Office figures: No Gelsenkirchen office vacancy figure is published. For the Ruhr as a whole Business Metropole Ruhr reports 992,500 m² vacant (5.5%) in H1 2025, with city figures only for Dortmund and Duisburg; ruhrsite listed one free Gelsenkirchen office building (2,500 m², Magdeburger Straße) on 15 Oct 2026. 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.
Check any building in Gelsenkirchen: 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.
Two church sites closed or for sale, a redevelopment area and a pre-emption bylaw: the city is already intervening.
Risk: A concentration of problem properties; street works have run for years.
Housing vacancy rated 'very high', a formal redevelopment area since 2024 and new state money to reuse empty shops.
Risk: The weakest market in the city, with falling prices in eastern Schalke.
The largest cluster of empty commercial units, including large ones whose upper floors could take homes.
Risk: Owners unknown; ground floors are retail.
The stronger northern centre, where church property is coming free.
Risk: Higher prices.
Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.
The parish centre is to be given up at the start of 2027 (headline and teaser only).
Urban-renewal money for reusing empty shop units, the St. Joseph church and paths.
The July 2026 NRW cadastre records 89 of Gelsenkirchen's 99,124 buildings as unused and 1 as ruined; 57 have a footprint of at least 150 m².
Up to 3,000 flats to leave the market by 2032; about 9,000 surplus homes and about 500 problem properties; 73 buildings bought.
Tops up about €15m already granted.
30 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 | 86 | 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 | 7 buildings sized | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 API | 205 buildings sized | Live 2026-10-15 | Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0 |
| 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 | 1 | 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 | 3 | 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 | 41 | 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 | 8 | 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 |
| 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 | 1 | 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 |
| Buildings the cadastre flags unused or ruined (ALKIS) Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS Grundrissdaten, NAS) | Open download | 57 | Live 2026-10-15 | dl-de/zero-2-0 |
| Administration buildings in the cadastre (ALKIS) Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika' | Open API | 64 | Live 2026-10-15 | dl-de/zero-2-0 |
| Buildings for public purposes in the cadastre (ALKIS) Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika' | Open API | 10 | Live 2026-10-15 | dl-de/zero-2-0 |
| Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr) | Open API | 36 | Live 2026-10-15 | ODbL 1.0 |
| Brownfield land mapped in OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr) | Open API | 43 | Live 2026-10-15 | ODbL 1.0 |
| Empty shops and business units (City of Gelsenkirchen vacancy register) Stadt Gelsenkirchen — Infrastrukturdatenbank, layer 'Gewerbe-Leerstand' (open data: 'Leerstände der Stadt Gelsenkirchen'), OGC API Features | Open API | 466 | Live 2026-10-15 | dl-de/zero-2-0 |
| Churches out of service still owned by a church (city church layer) Stadt Gelsenkirchen — Infrastrukturdatenbank, layer 'Kirche', OGC API Features | Open API | 12 | Live 2026-10-15 | dl-de/zero-2-0 |
| Land-use plans the city has decided to draw up (Aufstellungsbeschluss) Stadt Gelsenkirchen — WFS Bebauungsplan (open data: Bebauungsplanumringe), layer Aufstellungsbeschluss | Open API | 176 | Live 2026-10-15 | dl-de/zero-2-0 |
| Free offices, shops and halls in Gelsenkirchen on ruhrsite, the Ruhr's commercial property exchange Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH (Regionalverband Ruhr) with the city's Wirtschaftsförderung — ruhrsite | Open download | 1 | Live 2026-10-15 | 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 |
Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Gelsenkirchen 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.