in every radar city. The 2021 edition (Copernicus Data Space) drops plots built on since 2018 where scripts/reuse/import-urban-atlas-2021.ts has been run. Points are context, never evidence of vacancy.
Open API52Live
2026-10-15
Copernicus open data (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2006–2021, EEA)
Property companies in insolvency, at the property their purpose names
Insolvency courts (Insolvenzbekanntmachungen), structured by OpenRegister
Companies in preliminary or opened insolvency proceedings whose registered business purpose speaks of land or buildings (scripts/reuse/import-insolvencies.ts, OpenRegister API — the portal itself disallows automated access, so it is never fetched). A company is placed at the street its purpose names; the rest are leads in the admin. An insolvent owner signals a possible sale, not vacancy: weak evidence.
Open API0Live
2026-10-15
Official notices (§ 5 UrhG, source credited), via the OpenRegister API
Stalled construction and buildings held by insolvent developers
EHC research (dated press and court sources per point)
Signa, Adler/Consus and other developer insolvencies since 2022 and stalled sites, each with its latest dated status (src/scripts/data/reuse/stalled-projects.json; news leads from scripts/reuse/mine-news.ts are reviewed before they join).
EHC research0Live
2026-10-15
Cited publisher per point
Church buildings the dioceses and regional churches plan to give up
Catholic dioceses and Protestant regional churches (their building plans), via EHC research
Buildings a church body’s published building plan or recent reporting names as to be given up, without church funding, for sale or lease, or profaned (src/scripts/data/reuse/church-plans.json and brussels-churches.json).
EHC research0Live
2026-10-15
Cited publisher per point
Named buildings and sites from EHC research (each with its own source)
European Housing Coop research
Includes the library’s public lighthouse conversions (src/scripts/data/reuse/lighthouses.json), shown under "Already converting" with a link to their library page.
EHC research8Live
2026-10-15
Facts cited to their publishers
Buildings named in the news (each with its article)
Local and national press, read by EHC
Buildings the news reports empty, for sale or to let, to be demolished or being converted (src/scripts/data/reuse/news-building-leads.json; rules in src/lib/reuse/news-layer.ts). A report that names a building already on the map is shown on its card instead of a second point; one an open source contradicted, or that says the building is in use, is left out. Not checked on site.
EHC research0Live
2026-10-15
Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished
Commercial listings (ImmoScout24 / immowelt)
Scout24 / AVIV
Blocked to automated access; we do not work around that. Request drafted in docs/reuse-radar/outreach/.
Asking for permission0PendingProprietary — API or data partnership requested
Year built and listing: OpenStreetMap building tags
OpenStreetMap contributors
start_date / construction_date and heritage / listed_status of the OpenStreetMap outline a record is matched to, where no register answers. Read with the outline match, not a separate query.
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-15
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Era of the buildings around it: Zensus 2022 (100 m grid)
Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), Zensus 2022
Buildings with living space by decade of construction in the record’s 100 m grid cell — not the building itself, which may well be an office. An era is given only when at least 60% of the cell’s buildings fall within 30 years; counts are perturbed for confidentiality (Cell-Key Method).
Open downloadscoringLive
2026-10-15
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Namensnennung 2.0
Era of the buildings around it: Zensus 2022 (3 × 3 grid cells)
Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), Zensus 2022
As the 100 m figure, over the nine cells around the record, where its own cell counts fewer than five buildings with homes.
Open downloadscoringLive
2026-10-15
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Namensnennung 2.0
Probable era: estimated from a street photo (Panoramax, Mapillary, Google Street View)
Panoramax and Mapillary contributors; Google Street View (research use agreed with Google, 14 Oct 2026); estimate by EHC with a vision model
Where no register dates a building: its era read from a Panoramax or Mapillary photo looking at it — Google Street View only where no open photo answers (scripts/reuse/estimate-photo-eras.ts), only when the building is clearly visible and the model is confident, and only as “before 1945” or “1945 or later” — the split it got right for 89% of buildings with a register year in Amsterdam and Paris, and 89% from Street View pictures alone (photo-eras/calibration.json). An estimate: a sentence in the conversion check, never points.
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-15
Open photos CC BY-SA 4.0 or Licence Ouverte 2.0 (per picture); Street View read for research only, never stored or shown; only the estimated era is published, never a photo
Federal properties with empty offices or flats (BImA list, 1 Jan 2023)
Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (BImA) — lists released under the Freedom of Information Act via FragDenStaat (request #269761); read by scripts/reuse/import-bima-vacancy-2023.ts
Freedom of information18Live
2026-10-15
No licence stated — official lists released under the IFG and published by FragDenStaat; used with credit to the BImA and FragDenStaat
Buildings the cadastre flags unused or ruined (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS Grundrissdaten, NAS)
Open download46Live
2026-10-15
dl-de/zero-2-0
Administration buildings in the cadastre (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika'
Open API44Live
2026-10-15
dl-de/zero-2-0
Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API230Live
2026-10-15
ODbL 1.0
Brownfield land mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API13Live
2026-10-15
ODbL 1.0
Brownfield and disused sites with buildings (city brownfield register)
Stadt Aachen — Brachflächenkataster (survey of 29 Nov 2023), city geoserver WFS 'geodaten'
Open API91Live
2026-10-15
No licence stated (layer not in the open-data catalogue; capabilities say Fees NONE, AccessConstraints 'Keine') — shown with credit to the City of Aachen under EHC's 6 Oct 2026 licence decision, off on request
Buildings the City of Aachen owns (heat-plan building data)
Stadt Aachen — Kommunale Wärmeplanung 2022, building information layer (geobasis:gebaeude_infos), city geoserver WFS
Open API320Live
2026-10-15
No licence stated (layer not in the open-data catalogue) — shown with credit to the City of Aachen under EHC's 6 Oct 2026 licence decision, off on request

What this radar cannot see yet

  • No list of empty buildings is published: vacancy reports under the housing-protection bylaw go to the city and stay there; flat vacancy appears only as rates per statistical area.
  • The two richest city layers — the brownfield register and the heat-plan building data — state no licence; they are shown with credit and come off on request. The city's retail register has a vacancy layer in its viewer that the WFS does not expose.
  • Plans in procedure exist only as an HTML list (the XPlanung layer holds plans in force); the council information system (ratsinfo.aachen.de) disallows all robots and its OParl endpoint did not answer.
  • Office vacancy: no published figure. Church closures: no list until the diocese's property plans arrive (from 2027).
  • Aachener Zeitung refuses the EHC user-agent and reserves text and data mining; only headlines and one reprint were used.
  • Floor area: the cadastre records no storeys; the NRW 3D building model (LoD2) gives heights.

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Aachen that stands empty or barely used; once we have checked it, it joins the map under “Reported by visitors (checked)”.

A phone held up to photograph an empty shopfront, with a map pin drawn above it

We publish the address, the kind of building and your description once we have checked it — never your email. Please do not name the people who own or live in a building.

Radars nearby

The other radars in the same country and the nearest beyond. All 149 cities in the atlas

The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.

Antwerp, Belgium308empty buildings on recordAugsburg, Germany249empty buildings on recordBerlin, Germany1,902empty buildings on recordBielefeld, Germany103empty buildings on recordBochum, Germany160empty buildings on recordBonn, Germany149empty buildings on recordBraunschweig, Germany83empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany216empty buildings on recordBrussels, Belgium99empty buildings on recordChemnitz, Germany244empty buildings on recordCologne, Germany398empty buildings on recordDortmund, Germany314empty buildings on recordDresden, Germany347empty buildings on recordDuisburg, Germany147empty buildings on recordDüsseldorf, Germany62empty buildings on recordEindhoven, Netherlands10empty buildings on recordEssen, Germany225empty buildings on recordFrankfurt am Main, Germany228empty buildings on recordGelsenkirchen, Germany97empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany555empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany203empty buildings on recordKarlsruhe, Germany90empty buildings on recordKiel, Germany66empty buildings on recordLeipzig, Germany345empty buildings on recordLiège, Belgium262empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany87empty buildings on recordMönchengladbach, Germany192empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany333empty buildings on recordMünster, Germany173empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany110empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany186empty buildings on recordWiesbaden, Germany39empty buildings on recordWuppertal, Germany236empty buildings on record