Office figures: JLL, Belgian real estate market H1 2026 — rental vacancy in Antwerp at its lowest, 3.7%, with no speculative delivery expected for at least two years. Map built 2026-10-09.
A tour in 3D
Buildings checked against today's sources and found empty — sites that could be well suited to the EHC model. A short film: how each one could come back to life, with what our conversion check and economic model say it could hold. A potential we spotted, not a plan.
Together, room for ≈ 138 homes — a potential, not a plan.
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.
Flanders has no open register of building use: the building register (Gebouwenregister) records outlines and status only, so offices come from OpenStreetMap.
0 empty buildings · colour = type, dark ring = confirmed
Check any building in Antwerp: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?
3 buildings that the owner or a public register records as empty — whole buildings of at least 1,500 m² whose plans suit homes on paper (band A in our conversion check), not ruins and not let for interim use. Each row says who records it empty and when. We have not been to them, and a record can be out of date; those we have confirmed empty ourselves are marked as tour stops.
| Building | Floor area | Recorded empty by | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professor van den Wildenbergl 2On the tour commercial building on the city's vacancy tax register | ≈ 2,400 m² | Whole buildings on the city's vacancy register Public register · Stad Antwerpen · register read 9 Oct 2026 | |
| Lange Nieuwstraat 90On the tour city-centre building on the vacancy tax register | ≈ 2,548 m² | Whole buildings on the city's vacancy register Public register · Stad Antwerpen · register read 9 Oct 2026 | |
| Kioskplaats 64 commercial building | ≈ 2,480 m² | Whole buildings on the city's vacancy register Public register · Stad Antwerpen · register read 9 Oct 2026 |
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.
| Priority | Building | Floor area | Depth | Station | Conversion check | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | Mitwit Office On public land · Kantoor · 16 storeys · 1 other source nearby | 3,150 m² | 10 m | 95 m | A fit only | |
| 75 | Handelspand op toplocatie (erfpacht) Public building named vacant · Commercial building · 2 storeys · 1 other source nearby | 1,744 m² | 14.6 m | 2,299 m | A fit only | |
| 63 | Lange Nieuwstraat 90Confirmed empty by EHC City vacancy listing · gebouw | 2,548 m² | — | 303 m | — | |
| 63 | Vestingstraat 72-74 City vacancy listing · 3 other sources nearby | — | 14.2 m | 129 m | — | |
| 63 | Turnhoutsebaan 349/351 St-Mattheusstraat 15 City vacancy listing · 9 other sources nearby | — | 10.8 m | 50 m | — | |
| 63 | Diepestraat 75-81 City vacancy listing · 2 other sources nearby | — | 14.2 m | 100 m | — | |
| 63 | Kipdorpvest 44 City vacancy listing · 5 other sources nearby | — | 14.9 m | 153 m | — | |
| 63 | Leopoldstraat 23-27 City vacancy listing · 1 other source nearby | — | 14.1 m | 389 m | — | |
| 63 | St-Jacobsmarkt 71 City vacancy listing · 4 other sources nearby | — | 8.9 m | 282 m | — | |
| 63 | Lange Beeldekensstraat 191-193 City vacancy listing · 2 other sources nearby | — | 6.7 m | 329 m | — |
Where empty offices, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together — and what could go wrong.
Half of the vacancy register sits here, in older terraces, upper floors above shops and whole buildings.
Risk: Many records are single units or floors in occupied buildings; the register follows tax rules, not a site check.
City land where AG Vespa is starting Flanders' largest co-operative housing pilot.
Risk: New build on cleared land, not reuse; the co-operative's terms are still to be set.
A 19,000 m² former tram depot with three buildings, offered by the city for ten years of temporary use.
Risk: The call is for public, cultural and green use, not homes; the soil needs care.
Parish churches whose church policy plan starts a search for new or shared uses, next to registered empty homes.
Risk: Churches are often listed or protected and the church councils decide slowly.
Two hospitals have emptied here since 2023 — the City now owns the Stuivenberg site — in the densest, poorest part of the city, where the vacancy register and the slum-screening (krotspot) areas concentrate.
Risk: The City plans public services and gardens at Stuivenberg, not housing; the Borgerhout hospital's owner has announced no plan.
Who controls the space, and what a housing cooperative can actually do with them.
Sells and lets city property through closed-bid calls and runs the Cadixwijk co-operative pilot. Ask for a second co-operative site — an existing building rather than a plot — and watch its calls page for disposals.
Owners on the register pay the city's vacancy tax every year; a whole building on the register is a seller worth approaching. The city also maps the 506 parcels on which the Flemish housing code gives social housing bodies a right of pre-emption — partner with them when a registered building is sold.
The Kerkenbeleidsplan 2025–2030 names seven churches for shared or new use. Offer a co-operative housing plan with a community room while the procedure is open.
Helps owners of empty homes renovate on condition that they let them socially through Woonhaven for at least nine years — 32 empty buildings since 2023. A model for a co-operative to take long leases on registered empty buildings.
Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.
AG Vespa reserves a 2,136 m² city plot in the Cadixwijk for a housing co-operative, developed with the Vlaamse Bouwmeester.
The August 2026 edition lists 261 empty or neglected business premises in Antwerp, 78 of them empty since 2026.
JLL expects it to stay there, with no speculative office delivery for at least two years.
Ercoland, a citizens' co-operative of artists and supporters, raised more than €2 million to buy the historic artists' building in the Wolstraat.
Through Het Pandschap and Woonhaven since 2023; about 40,000 people are on Woonhaven's waiting list.
The City, owner since 2024, will demolish about 35,000 m² of the empty hospital and reuse the 19th-century pavilions for public services, investing about €200 million.
ZAS Erasmus moved its last patients to Hoboken; a renovation was judged too expensive.
20 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.
| Source | Access | Records | Status | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 64 | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | scoring | Live 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 download | 448 buildings sized | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL |
| Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden) European Environment Agency | Open API | scoring | Live 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 permission | 0 | Pending 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 download | 1 | Live 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 download | 0 | Live 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 API | 33 | Live 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 research | 0 | Live 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 research | 0 | Live 2026-10-09 | Cited publisher per point |
| Named buildings and sites from EHC research (each with its own source) European Housing Coop research | EHC research | 9 | Live 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 API | scoring | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| Whole buildings on the city's vacancy register Stad Antwerpen — Dienst Financiën with the Studiedienst (leegstandsregister, monthly extract) | Open API | 260 | Live 2026-10-09 | No licence stated on the layer; published openly on the City of Antwerp's public map server — shown with credit |
| Homes, floors and shop units on the city's vacancy register Stad Antwerpen — Dienst Financiën with the Studiedienst (leegstandsregister, monthly extract) | Open API | 757 | Live 2026-10-09 | No licence stated on the layer; published openly on the City of Antwerp's public map server — shown with credit |
| Empty and neglected business premises (Flemish inventory) Stad Antwerpen — Financiën, from the Vlaamse inventaris van leegstaande en verwaarloosde bedrijfsruimten | Open API | 260 | Live 2026-10-09 | No licence stated on the layer; published openly on the City of Antwerp's public map server — shown with credit |
| Flemish government buildings recorded as empty, unfit or for sale Digitaal Vlaanderen / Agentschap Facilitair Bedrijf — Gebouwen van Vlaamse en lokale overheden (Terra patrimonium database) | Open API | 5 | Live 2026-10-09 | Gebruiksrecht geografische webdiensten (Digitaal Vlaanderen); no restriction on public access |
| Buildings of the Flemish government (offices, schools, culture, homes) Digitaal Vlaanderen / Agentschap Facilitair Bedrijf — Gebouwen van Vlaamse en lokale overheden (Terra patrimonium database) | Open API | 60 | Live 2026-10-09 | Gebruiksrecht geografische webdiensten (Digitaal Vlaanderen); no restriction on public access |
| Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 133 | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 |
| Spatial implementation plans in force since 2015 (RUP) Stad Antwerpen — Stadsontwikkeling, planningscel | Open API | 33 | Live 2026-10-09 | No licence stated on the layer; published openly on the City of Antwerp's public map server |
| Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 25 | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 |
| AG Vespa: city property for sale, rent and calls (te koop / te huur / oproepen) AG Vespa (autonomous municipal company of the City of Antwerp) | Open download | 1 | Live 2026-10-09 | not stated — credited to the publisher |
Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Antwerp that stands empty or barely used; once we have checked it, it joins the map under “Reported by visitors (checked)”.
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.