Office figures: Helsinki Research Forum (CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers, KTI, Reagle): about 820,000 m² empty in the capital region's main office areas at the end of September 2026, 18.6% of about 4.4 million m²; Grade A 8.9%. Homes: our economic model’s conversion engine. Map built 2026-10-09.
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 Helsinki: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?
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.
The districts where empty space, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together, and the owners and programmes that open a door. 820,000 m² of offices stand empty (18.6% of the stock).
The second office centre after the city core: a large stock of 1970s–2000s office buildings around the main rail hub.
Risk: The offices are privately owned and the register says nothing about vacancy; any conversion needs a plan change.
Dense inner-city housing districts with older office buildings, two of which the city is selling.
Risk: The city's own buildings here are sold with tenants or as development sites at market price.
The largest concentration of office floor space, where Grade A space lets but older buildings fall behind.
Risk: Central prices; many buildings are protected.
Most of the buildings in the city's 2026 sale plan stand here, including sites sold with their plots for service and residential use.
Risk: Mostly villas and small buildings, often protected — community projects rather than co-op housing at scale.
Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.
The city proposes wider use of price competitions and auctions, a new price-competition model for urban renewal areas, and an end to reserving detached-house plots for local families.
About 820,000 m² empty in the capital region's main office areas at the end of September 2026 (18.6%), 25,800 m² more than at the start of the year; one shop-to-office conversion counted in the core.
Senaatti-kiinteistöt seeks a developer partner by design and plot-allocation competition for a new area on the Viikki tram line.
Senaatti-kiinteistöt sold 45 properties no longer used by the State for €44.7 million, below target because of the weak market.
The city prepared the sale of ten buildings (committee 3 Feb 2026), mostly in Laajasalo, after selling 20 sites with 50 buildings in 2025; the Töölö office building and Sturenkatu 25 are to follow as development sites.
Stadin ammattiopisto moved its teaching to the new Roihupelto campus at the start of 2026, emptying about 29,000 m² of City buildings at Sturenkatu and Nilsiänkatu that the City plans to sell or develop.
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.
| Source | Access | Records | Status | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 160 | 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 | 41 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 | 6 | 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 | 70 | 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 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 | 13 | 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-helsinki-ryhti-empty.ts | Open download | 78 | 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-helsinki-ryhti-empty.ts | Open download | 400 | 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 Helsinki building register) City of Helsinki, Urban Environment Division — City Survey Services | Open API | 729 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimittauspalvelut) |
| Industrial and warehouse buildings with 3+ storeys and 500 m² or more (City of Helsinki building register) City of Helsinki, Urban Environment Division — City Survey Services | Open API | 204 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimittauspalvelut) |
| City-owned plots offered to businesses now (free business plots) City of Helsinki, Urban Environment Division — land allocation | Open API | 86 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (Helsingin kaupunki) |
| Local plans in preparation (planning register) City of Helsinki, Urban Environment Division — planning register (Kaavahakemisto) | Open API | 79 | Live 2026-10-09 | CC BY 4.0 (Helsingin kaupunki) |
| Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 102 | Live 2026-10-09 | ODbL 1.0 |
| City of Helsinki: premises and buildings for sale, now and coming up City of Helsinki — Urban Environment Division | Open download | 8 | Live 2026-10-09 | not stated (page © City of Helsinki 2026) — credited to the publisher |
| City of Helsinki: residential buildings for sale, now and coming up City of Helsinki — Urban Environment Division | Open download | 7 | Live 2026-10-09 | not stated — credited to the publisher |
| 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 | 6 | Live 2026-10-14 | Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished |
| Year built: Ryhti national built-environment register Suomen ympäristökeskus (Syke) — Ryhti The completion year (valmistumispäivämäärä; only the year — the day is often a placeholder) of the nearest registered building within 30 m (Ryhti gives each building as one point). | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-10-14 | CC BY 4.0 |
| 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 2026-10-14 | 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 |
Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Helsinki 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.