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Reuse radar

Berlin

Berlin publishes more than any other German city: its official cadastre flags 1,195 buildings as unused, about 1.86 million m² of floor area. Office vacancy has climbed past 2 million m², but private conversions mostly become furnished micro-apartments at rents a cooperative cannot match. The affordable precedents all come from public owners converting buildings they already hold, so the best openings are state and federal buildings whose future is still undecided.
An empty building in Berlin with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
1,902
and 278 more with an empty shop, flat or floor
Vacant office space
2.09 million m²
9.6% of the stock
Homes potential
≈ 7,280
if 30% of empty offices converted

Office figures: BNP Paribas Real Estate, 30 June 2026 (market area as BNP defines it); older stock = total vacancy minus BNP’s "modern" vacancy. Homes: our economic model’s conversion engine. Map built 2026-10-10.

In 3D, from today’s sources — a potential we spotted, not a plan.

Empty buildings in Berlin

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 Berlin: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?

11 more buildings in Berlin reported in the news, not yet on the map

The articles do not give an address we could place, so these have no pin yet. From news reports, summed up in our own words with a link to each article — not checked on site by EHC.

  • altes Quelle-Kaufhaus Neukölln — reported conversion planned · formerly department storeA private start-up university plans to move into Neukölln's former Quelle department store. Berliner Morgenpost (incl. Berliner Woche) (2024-09-24)
  • C&A-Kaufhaus Neukölln — reported empty · formerly department storeA vacant former C&A department store in Neukölln was opened briefly for a Fashion Week event. Berliner Zeitung (2024-01-26)
  • Commercial ensemble at Schäfersee, Residenzstraße, near Schäfersee — reported conversion planned · formerly office · 5,000 m² · owner: Shift DevelopmentWith up to 25% of its Kreuzberg offices empty, GSG is planning furnished short-let micro-flats on almost 5,000 m². Entwicklungsstadt (2025-06-01)
  • Eisengießerei Spandau — reported conversion under way · formerly industrial buildingAn old Spandau iron foundry is being turned into offices and creative workspace. Entwicklungsstadt (2024-04-23)
  • Friedenauer Geisterhaus, corner of Odenwaldstraße and Stubenrauchstraße — reported empty · formerly residential buildingThe district held a round table on the long-vacant corner house, one of three Senate pilot cases for appointing a trustee. Bezirksamt Tempelhof-Schöneberg (2025-12-15)
  • Haus gegenüber dem KaDeWe — reported conversion plannedThe vacant building is slated for demolition and replacement by a new building with 47 apartments Berliner Morgenpost (incl. Berliner Woche) (2026-04-28)
  • House of Statistics — reported converted · formerly administrative offices · owner: BerlinAfter renovation, the former statistics building is receiving tax officials; it had stood empty since 2008. B.Z. (2025-04-16)
  • Neubau am Holocaust-Mahnmal — reported empty · formerly residential building · 134 flats and about six shopsA columnist says the 134 luxury flats beside the memorial have sat largely unused since completion; the district is checking for misuse. myheimat.de (citizen column) (2026-06-29)
  • Spreequartier Spindlersfeld (former industrial buildings), Spindlersfeld, Treptow-Köpenick — reported conversion under way · formerly industrial building · 24,300 m² · owner: Grimm HoldingAbout 500 owner-occupied flats are being made in refurbished, extended former industrial buildings on a 24,300 m² plot. Entwicklungsstadt (2025-10-12)
  • St.-Agnes-Kirche — reported converted · formerly churchSt Agnes church in Kreuzberg has been turned into an art gallery. Entwicklungsstadt (2025-11-07)
  • Terminal Flughafen Tegel — reported conversion planned · formerly public buildingThe old Tegel airport terminal buildings are to be converted for a university. Entwicklungsstadt (2024-04-23)

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. 2.09 million m² of offices stand empty (9.6% of the stock), 806,000 m² of it older stock — the realistic pool for conversion.

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

Mitte — GDR-era administrative blocks

Large, shallow administrative buildings near stations, and a working precedent of the Land and a cooperative developing one together.

  • Krausenstraße 38 is flagged unused in the cadastre: 6 storeys, about 10,400 m² floor area, 14.5 m deep
  • Haus der Statistik: 290 rental flats planned by WBM, with ZUsammenKUNFT Berlin eG among the five partners
  • Mitte handled 19 change-of-use procedures in 2025, with potential for 53 flats

Risk: Land in the core zones is valued at €7,500–8,000/m², so a co-op needs a public partner rather than a market purchase.

4 sources

Lichtenberg and Hohenschönhausen

State buildings facing demolition, and cadastre-flagged buildings in residential zones where land costs about €500/m².

  • Wustrower Straße 18 is largely empty and earmarked for demolition; keeping it was "not studied in depth" (July 2026)
  • Röttkenring 27–29 is flagged unused: 8 storeys, about 9,150 m², 15.9 m deep, residential land value about €500/m²
  • Herzbergstraße is protected production area no. 32 in StEP Wirtschaft 2040

Risk: The district says the emptied office parks around Ostkreuz cannot become housing under planning law; Herzbergstraße is a protected production area.

5 sources

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg — MediaSpree edge

The highest submarket office vacancy in Berlin, and commercial courtyards whose offices stand empty while their workshops are full.

  • MediaSpree office vacancy 21.5% at mid-2026 (Cushman & Wakefield)
  • GSG’s 18 Kreuzberg courtyards run 20–25% vacancy; offices are the problem, production space is let
  • Markgrafenpark: about 14,000 m² of offices becoming 300+ furnished micro-apartments

Risk: Private buyers turn offices into furnished micro-apartments outside rent regulation, which outbids a cost-rent cooperative.

3 sources

Spandau — federal and state sites

Federal offices marked for sale, state buildings with open futures and a new quarter of about 3,750 homes at Siemensstadt.

  • BImA marked offices at Askanierring and Finkenkruger Weg "sell" (2023 list)
  • Staakener Straße 79 (2,476 m² empty) and Kladower Damm 333 (2,779 m²) have no secured follow-on use
  • Siemensstadt Square framework plan raised housing to about 3,750 homes (31 March 2026)

Risk: The district reports no significant office vacancy, and Siemensstadt south of Nonnendammallee stays industrial.

4 sources

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-08-10Pandion files for insolvency

    Its Berlin projects include The Haus (Charlottenburg), Wall 18 (Mitte), Officehome Pollux (Friedrichshain, about 28,700 m² of offices) and LVL UP Kreuzberg.

    1 source
  2. 2026-07-22Four Berlin Galeria stores under review

    Alexanderplatz, Hermannplatz, Kurfürstendamm and Spandau are among 33 stores Galeria is reviewing, with further closures planned.

    1 source
  3. 2026-07-16Wustrower Straße 18 heads for demolition

    The Senate says the largely empty state building is to make way for housing; keeping it was not studied in depth and a B-Plan was started in March 2026.

    1 source
3 earlier signals
  1. 2026-04-17
    Second Quartier 206 auction fails

    The court refused the top bid of €40 million because it was below half of the €187 million value.

    1 source
  2. 2026-03-30
    Empty federal space in Berlin rises to 320,153 m²

    14% of 2.27 million m² of federal service space stood empty on 1 January 2026, up from 288,049 m² in 2024; BImA’s commercial portfolio was 40% empty.

    1 source
  3. 2026-01
    Schlosspark-Klinik closes

    The insolvent 340-bed hospital at Heubnerweg 2 closed; psychiatry stays on site until the end of 2027.

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

28 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 API4Live
2026-10-10
No licence stated — public sale offers, credited to the BImA
Buildings flagged unused in the cadastre (ALKIS)
Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen Berlin
ALKIS condition code 2000 "In ungenutztem Zustand". Updated on cadastral events, so some flags are stale.
Open API1,195Live
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
Office buildings of 4+ storeys that are 16 m deep or less
Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen Berlin
Geometry only — says nothing about whether a building is occupied.
Open API718Live
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
Land values 2026 (Bodenrichtwerte)
Gutachterausschuss für Grundstückswerte in Berlin
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
Housing sites of the urban development plan StEP Wohnen 2040
Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen Berlin
Open API262Live
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
State of Berlin surplus land (SODA and Liegenschaftsfonds parcels)
Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen Berlin — Landesgrundvermögen (Geoportal Berlin)
Open API358Live
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
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 API12Live
2026-10-10
Official public notice (§ 39 ZVG)
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API1,012Live
2026-10-10
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-10
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 download60 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-10
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden)
European Environment Agency
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-10
EEA standard re-use policy (attribution)
Berlin parliament: written answers naming empty homes
Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin (PARDOK open data)
Residential buildings the Senate names as (partly) empty in answers to written questions since 2021, read from the official open-data API (scripts/reuse/mine-berlin-parliament.ts). Each point links its answer.
Open API57Live
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Namensnennung 2.0
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 permission895Live
2026-10-10
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 download14Live
2026-10-10
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 download305Live
2026-10-10
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 API167Live
2026-10-10
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 API9Live
2026-10-10
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 research15Live
2026-10-10
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 research3Live
2026-10-10
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 research52Live
2026-10-10
Facts cited to their publishers
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
Listed buildings: Berlin Denkmalliste
Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
Building monuments (Baudenkmal) and listed complexes (Gesamtanlage) as outlines; a building counts as listed when most of its own outline lies in one. Ensembles, gardens and archaeological sites are not a listing of the building. The conversion check puts a listed building in the challenging cost tier.
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-10
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
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
2026-10-10
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
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 information79Live
2026-10-10
No licence stated — official lists released under the IFG and published by FragDenStaat; used with credit to the BImA and FragDenStaat
Haus der Gesundheit, Hellersdorf: district building empty since 2014 (call for a heritable building right, Jun 2026)
Bezirksamt Marzahn-Hellersdorf von Berlin, Facility Management
Open download1Live
2026-10-10
not stated — credited to the publisher
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 research59Live
2026-10-14
Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished
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
2026-10-14
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
2026-10-14
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
2026-10-14
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

What this radar cannot see yet

  • The cadastre’s "unused" flag is updated only on cadastral events and no candidate has been checked on site, so some flagged buildings are already being refurbished.
  • Private owners are not shown: the land register is closed to would-be buyers until negotiations have begun, so only companies and public bodies named in public records appear.
  • Districts’ permit software cannot filter changes of use, so there is no feed of conversions already under way.
  • Leerstandsmelder reports are public reports, not checked by EHC, and carry no end date — the map shows those made since 2016, each linked to its entry on leerstandsmelder.de.

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Berlin 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.

Bielefeld, Germany103empty buildings on recordBochum, Germany160empty buildings on recordBonn, Germany149empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany216empty buildings on recordCologne, Germany398empty buildings on recordDortmund, Germany314empty buildings on recordDresden, Germany346empty buildings on recordDuisburg, Germany147empty buildings on recordDüsseldorf, Germany62empty buildings on recordEssen, Germany225empty buildings on recordFrankfurt am Main, Germany228empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany555empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany203empty buildings on recordLeipzig, Germany346empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany87empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany333empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany110empty buildings on recordPoznań, Poland314empty buildings on recordPrague, Czechia1,064empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany186empty buildings on recordSzczecin, Poland355empty buildings on recordWrocław, Poland680empty buildings on recordWuppertal, Germany236empty buildings on record