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Reuse radar

Bonn

Bonn's empty buildings are mostly federal: the Federal Real Estate Agency listed 34 Bonn properties with empty offices or flats in 2023, from ministry campuses to whole housing estates, while the city's cadastre flags almost nothing. The largest opening is the former state office complex on the Friedrich-Ebert-Allee, largely empty for years, where the city plans a new quarter that is 60% homes.
An empty building in Bonn with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Vacant office space134,900 m²3.09% of the stock stands empty
Empty buildings on record141and 38 more with an empty shop, flat or floor; of all 179, 37 confirmed, 4 likely
Flagged unused2buildings in the official cadastre; 0 have 3,000 m² or more
Homes potential—not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: City of Bonn (Wirtschaftsförderung), office market at 31 Dec 2024 — 134,900 m² vacant, of which 10,700 m² structural vacancy; vacancy rate of the marketable space 3.09%. Take-up 160,000 m² in 2024, driven by public bodies. Map built 2026-10-09.

Bonn city profileReuse atlas: all of Europe

A tour in 3D

An empty building in Bonn, and what it could become

A building checked against today's sources and found empty — a site that could be well suited to the EHC model. A short film: how it 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 ≈ 15 homes — a potential, not a plan.

  1. Kurfürstliche Zeile, Bad Godesberg — empty city buildingsKurfürstenallee, 53177 Bonn (Bad Godesberg), next to the town hall · ≈ 15 homes
  • activated ground floor
  • shared rooms
  • furnished mid-term flats
  • affordable long-term homes

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.

Loading map…

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

Check any building in Bonn: 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
74Kurfürstliche Zeile, Bad Godesberg — empty city buildingsConfirmed empty by EHC
Public building named vacant · 1 other source nearby
1,797 m²12.7 m531 mA fit only

Homes standing empty

Of 68 Leerstandsmelder reports on the map, 67 sit in a building we can identify — 35 of them homes. Most are single flats or buildings below co-op scale. These are whole buildings of flats that people report empty, ranked by a reactivation score: co-op scale, whether the whole building is empty, how recent the report is, location and land. A building of flats needs no change of use. Reports are public and not checked by us — each card links to its entry on Leerstandsmelder.

ScoreBuildingFloor areaReportedActions
73Am Glückshaus 3
Detached house · 2 storeys · Whole building
1,092 m²Jan 2026
58Eifelstraße 2a
Apartment building · 3 storeys · Extent not stated
2,156 m²Dec 2024
58Thomas-Mann Straße 46/50
Apartment building · 3 storeys · Extent not stated
1,268 m²Apr 2022
58Ellerstraße 58
Apartment building · 5 storeys · Extent not stated
1,275 m²Dec 2024
54Eifelstraße 6
Apartment building · 3 storeys · Extent not stated
894 m²Dec 2024
48Ferdinandstraße 66
Apartment building · Extent not stated
3,035 m²Jul 2025
42Nibelungenstraße 13
House · Extent not stated
696 m²Mar 2021
39Ferdinandstraße 59
Apartment building · Extent not stated
750 m²Jul 2026
34Schumannstraße 90
Apartment building · Extent not stated
608 m²Aug 2025

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

Bundesviertel and Gronau

The former government quarter: federal ministries and agencies with empty office space on the BImA's list, and the largely empty state office complex the city wants to turn into a quarter that is 60% homes.

  • Adenauerallee 91–93 and Husarenstraße 32: BImA goal 'Abriss / Stilllegung' (demolish or decommission), Eduard-Pflüger-Str. 51 'Verwerten: Verkaufen' (2023 list)
  • Former Landesbehördenhaus largely empty (IHK Bonn 2020); final urban design adopted 26 Sep 2024

Risk: Federal relocation decisions are slow and political; much of the space is being refurbished for other federal users.

2 sources

Bad Godesberg — federal housing estates

Several large federal housing estates built for ministry staff had empty flats on the BImA's 2023 list (Klufterstraße/Am Klufterhof/Am Woltersweiher, Wurzerstraße/Körnerstraße, Stirzenhofstraße, Friedrich-Ebert-Straße).

  • Eight Bad Godesberg rows on the BImA's list of empty residential space (1 Jan 2023)

Risk: The BImA's goal for all of them was to keep and let; empty flats may since have been let.

1 source

Tannenbusch and the Nordstadt

Federal estates with empty flats in Tannenbusch and around the Ellerstraße, and a council inquiry into empty homes in Tannenbusch and Beuel (2020).

  • Liegnitzer Straße 17–43 / Görlitzer Straße 1–9 and Im Tannenbusch 26 on the BImA's list (2023)
  • Council inquiry 191063 'Wohnungsleerstand in Tannenbusch und Beuel' with two answers (2020)

Risk: Large-estate vacancy follows refurbishment cycles; the council's answers sit behind a bot check and were not read.

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

Bundesstadt Bonn — Städtisches Gebäudemanagement (SGB)

In August 2026 the administration put a decision paper to the council on 'strategic development of selected empty properties of the SGB to create housing'. Ask which buildings are on the list and offer to take one on a ground lease as a co-operative.

1 source

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-08-07
    City proposes turning its empty buildings into homes

    A decision paper of the city's building management (SGB) proposes developing selected empty city properties for housing.

    1 source
  2. 2026-07-28
    Cadastre flags only five buildings

    The July 2026 edition of the NRW cadastre records 4 of Bonn's 119,671 buildings as unused and 1 as ruined — the flag is barely used here; two are large enough to map (one is the Villa Soennecken).

    1 source
  3. 2026-05-19
    A vacancy register goes back to the council

    A new decision paper 'Leerstandserfassung' follows the 2023 motion to record empty homes and buildings in Bonn (the paper itself is behind the council system's bot check).

    1 source
  4. 2026-05-06
    Empty flats in the Hicog estate questioned

    Two council inquiries (CDU in May, SPD in June 2026) asked about empty flats and refurbishment in the former US High Commission estate in Muffendorf/Pennenfeld, the SPD asking for sanctions.

    1 source
  5. 2025-09-04
    Plans for more than 400 homes adopted

    In its last session of the term the council adopted plans including the Viktoriakarree in the city centre (homes above shops) and the former university Poliklinik (about 225 subsidised and 30 market flats).

    1 source
  6. 2025-06-03
    City-centre shop vacancy at 10.4%

    The administration's information paper put empty ground-floor units in the city centre at 10.4%, 'still low'.

    1 source
  7. 2024-10-28
    City reports on its empty buildings

    Information paper 241650 'Leerstehende städtische Gebäude' answered a council inquiry that had run since 2022 — the city keeps such a list.

    1 source
  8. 2024-09-26
    Design adopted for the former Landesbehördenhaus

    132,500 m² of floor space, 60% homes with subsidised flats in the courtyards, on the largely empty state site; the city administration is to move into the retained building.

    1 source
  9. 2023-04-26
    BImA names 34 Bonn properties with empty space

    15 with empty offices (two to be demolished or decommissioned, one to be sold) and 19 with empty flats, on the federal agency's nationwide lists released under the Freedom of Information Act.

    1 source

Sources and freshness

24 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
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
2026-10-09
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 API1Live
2026-10-09
Official public notice (§ 39 ZVG)
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API107Live
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 download12 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
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 API637 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
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 permission68Live
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 API35Live
2026-10-09
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
2026-10-09
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
2026-10-09
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 research3Live
2026-10-09
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
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)
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 information34Live
2026-10-09
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 download2Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Administration buildings in the cadastre (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika'
Open API218Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Buildings for public purposes in the cadastre (ALKIS) — ministries and federal offices
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika'
Open API68Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Federal institutions in Bonn (City of Bonn list)
Bundesstadt Bonn — Standorte von Bundeseinrichtungen (opendata.bonn.de, stadtplan.bonn.de)
Open API87Live
2026-10-09
CC0 1.0
Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API539Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Brownfield land mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API24Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
BLB NRW property offers: listed estate Gut Melb, "empty for several years"
Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW (BLB NRW, State of North Rhine-Westphalia)
Open download1Live
2026-10-09
not stated — credited to the publisher (the page shows only a copyright line)

What this radar cannot see yet

  • The cadastre flag is barely used in Bonn (5 buildings), so the strongest open signal of the other NRW radars says almost nothing here.
  • Empty city buildings: the administration reported to the council on 'Leerstehende städtische Gebäude' (information paper 241650, 28 Oct 2024, after a four-part inquiry), but Bonn's council documents sit behind a proof-of-work bot check (ALTCHA) that EHC does not pass — the list exists and was not read. Only the OParl titles (24,841 papers) are open.
  • The same applies to the answers on the BImA's empty flats (2023), on empty homes in Tannenbusch and Beuel (2020) and to the May 2026 proposal for a vacancy register ('Leerstandserfassung').
  • City-owned land: the city's open list of its plots (19,067 parcels) is marked outdated (2022) and has no use or size, so it is not mapped.
  • bonn.de names ClaudeBot and anthropic-ai in robots.txt (advisory); several of its report pages answered 404.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Antwerp, Belgium305empty buildings on recordBerlin, Germany1,875empty buildings on recordBielefeld, Germany101empty buildings on recordBochum, Germany155empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany205empty buildings on recordBrussels, Belgium59empty buildings on recordCologne, Germany374empty buildings on recordDortmund, Germany304empty buildings on recordDresden, Germany341empty buildings on recordDuisburg, Germany141empty buildings on recordDüsseldorf, Germany46empty buildings on recordEindhoven, Netherlands3empty buildings on recordEssen, Germany224empty buildings on recordFrankfurt am Main, Germany208empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany524empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany197empty buildings on recordLeipzig, Germany342empty buildings on recordLuxembourg City, Luxembourg73empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany82empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany316empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany109empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany175empty buildings on recordWuppertal, Germany224empty buildings on record