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Reuse radar

Bern

Bern is a tight market — 351 empty flats on 1 June 2026, a vacancy rate of 0.44%, and office vacancy reported at about 2.5% — so the empty buildings are mostly in public hands and in transition: the former Zieglerspital, let on interim leases to 2030 while seven teams plan a residential quarter; the Gaswerkareal, where non-profit plots were tendered in spring 2026; and the City's own 848 administrative buildings. The City's Raumbörse had two offers on 9 Oct 2026. The radar adds the federal register's 357 office buildings and 139 industrial buildings as the stock to look through.
Vacant office space2.5%of the office stock stands empty (the floor area is not published)
Empty buildings on record51 confirmed
On the map1,522buildings and sites from 10 open sources
Homes potential—not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: nau.ch (18 Mar 2026) gives about 2.5% for offices in the City of Bern against 0.5% for homes, without naming a source. The federal building register lists 357 existing office buildings of 200 m² or more footprint in the city (extract of 8 Oct 2026). Map built 2026-10-09.

Bern 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.

The City of Bern publishes no register of empty or derelict buildings; the Raumbörse (interim use) is the only vacancy list, and it held two offers on 9 Oct 2026.

Loading map…

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

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

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

Mattenhof–Weissenbühl — Ziegler-Areal and Eigerplatz

The City's old hospital site and a block of former federal offices both sit in the south-west, on the way to Köniz.

  • Ziegler-Areal: seven teams in the study commission since January 2026, interim uses extended to 2030
  • Migros pension fund: demolition and change of use at Mühlemattstrasse/Belpstrasse, objections to 9 Nov 2026

Risk: The Ziegler-Areal is under an architecture competition until the end of 2027 and leased to the Confederation and the canton until 2030; the Eigerplatz buildings are in an institutional investor's permit procedure.

2 sources

Breitenrain — Feuerwehr Viktoria and Wifag

The co-operative reuse of a listed fire station is the local precedent, and the Wifag works site is on the City's list of future housing sites.

  • Feuerwehr Viktoria: vacated 2015, about 15 homes and 30+ businesses, permit October 2025
  • Wifag-Areal: about 360 homes on the City's future-housing list

Risk: Both are spoken for: Feuerwehr Viktoria is a running project; the Wifag-Areal is planned for about 360 homes.

2 sources

Bümpliz and Brünnen

The one large offer on the Raumbörse is in Bümpliz, and the City's biggest housing sites are in the west.

  • Morgenstrasse 136: about 4,000 m² on floors 1–3, offered immediately
  • Brünnen: about 1,000 homes in stages (City housing-project list)

Risk: Floors in a commercial building are not a whole building to buy; Brünnen and Bümpliz Nord are new-build.

1 source

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
City agency

Immobilien Stadt Bern — Raumbörse and interim-use desk

The City's coordination desk for interim use lists vacant rooms and sites open to temporary use (two offers on 9 Oct 2026) and takes reports of vacant property from owners at zwischennutzung@bern.ch. A co-operative can apply for interim use of a City building while a permanent plan is made.

2 sources
Allocation rule

Stadt Bern — building-right plots for non-profit builders (Gaswerkareal)

Non-profit building plots on the Gaswerkareal and in the Mittelfeld were tendered on 16 March 2026 and another plot on 6 May 2026; the City grants building rights to non-profit developers. Ask Immobilien Stadt Bern when the next round opens.

1 source
Public owner

Stadt Bern — Ziegler-Areal (owner: the land and housing-policy fund)

The City's largest reuse decision is due at the end of 2027 (winning project); speak to the project team before the project phase starts in 2028 about co-operative plots or conversion of the existing buildings.

1 source

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-08-11
    351 empty flats, 0.44%

    Statistik Stadt Bern: the count on 1 June 2026 is identical to 2025; the vacancy rate stays at 0.44%.

    1 source
  2. 2026-05-06
    Another Gaswerkareal plot goes to tender

    After the first non-profit plots on 16 March, the City announced a further building plot on 6 May 2026.

    1 source
  3. 2026-03-18
    Office vacancy about 2.5%

    nau.ch reports about 2.5% office vacancy in the City of Bern against 0.5% for homes, and conversions of offices to homes under way.

    1 source
  4. 2026-01
    Ziegler-Areal study commission under way

    Seven architecture teams have worked on the former hospital site since January 2026; the winner is due by end-2027.

    1 source
  5. 2025-12-01
    Voters back the Gaswerkareal

    The City's voters approved the proposals for developing the former gasworks site on 1 December 2025.

    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 API7Live
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 download967 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Storeys and footprints: federal building register (GWR)
Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS)
Bundesamt für Statistik; Eidg. Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister. Recorded storeys × recorded footprint of the nearest registered building.
Open API355 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
Free use with attribution (BFS)
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 API14Live
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 research5Live
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)
City-owned administrative buildings (Verwaltungsvermögen)
Stadt Bern — Geoinformation, Grundstücke Verwaltungsvermögen
Open API847Live
2026-10-09
opendata.swiss terms of use "OPEN" (free use) — Geoinformation Stadt Bern, credit the City of Bern
Non-housing buildings of the Fonds für Boden- und Wohnbaupolitik
Stadt Bern — Geoinformation, Grundstücke Fonds für Boden- und Wohnbaupolitik
Open API124Live
2026-10-09
opendata.swiss terms of use "OPEN" (free use) — Geoinformation Stadt Bern, credit the City of Bern
Housing projects and future housing sites of the City (Fachstelle Wohnbauförderung)
Stadt Bern — Geoinformation, Wohnbauprojekte
Open API24Live
2026-10-09
opendata.swiss terms of use "OPEN" (free use) — Geoinformation Stadt Bern, credit the City of Bern
Building applications to convert premises into homes (live notices)
Stadt Bern — Baupublikationen (current notices, Geoinformation)
Open API2Live
2026-10-09
opendata.swiss terms of use "OPEN" (free use) — Geoinformation Stadt Bern, credit the City of Bern
Office buildings of 200 m² footprint or more (federal building register)
Bundesamt für Statistik — Eidgenössisches Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister (GWR), canton Bern extract of 8 Oct 2026
Open download357Live
2026-10-09
BFS GWR open data — free use, source credit required (Bundesamt für Statistik; Eidg. Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister), licence text in the ZIP
Industrial buildings of 500 m² footprint or more (federal building register)
Bundesamt für Statistik — Eidgenössisches Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister (GWR), canton Bern extract of 8 Oct 2026
Open download139Live
2026-10-09
BFS GWR open data — free use, source credit required (Bundesamt für Statistik; Eidg. Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister), licence text in the ZIP
Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API3Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0

What this radar cannot see yet

  • The City of Bern publishes no register of empty or derelict buildings; the Raumbörse (interim use) is the only vacancy list, and it held two offers on 9 Oct 2026.
  • The City's property layers (administrative assets, the housing-policy fund) say what the City owns and its category, not whether a building is empty.
  • The federal register records use, not occupancy, and storeys for only about a quarter of the offices: the footprint is there, the floors are not.
  • The Confederation's and the canton's own lists of surplus buildings (BBL, armasuisse, the cantonal property office) were not found open; Der Bund's report on former federal offices turned into homes is paywalled.
  • Private owners' empty offices are invisible here: the 2.5% office vacancy comes from one unsourced press figure.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Genoa, Italy174empty buildings on recordLuxembourg City, Luxembourg73empty buildings on recordLyon, France44empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany82empty buildings on recordMilan, Italy504empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany316empty buildings on recordStrasbourg, France26empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany175empty buildings on recordTurin, Italy98empty buildings on recordVaduz, Liechtenstein7empty buildings on recordVerona, Italy55empty buildings on recordZurich, Switzerland33empty buildings on record