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Reuse radar

Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt has the highest office vacancy rate of the five radar cities and the longest record of turning offices into homes, in Niederrad's Lyoner Quartier. Some of its largest empty buildings sit with insolvent owners and defaulted foreign funds. The city has also started handing existing buildings to cooperatives on ground leases, one at a time.
An empty building in Frankfurt am Main with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
228
and 18 more with an empty shop, flat or floor
Vacant office space
1.82 million m²
11.8% of the stock
Homes potential
≈ 4,400
if 30% of empty offices converted

Office figures: BNP Paribas Real Estate, 30 June 2026 (market area as BNP defines it, including Eschborn and Offenbach); older stock = total vacancy minus BNP’s "modern" vacancy. Homes: our economic model’s conversion engine. Map built 2026-10-09.

Empty buildings in Frankfurt am Main

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.

Hessen’s cadastre records no vacancy and files offices under “commerce or industry”, so the map shows tall, shallow commercial buildings — nearly all offices in Frankfurt — not confirmed offices or empty ones. Its download centre blocks automated access, so the file was downloaded by hand (4 October 2026).

Loading map…
Colour = type of building named officially likely reported
Missing a building?

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

4 more buildings in Frankfurt am Main reported in the news, not yet on the map

The articles do not give an address we could place, so these have no pin yet. From news reports, summed up in our own words with a link to each article — not checked on site by EHC.

  • alter Biologie-Campus der Goethe-Universität — reported empty · formerly school · Public ownerThe university's former biology campus is decaying unused, and local politicians criticise the standstill. FAZ Rhein-Main (2026-03-04)
  • ehemalige Neue Börse am Industriehof — reported conversion under way · formerly office · 46,000 m²The former stock-exchange office complex at Industriehof is being converted to house two new grammar schools. Frankfurter Rundschau (2025-01-03)
  • Ehemaliger Gasthof Klaa Paris — reported for sale or to letThe vacant former inn is the subject of current sale negotiations Frankfurter Rundschau (2024-08-08)
  • Juridicum, Campus Bockenheim — reported conversion planned · formerly school · owner: Land HessenThe city will cost both refurbishment and rebuild in 2027; either way mixed use with homes is foreseen, decision by 2028. Frankfurter Rundschau (2026-10-01)

Where conversion makes sense, and who to talk to

The districts where empty space, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together, and the owners and programmes that open a door. 1.82 million m² of offices stand empty (11.8% of the stock), 796,000 m² of it older stock — the realistic pool for conversion.

A hand outlining a neighbourhood on a city map, with small houses drawn inside

Mertonviertel

An office and science district already turning residential, with rising office vacancy, low office rents and the city’s own housing company building there.

  • About 650 flats and 700 townhouses already built; vacancy rising in larger office buildings
  • B-Plan 922 (about 8.55 ha) replaces the demolished Lurgihaus with more than 1,000 flats by ABG and gsp Städtebau
  • Office rents €12–15/m² (Cushman & Wakefield, mid-2026)

Risk: Some owners refurbish instead of converting, and parts of the area are zoned for commerce, where housing is not allowed.

3 sources

Niederrad — Lyoner Quartier

Germany’s best-known office-to-housing district, steered for some 15 years by a landowner initiative and two B-Plans.

  • B-Plans 872 and 885 provide for about 3,000 flats in the former Bürostadt
  • Around 2007 about 30% of the Bürostadt’s offices stood empty
  • We Live Tower (Lyoner Straße 14, 364 apartments) and livinit (Lyoner Straße 11, 375 micro-apartments)

Risk: Rents have risen to €16 and more per m², so entry prices are no longer low.

5 sources

Bockenheim

The city is preparing existing buildings here for communal housing on Erbbaurecht, and a new quarter of about 2,000 homes reserves land for cooperatives.

  • Former Akademie der Arbeit: concept procedure for communal housing on Erbbaurecht from autumn 2027
  • Jordanstraße 3: city-owned since 2017 and largely empty for about five years by 2023
  • Römerhof: about 2,000 homes with 15% of the land for communal and cooperative housing (B-Plan 946)

Risk: Timelines are long: interim uses at the Akademie der Arbeit are secured until at least 2031, and pre-empted houses may be re-privatised.

3 sources

Westend and Bankenviertel towers

Defaulted towers and bank consolidation are emptying large buildings close to the centre.

  • Trianon (about 68,000 m²): owning SPV insolvent, sale launched July 2025, about half vacant
  • Commerzbank moves into the Central Business Tower from the end of 2028, leaving several complexes in Frankfurt and Eschborn
  • Bankenviertel vacancy 110,800 m², of which 104,500 m² modern (BNP, mid-2026)

Risk: Towers tend to convert into high-end homes, and almost all Bankenviertel vacancy is modern space owners will try to re-let.

5 sources

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-12Coming upEKHN synod decides on church buildings

    Final decisions on the Frankfurt and Offenbach building plan, ahead of a 35% cut in building funding from 1 January 2027. Category C buildings become available.

    1 source
  2. 2026-03Paradieshof concept tender opens

    The city-owned 1960s building in Alt-Sachsenhausen, empty since 2008, is offered with up to €4.5 million of investment subsidy.

    1 source
  3. 2026-02-26Wittelsbacherallee 89 goes to a cooperative

    DachGeno RheinMain eG won the Erbbaurecht concept procedure for the empty, pre-empted house; the contract is expected around the turn of 2026/27.

    1 source
3 earlier signals
  1. 2026-01-21
    Römerhof plan on public display

    B-Plan 946 for about 2,000 homes on the VGF bus depot, 15% of the land for communal and cooperative housing, was on display until 23 February 2026.

    1 source
  2. 2025-09-24
    Banks to decide the Altes Polizeipräsidium’s fate

    Empty for more than two decades and held by insolvent Gerch companies; creditor banks were to choose between waiting and a quick sale in early 2026.

    1 source
  3. 2025-07-10
    Trianon put up for sale

    The insolvency administrator launched a sale of the 186 m tower against about €370 million of debt; it was reported about half vacant.

    2 sources

Sources, and what we cannot see

23 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.

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
Hessen building cadastre (ALKIS) — commercial buildings, 4+ storeys
Hessische Verwaltung für Bodenmanagement und Geoinformation (HVBG)
The download centre's robots.txt forbids automated access, so a person downloads the Grundrissdaten ZIP and scripts/reuse/import-hessen-alkis.ts reads it from disk (docs/reuse-radar.md runbook). Offices are not told apart from other commerce in Hessen's cadastre.
Manual download1,022Snapshot
2026-10-04
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
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 API132Live
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 download66 buildings sizedLive
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 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 permission192Live
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 download10Live
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 download48Live
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 API60Live
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 API1Live
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 research3Live
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 research12Live
2026-10-09
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 research20Live
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)
Homes and mixed buildings the Magistrat names empty in answers to the city council and local councils (PARLIS, since 2018)
Stadt Frankfurt am Main — Büro der Stadtverordnetenversammlung (PARLIS)
Open download6Live
2026-10-09
Official documents (§ 5 UrhG, no copyright); credit "Stadt Frankfurt am Main, PARLIS, <Vorlage>". No open-data licence stated. Located with OpenStreetMap (Photon/Nominatim, ODbL).
Public buildings the Magistrat names empty in answers to the city council and local councils (PARLIS, since 2018)
Stadt Frankfurt am Main — Büro der Stadtverordnetenversammlung (PARLIS)
Open download2Live
2026-10-09
Official documents (§ 5 UrhG, no copyright); credit "Stadt Frankfurt am Main, PARLIS, <Vorlage>". No open-data licence stated. Located with OpenStreetMap (Photon/Nominatim, ODbL).
Other buildings (offices, shops, halls) the Magistrat names empty in answers to the city council and local councils (PARLIS, since 2018)
Stadt Frankfurt am Main — Büro der Stadtverordnetenversammlung (PARLIS)
Open download2Live
2026-10-09
Official documents (§ 5 UrhG, no copyright); credit "Stadt Frankfurt am Main, PARLIS, <Vorlage>". No open-data licence stated. Located with OpenStreetMap (Photon/Nominatim, ODbL).
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 research33Live
2026-10-14
Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished
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 downloadscoringLive
2026-10-14
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 downloadscoringLive
2026-10-14
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 APIscoringLive
2026-10-14
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

What this radar cannot see yet

  • Hessen’s cadastre records no vacancy and files offices under “commerce or industry”, so the map shows tall, shallow commercial buildings — nearly all offices in Frankfurt — not confirmed offices or empty ones. Its download centre blocks automated access, so the file was downloaded by hand (4 October 2026).
  • Land values are free in Hessen in principle, but the WFS address could not be found, so the residential-versus-office value gap is not shown.
  • No list of empty city buildings was found, and the city’s building-gap atlas was unreachable on 4 October 2026.
  • Leerstandsmelder reports are public reports, not checked by EHC, and carry no end date — the map shows those made since 2016, each linked to its entry on leerstandsmelder.de.

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Frankfurt am Main 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 149 cities in the atlas

The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.

Aachen, Germany120empty buildings on recordAugsburg, Germany249empty buildings on recordBerlin, Germany1,902empty buildings on recordBielefeld, Germany103empty buildings on recordBochum, Germany160empty buildings on recordBonn, Germany148empty buildings on recordBraunschweig, Germany83empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany216empty buildings on recordChemnitz, Germany244empty buildings on recordCologne, Germany398empty buildings on recordDortmund, Germany314empty buildings on recordDresden, Germany347empty buildings on recordDuisburg, Germany147empty buildings on recordDüsseldorf, Germany62empty buildings on recordEindhoven, Netherlands10empty buildings on recordEssen, Germany225empty buildings on recordGelsenkirchen, Germany97empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany555empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany203empty buildings on recordKarlsruhe, Germany90empty buildings on recordKiel, Germany66empty buildings on recordLeipzig, Germany345empty buildings on recordLiège, Belgium262empty buildings on recordLuxembourg City, Luxembourg73empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany87empty buildings on recordMönchengladbach, Germany192empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany333empty buildings on recordMünster, Germany173empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany110empty buildings on recordStrasbourg, France30empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany186empty buildings on recordWiesbaden, Germany39empty buildings on recordWuppertal, Germany236empty buildings on record