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Reuse radar

Dortmund

Dortmund's cadastre flags 340 buildings as unused or ruined — 176 large enough to map, most of them old industrial and commercial halls — and about 8,500 flats stood empty at the end of 2025, 6,000 of them for more than six months. The city has bought the listed former Versorgungsamt, empty since 2011, without a plan for it yet, and in September 2026 proposed a fund to buy problem houses in the Nordstadt and sell them to the best concept.
An empty building in Dortmund with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Vacant office space155,000 m²4.8% of the stock stands empty
Empty buildings on record304and 106 more with an empty shop, flat or floor; of all 410, 104 confirmed, 9 likely
Flagged unused176buildings in the official cadastre; 29 have 3,000 m² or more
Homes potential—not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: BNP Paribas Real Estate, Dortmund office market Q2 2026 — vacancy up slightly to 155,000 m² over twelve months, rate 4.8%, just under the 5% churn reserve; only 17% of it modern space. Map built 2026-10-09.

Dortmund 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.

Loading map…

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

Check any building in Dortmund: 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
65Near Karl-Funke-Straße
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 5 other sources nearby
3,420 m²20 m911 mA fit only
58Former Versorgungsamt, Rheinische Straße 173 — bought by the city
Public building named vacant · 3 other sources nearby
18,000 m²—469 m—
58Rheinische Straße 173
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Verwaltungsgebäude · 2 other sources nearby
16,338 m²—489 m—
57Near Marksweg 20b
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 1 other source nearby
3,382 m²18.3 m3,002 mA fit only
55Hannibal II, Vogelpothsweg 12–26 (Dorstfeld)
Stalled or insolvent project · 17 storeys
27,000 m²19.5 m50 mA fit only
52Marksweg 22
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 1 other source nearby
4,764 m²—2,952 m—

Homes standing empty

Of 71 Leerstandsmelder reports on the map, 70 sit in a building we can identify — 39 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
58Sennestraße 9
Apartment building · 3 storeys · Extent not stated
1,212 m²Jun 2026
58Oberbank 9
Apartment building · 4 storeys · Extent not stated
1,064 m²Apr 2026
57Harkortstraße 48
Apartment building · Extent not stated
1,104 m²Apr 2025
53Heinrichstraße 27
Apartment building · Extent not stated
872 m²Nov 2021
53Kirchhörder Str. 44
Residential building · 3 storeys · Whole building
705 m²Nov 2020
52Ostwall 12
Apartment building · Extent not stated
700 m²Jun 2025
45Lange Straße 7
Apartment building · Extent not stated
762 m²May 2026
43Kaiserstraße 29
Apartment building · 4 storeys · Extent not stated
2,445 m²Oct 2025
41Rheinische Straße 71
Apartment building · Extent not stated
650 m²Apr 2026
39Feldherrnstraße 54
Apartment building · Extent not stated
620 m²Oct 2026

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

Union and Dorstfeld

The city-owned former Versorgungsamt (18,000 m², empty since 2011) and the cleared Hannibal II towers sit in the inner-city districts with the highest flat vacancy, where the city holds a special pre-emption right.

  • Flat vacancy above 5% in Union, City-West, City-Ost and Cityring-West (31 Dec 2025)
  • Special pre-emption statute for the study area in force since 16 Jul 2021
  • Versorgungsamt bought by the city in 2025; Hannibal II (412 flats) cleared in 2017

Risk: The preparatory redevelopment studies for Unterdorstfeld and Union West have been paused since June 2024.

2 sources

Nordstadt

The city's focus for 'problem houses' — neglected, empty or misused buildings — which it buys and passes on to owners with the best renovation concepts.

  • Problem houses down from 122 (2017) to 39 (end of 2022)
  • A subsidised purchase-and-resale fund proposed on 21 Sep 2026

Risk: The city's list of problem houses is not public; the new purchase fund still needs the council's decision (November 2026).

2 sources

Hörde — Phoenix-West

Former steelworks land with large halls the cadastre flags unused (Phoenixplatz 6, footprint about 6,600 m²) and a land-use plan in procedure since 2004.

  • Phoenixplatz 6 flagged unused (cadastre, July 2026)
  • Plan 'Hoe 253 – Phoenix-West' in procedure since 15 Jul 2004

Risk: Industrial halls in a business and technology park; homes are not the planned use.

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
City agency

Stadt Dortmund — problem-house fund (Nordstadt)

The city buys neglected and empty houses in the Nordstadt and resells them to the buyers with the best concepts; a subsidised fund to do more of this goes to the council in November 2026. A co-operative can bid with a concept for permanently affordable homes.

1 source
Public owner

Stadt Dortmund — Fachbereich Liegenschaften

Buildings the city no longer needs — mostly former offices and infrastructure buildings, sometimes houses — are sold by bidding procedure, announced in the press and on the city's portal. Watch for them, and ask early about the Versorgungsamt.

1 source
Allocation rule

Amt für Wohnen — Wohnraumschutzsatzung

Under the city's housing protection bylaw, flats left empty are misused; the housing office takes reports at leerstand@stadtdo.de. Offer owners facing an order to re-let a co-operative lease or sale.

1 source
Church property

Catholic and Protestant churches (Erzbistum Paderborn, Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen)

The Westphalian church has given up 120 churches and parish centres since 2015 and Heilige Familie in Marten was deconsecrated in June 2026. Ask parishes for their building plans before sales are advertised.

1 source

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-09-21
    City proposes a fund to buy problem houses

    A subsidised fund would let the city buy more neglected Nordstadt houses and sell them to the investors with the best concepts; the council decides in November.

    1 source
  2. 2026-07-28
    Cadastre flags 340 buildings unused or ruined

    The July 2026 edition of the NRW cadastre records 300 of Dortmund's 213,555 buildings as unused and 40 as ruined; 176 have a footprint of at least 150 m².

    1 source
  3. 2026-06
    Heilige Familie in Marten deconsecrated

    The 1899 church became a Manifesta 16+ venue asking how empty churches can become meeting places.

    1 source
  4. 2025-12-31
    8,500 flats empty, 6,000 of them long-term

    Flat vacancy rose slightly to 2.6% (electricity-meter method); structural vacancy of more than six months reached 1.8%.

    1 source
  5. 2025-04-22
    City buys the former Versorgungsamt

    The listed building, empty since 2011 and damaged by intruders and a fire, is to be developed by the city; no use decided yet.

    1 source

Sources and freshness

22 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 API0Live
2026-10-09
Official public notice (§ 39 ZVG)
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API193Live
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 download28 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 API602 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 permission71Live
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 API116Live
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)
Buildings the cadastre flags unused or ruined (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS Grundrissdaten, NAS)
Open download176Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Administration buildings in the cadastre (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika'
Open API133Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API728Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Brownfield land mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API87Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Land-use plans in procedure (City of Dortmund, Aufstellungsbeschluss)
Stadt Dortmund — Stadtplanungs- und Bauordnungsamt, 'Bebauungsplanübersicht' (open-data.dortmund.de)
Open download67Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Free offices, shops and halls in Dortmund on ruhrsite, the Ruhr's commercial property exchange
Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH (Regionalverband Ruhr) with the city's Wirtschaftsförderung — ruhrsite
Open download103Live
2026-10-09
No licence read — the terms of use (Nutzungsbedingungen.pdf) are a scanned PDF without text; used with credit to Business Metropole Ruhr; only address, type, area and availability are kept

What this radar cannot see yet

  • The city's list of 'problem houses' (39 at the end of 2022) and its records of reported empty flats are not public.
  • No open list of empty city buildings: the property department announces disposals one by one in the press.
  • Council papers: the council system (rathaus.dortmund.de, Lotus Notes 'dosys') has no open search interface; answers naming empty buildings could not be mined.
  • The cadastre flag is partly stale (a demolished school is still flagged) and leans to industrial halls.
  • Floor area: the NRW 3D model gives heights (adapter still to write); the city's own cadastre extract records storeys for every building.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Amsterdam, Netherlands60empty buildings on recordBerlin, Germany1,875empty buildings on recordBielefeld, Germany101empty buildings on recordBochum, Germany155empty buildings on recordBonn, Germany141empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany205empty buildings on recordCologne, Germany374empty 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 recordGroningen, Netherlands10empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany524empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany197empty buildings on recordLeipzig, Germany342empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany82empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany316empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany109empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany175empty buildings on recordUtrecht, Netherlands13empty buildings on recordWuppertal, Germany224empty buildings on record