Office figures: Büromarktbericht Braunschweig 2025 (with Braunschweig Zukunft GmbH; data for the turn of 2024/25): about 40,000 m² of offices vacant in 70 buildings, about 1.8% of a 2.25 million m² stock (4.1% of the rented market of 970,000 m²); the report says it is the last edition. Map built 2026-10-15.
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.
No open list of empty buildings: the city says vacancy is low, keeps no register, and told the council in April 2026 that it can only advise owners of long-empty buildings; the 2022 census gives totals only (5,389 empty homes, 3.64%).
Check any building in Braunschweig: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?
The districts where empty space, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together, and the owners and programmes that open a door. 40,000 m² of offices stand empty (1.8% of the stock).
Several large former department stores and a bank building are changing hands at once, and the city itself is buying.
Risk: The big buildings are going to culture and council offices, not homes; the owner of the empty Horten has fixed no uses yet.
Two large public sites side by side, both with listed buildings and housing allowed.
Risk: The prison goes to the best bidder after a concept screening; the hospital plots will be sold in phases by a procedure not yet named.
The city's largest inner reserve of former railway land, with the Wolters brewery closing next to it.
Risk: Long timescales; the brewery site is passing to a private buyer with an events-led concept.
A listed state-owned office building has stood empty here since 2011.
Risk: High renovation cost and listing; the city will not buy and the state seeks a buyer for office use.
Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.
Brewing at Wolfenbütteler Straße stops on 31 December 2026; the union asks for a citizens' co-operative to have a place on the site.
Up to 360 homes on about 5.2 ha of the former hospital presented to investors in Munich.
The Schuhstraße store stays open for now, a week after a lease deal to April 2028.
150–180 homes in and around the former bottling plant under the fast-track housing law.
Bidding among approved bidders follows; a petition asks for two blocks to be kept as a memorial.
The Greens moved that the city draft a ban on misusing housing (long-term vacancy, holiday lets); the administration had called it unnecessary in April 2026. The result of the 29 September vote was not found.
A memorandum with NORD/LB on Dankwardstraße 1 (9,800 m²).
About 75 homes at Wilhelmstraße Nord, keeping the existing buildings.
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.
| Source | Access | Records | Status | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 API | 0 | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 API | 0 | Live 2026-10-15 | Official public notice (§ 39 ZVG) |
| OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 81 | Live 2026-10-15 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 | 20 buildings sized | Live 2026-10-15 | CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL |
| Heights: 3D building models LoD2 (Lower Saxony) Landesamt für Geoinformation und Landesvermessung Niedersachsen (LGLN) © LGLN. The models record no storeys, so the eaves height (lowest roof edge − ground, tallest part) is turned into storeys. 1 km CityGML tiles (2024), streamed once per tile holding a building, never stored. robots.txt: none on lod2.opengeodata.lgln.niedersachsen.de (9 Oct 2026; Braunschweig joined 15 Oct 2026). | Open download | 225 buildings sized | Live 2026-10-15 | CC BY 4.0 (per building); dl-de/by-2-0 on the portal |
| Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden) European Environment Agency | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 | 15 | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 2026-10-15 | 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 2026-10-15 | 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 | 24 | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 API | 0 | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 research | 0 | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 2026-10-15 | 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 research | 9 | Live 2026-10-15 | Facts cited to their publishers |
| 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 research | 0 | Live 2026-10-15 | Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished |
| 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 permission | 0 | Pending | Proprietary — 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 API | scoring | Live 2026-10-15 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| 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 download | scoring | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 download | scoring | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 API | scoring | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 |
| Public-purpose buildings in the cadastre (ALKIS) Landesamt für Geoinformation und Landesvermessung Niedersachsen (LGLN) — OpenGeoData.NI, ALKIS per Landkreis (GeoPackage, Stadt Braunschweig), read by scripts/reuse/import-hannover-alkis.ts --slug=braunschweig | Open download | 43 | Live 2026-10-15 | CC BY 4.0 (LGLN) |
| 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 information | 5 | Live 2026-10-15 | No licence stated — official lists released under the IFG and published by FragDenStaat; used with credit to the BImA and FragDenStaat |
| Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr) | Open API | 473 | Live 2026-10-15 | ODbL 1.0 |
| Brownfield land mapped in OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr) | Open API | 15 | Live 2026-10-15 | ODbL 1.0 |
Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Braunschweig 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 149 cities in the atlas
The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.