Office figures: Catella Market Review Finland, Spring 2026 (Q4 2025): Espoo offices 17.1% vacant, 286,000 m² empty; by sub-market Leppävaara 21.1% (60,000 m²), Otaniemi–Pohjois-Tapiola 21.7% (49,000 m²), Matinkylä–Niittykumpu 22.1% (37,000 m²), Tapiola 13.4%, Keilaniemi 13.0%. Helsinki Research Forum puts the capital region at 18.6% in September 2026. Map built 2026-10-09.
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.
0 empty buildings · colour = type, dark ring = confirmed
Check any building in Espoo: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?
Where empty offices, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together — and what could go wrong.
The second office hub after Otaniemi–Keilaniemi, around a rail interchange; vacancy has stayed above one fifth.
Risk: The offices are privately owned and the register says nothing about vacancy; a conversion needs a plan change or an exception decision.
The largest concentration of office floor space, with older buildings next to new ones; two office-to-housing projects are under way in Pohjois-Tapiola.
Risk: Keilaniemi's vacancy is lower (13.0%); the weak stock is the older space around Otaniemi (21.7%).
A sub-centre on the metro with the highest office vacancy of the city (22.1%).
Risk: Smaller buildings and a thinner market for conversion buyers than in Leppävaara.
The City is looking for a buyer for the vacant 1910 Kungsgårdsskolan school, 700 m from the railway station.
Risk: Protected building of about 1,000 m²: it needs renovation and a use the plan allows; the City found no applicant in 2025.
Who controls the space, and what a housing cooperative can actually do with them.
The City offers buildings it no longer needs through open application rounds rather than a price auction: the applicant's plan for the building is judged, the buildings are sold and the land leased. Open now: Kungsgårdsskolan (continuous call), the Bemböle old school (to 16 Oct 2026) and Villa Rulludd (7 Oct – 21 Dec 2026). A co-operative with a housing concept for a heritage building can apply, but the uses the City lists are services, workspaces and culture.
Where a plan change is needed the City gives the winner a planning reservation and a pre-agreement to buy the buildings; the final sale and the ground-lease contract follow once the plan is confirmed. The route fits a co-op that can carry a plan change for a protected building.
Where an owner holds a half-empty office building, the City can allow housing by exception decision — its project page says Tietäjäntie 2 in Pohjois-Tapiola is being converted to housing for older people this way. A co-operative would buy or lease from the owner; the City decides the permit.
Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.
The City opens its two-stage application round for the Kaitaa seafront villa and outbuildings (to 21 Dec 2026); viewings in weeks 43–45.
About 820,000 m² empty in the main office areas (18.6%), 25,800 m² more than at the start of the year; vacancy fell most in Keilaniemi.
The City extends the planning-reservation call to 16 Oct 2026 noon and adds a viewing.
The local plan that lets an under-used 1981 commercial building in Pohjois-Tapiola be replaced by a five-storey block of flats entered into force.
The City reopens the search for a buyer for the vacant 1910 school; the 2025 round drew no applications.
18 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 71 | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | scoring | Live 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 download | 30 buildings sized | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL |
| Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden) European Environment Agency | Open API | scoring | Live 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 permission | 0 | Pending 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 download | 0 | Live 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 download | 0 | Live 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 API | 57 | Live 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 research | 0 | Live 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 research | 0 | Live 2026-10-09 | Cited publisher per point |
| Named buildings and sites from EHC research (each with its own source) European Housing Coop research | EHC research | 5 | Live 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 API | scoring | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| Apartment blocks registered as empty (national building register, Ryhti) Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), Ryhti built-environment information system — data from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency and the municipalities; addresses joined from Ryhti open_address by scripts/reuse/import-espoo-ryhti-empty.ts | Open download | 30 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (Syke open data: credit Finnish Environment Institute Syke, Ryhti buildings) |
| Houses of 150 m² or more registered as empty (national building register, Ryhti) Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), Ryhti built-environment information system — data from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency and the municipalities; addresses joined from Ryhti open_address by scripts/reuse/import-espoo-ryhti-empty.ts | Open download | 598 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (Syke open data: credit Finnish Environment Institute Syke, Ryhti buildings) |
| Office buildings of 1,000 m² or more, with floor area and storeys (City of Espoo building register) City of Espoo — city survey data, read by scripts/reuse/import-espoo-city-layers.ts | Open API | 237 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (City of Espoo, buildings dataset on avoindata.fi / HRI) |
| Industrial and warehouse buildings with 3+ storeys and 500 m² or more (City of Espoo building register) City of Espoo — city survey data, read by scripts/reuse/import-espoo-city-layers.ts | Open API | 22 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (City of Espoo, buildings dataset on avoindata.fi / HRI) |
| Local plan projects (City of Espoo planning projects) City of Espoo — urban planning (WFS GIS:Kaavoitushankkeet_pisteet), read by scripts/reuse/import-espoo-city-layers.ts | Open API | 161 | Live 2026-10-09 | No licence stated on this layer (service says AccessConstraints: none, Fees: none; the City's catalogue datasets are CC BY 4.0) — used with credit to the City of Espoo |
| City-owned business plots on offer (free business plots) City of Espoo — plot unit (WFS GIS:VapaatYritystontit), read by scripts/reuse/import-espoo-city-layers.ts | Open API | 2 | Live 2026-10-09 | No licence stated on this layer — used with credit to the City of Espoo |
| Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 43 | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 |
Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Espoo 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 134 cities in the atlas
The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.