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Reuse radar

Aarhus

Aarhus is selling and shrinking its own estate: Aarhus Ejendomme manages about 1,170 municipal properties, a political agreement of June 2026 commits it to cut its square metres and pay down debt from sales, and on 8 June 2026 the leading parties decided to sell the Jægergården office building (about DKK 300 million, move-out expected 2028). The City itself named six buildings as empty in April 2026 and says a full overview of buildings that can be rented or lent will be ready in autumn 2026. The best open data is BBR with floor areas for 528 offices and 208 industrial buildings, the municipality's own ownership layers (1,134 buildings of 500 m² or more on public land), and 26 urban transformation areas in the 2025 municipal plan.
Vacant office spaceNot yet measured
Empty buildings on record166 confirmed
On the map2,076buildings and sites from 10 open sources
Homes potential—not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: No Aarhus office-vacancy figure from a source opened for this radar. For scale: Ejendomstorvet.dk counted 1,713,000 m² of empty offices in Denmark (6%) at the end of 2024, with Aarhus holding about 9% of the national office stock (28.4 million m² at end-2024). Brokers report rising vacancy in older Aarhus offices after a building boom. Map built 2026-10-09.

Aarhus city profileReuse atlas: all of Europe

The map

Every building a record says stands empty, one point per building: filter by type, size and how sure the evidence is, and open one to see who says so. “Opportunities” switches to the co-op lens: public land, conversion potential and projects already under way, every source as its own layer.

Aarhus publishes no vacancy register and no list of its own empty buildings as data: the April 2026 answer names six buildings and promises a fuller overview only in autumn 2026 (its attachment, bilag 1, was not in the PDF).

Loading map…

0 empty buildings · colour = type, dark ring = confirmed

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

Where to look first

Buildings with evidence that they stand empty — a second source agrees, a public record names them, or we have checked them — ranked by a score you can read: co-op scale, daylight depth, a station nearby, a zone that allows homes, affordable land and an open route in. Checked buildings carry their result; nobody has visited them on site yet. Leerstandsmelder reports join the list when they sit in a large non-residential building and a second source agrees.

PriorityBuildingFloor areaDepthStationConversion checkActions
68Jægergårdsgade 154
Public building named vacant
3,370 m²36.2 m424 mB fit only
68Jægergårdsgade 156A
On public land · Bygning til kontor · 1 other source nearby
3,040 m²50.9 m458 mC fit only
51Ingerslevs Boulevard 2A
On public land · Grundskole · 1 other source nearby
14,825 m²38.1 m618 mA fit only

Districts where conversion makes sense

Where empty offices, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together — and what could go wrong.

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

Former county hospital and Midtby west (Amtssygehuset, Ceres Byen, Vesterport)

The municipality owns the former Amtssygehuset, empty of hospital use since 2018 and now under a conversion plan, and the neighbouring Prismet high-rise has a transformation plan.

  • Local plan 1226 (26 March 2025): 17,740 m² municipal site, conversion of existing buildings to homes and business
  • Local plan 1236 (17 December 2025): transformation of the Prismet high-rise on a 10,370 m² private plot
  • Pathology institute: 1,522 m² to become 19 supported homes, ready end of 2029 (budget DKK 47.7 million)

Risk: The hospital is a preserved complex with its own development plan and the City sets the programme; Prismet is privately owned.

3 sources

Frederiksbjerg and Sydhavnen (Kroghsgade, Svendborgrampen, Jægergårdsgade, Spanien)

The densest cluster of municipal buildings the City itself calls empty or surplus: a school empty since 2016, four run-down or lendable premises on the City's April 2026 list, and the Jægergården office block now on the sales list.

  • Kroghsgade Skole empty since 2016; sale approved May 2026
  • Svendborgrampen 5–7 and 14 too run down to rent; Jægergårdsgade 154 can be rented as one whole lease
  • Jægergården: decision to sell (about DKK 300 million), move-out expected 2028

Risk: Several buildings are in poor repair (the City will only lend them), and the City must charge market rent unless a municipal purpose is served.

3 sources

Station, goods yard and ring of transformation areas (Rutebilstationen, Godsbanearealerne, Trianglen, Fragtmandscentralen)

The 2025 municipal plan designates 26 urban transformation areas; those next to the centre (bus station, goods yard, Trianglen, freight centre) are land and buildings the City expects to change use.

  • Rutebilstationen 2.4 ha, up to 80% homes, housing forecast 350
  • Godsbanearealerne 12.5 ha, up to 50% homes
  • Fragtmandscentralen 15 ha, up to 70% homes, housing forecast 1,600

Risk: Mostly cleared or industrial land to be developed by large owners; reuse of the old buildings depends on each local plan.

1 source

Aarhus Ø and the harbour-front offices (Hveensgade, Dagmar Petersens Gade)

Two of the buildings the City named as empty stand on Aarhus Ø, and the whole area is a designated transformation area with a housing forecast of 1,932 homes.

  • Hveensgade 6 (the Lodstårnet) and Dagmar Petersens Gade 11 can be rented or lent as whole buildings
  • Aarhus Ø 21.7 ha, up to 70% homes

Risk: Aarhus Havn and private developers own most of the land; the two municipal buildings are small.

2 sources

Owners and routes in

Who controls the space, and what a housing cooperative can actually do with them.

A door key on a doorstep with a drawn path leading to an open door
Public owner

Aarhus Kommune — Teknik og Miljø / Aarhus Ejendomme (rent or lend)

The City can rent or lend several empty buildings as one whole lease (the tenant carries all maintenance and may sublet), on time-limited agreements until a development project exists. It must charge market rent unless the tenant's activity is one the municipality could run itself; clubs and cultural groups can be lent rooms free under the Folkeoplysningsloven. Ask the commercial leasing unit (erhvervslejemaal og ejendomsjura at MTM) and watch for the autumn 2026 overview of buildings available.

1 source
Public owner

Bygningsstyrelsen and Freja Ejendomme (State property)

The Danish Building and Property Agency considers selling a state building once it is vacant and no other state tenant needs it: by public tender, or by passing it to Statens Ejendomssalg A/S (Freja Ejendomme); direct sale to a municipality or region is possible only in special cases. The old Business School on Fuglesangs Allé is such a case to watch.

1 source
Allocation rule

Aarhus Kommune — local plans (planning route)

Converting an office or institution to homes usually needs a local plan or a plan supplement, with requirements on daylight, noise, access and fire safety. Recent examples: lokalplan 1226 (Amtssygehuset), 1236 (Prismet), and the "ændret anvendelse" supplements for Hejredalsvej 2–12 and Torpevænget 41–61. Use the 26 adopted plans since 2024 as precedents.

1 source

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-06-19
    Aarhus Ejendomme to repay debt by selling property

    A political agreement commits Aarhus Ejendomme (about 1,170 properties) to reduce debt through sales; the detailed plan follows the Budget 2027 talks.

    1 source
  2. 2026-06-08
    Decision to sell Jægergården

    The political settlement group put the municipal administration building on the sales list for about DKK 300 million; a council item on the relocation follows in early 2027 and move-out is expected in 2028.

    1 source
  3. 2026-05-11
    Kroghsgade Skole sale approved

    After ten years empty, the City Council approved selling the 1889 school to a private developer, who plans an open cultural venue.

    1 source
  4. 2026-04-07
    City names empty premises and promises an overview

    A written answer lists buildings that stand empty or unused and says a full overview of buildings that can be rented or lent will be ready in autumn 2026.

    1 source
  5. 2026-03-31
    Pathology institute to become 19 supported homes

    The 1,522 m² institute at the old county hospital is to be converted at a budget of DKK 47.7 million, with move-in at the end of 2029.

    1 source

Sources and freshness

19 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.

Show every source, its licence and when we last read it
SourceAccessRecordsStatusLicence
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API23Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
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 download1 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Floor areas: BBR building register (Aarhus Kommune)
Aarhus Kommune; Bygnings- og Boligregistret (BBR), Vurderingsstyrelsen
Data fra Bygnings- og Boligregistret (BBR), via Aarhus Kommune (layer geokodede_bbr_bygninger). The register’s total building area (all storeys, used attic included, basement not); no storeys. robots.txt of webkort.aarhuskommune.dk disallows everything — fetched under EHC’s advisory policy of 8 Oct 2026, one BBOX request per building, no owner data.
Open API12 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
Free reuse (BBR terms); CC BY 4.0 on opendata.dk
Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden)
European Environment Agency
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
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 permission0Pending
2026-10-09
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 download0Live
2026-10-09
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
2026-10-09
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 API98Live
2026-10-09
Copernicus open data (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2006–2021, EEA)
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
2026-10-09
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
2026-10-09
Cited publisher per point
Named buildings and sites from EHC research (each with its own source)
European Housing Coop research
EHC research10Live
2026-10-09
Facts cited to their publishers
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
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Buildings of 500 m² or more on land owned by the municipality, the State, the Region or Aarhus Havn
Aarhus Kommune (ownership layers from LOIS/ESR) joined with the BBR building layer
Open API1,134Live
2026-10-09
Open data, Aarhus Kommune (opendata.dk; the portal lists CC BY 4.0 for nearly all Aarhus datasets, the dataset page names none) — used with credit to Aarhus Kommune; BBR terms for the building data
Office buildings of 1,000 m² or more, with registered floor area (BBR)
Bygnings- og Boligregistret (BBR), as published in Aarhus Kommune's open WFS
Open API528Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse of BBR data (Danish basic data programme); credit: Data fra Bygnings- og Boligregistret (BBR), via Aarhus Kommune's open WFS
Industrial, workshop and warehouse buildings of 3,000 m² or more (BBR)
Bygnings- og Boligregistret (BBR), as published in Aarhus Kommune's open WFS
Open API208Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse of BBR data (Danish basic data programme); credit: Data fra Bygnings- og Boligregistret (BBR), via Aarhus Kommune's open WFS
Urban transformation areas (Kommuneplan 2025, "byomdannelse")
Aarhus Kommune
Open API26Live
2026-10-09
Open data, Aarhus Kommune (opendata.dk; the portal lists CC BY 4.0 for nearly all Aarhus datasets, the dataset page names none) — used with credit to Aarhus Kommune
Local plans in the proposal stage
Plandata.dk (Erhvervsstyrelsen) — Aarhus Kommune's plans
Open API10Live
2026-10-09
Open data, Plandata.dk (Danish Business Authority; free reuse with credit)
Local plans adopted since 2024 for homes or mixed use, including conversions
Plandata.dk (Erhvervsstyrelsen) — Aarhus Kommune's plans
Open API26Live
2026-10-09
Open data, Plandata.dk (Danish Business Authority; free reuse with credit)
Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API13Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0

What this radar cannot see yet

  • Aarhus publishes no vacancy register and no list of its own empty buildings as data: the April 2026 answer names six buildings and promises a fuller overview only in autumn 2026 (its attachment, bilag 1, was not in the PDF).
  • BBR floor areas are used from the municipality's open WFS (total building area and use, no storeys). The national Datafordeler BBR (storeys, condemned dwellings, units) needs a key and is not used; the radar therefore has no condemned-dwelling layer for Aarhus.
  • The ownership layers show who owns the land, not whether the building is empty or let; tenants and leaseholders on public land are not separated.
  • Municipal sale and disposal decisions sit in council papers (Byråd and Magistrat agendas) that are not machine-readable; Aarhus Ejendomme's 1,170 properties are not published as a list.
  • The Dataforsyningen orthophoto needs a free token; the card photo works only when the token is set on the server (the same token as Copenhagen).
  • Office vacancy for Aarhus is published by brokers and Ejendomstorvet.dk, not by the City; no figure was available from an opened source.

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Aarhus 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 134 cities in the atlas

The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.

Amsterdam, Netherlands60empty buildings on recordBerlin, Germany1,875empty buildings on recordBielefeld, Germany101empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany205empty buildings on recordCopenhagen, Denmark43empty buildings on recordGothenburg, Sweden23empty buildings on recordGroningen, Netherlands10empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany524empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany197empty buildings on recordMalmö, Sweden18empty buildings on recordOslo, Norway146empty buildings on recordSzczecin, Poland353empty buildings on record