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Reuse radar

Łódź

Łódź's national topographic database records 158 buildings as ruined (the most of the four Polish cities in this round) and 165 as out of use; the City's own building register lists 59 of the 323 flagged buildings still standing as owned wholly or partly by the City (45) or the State Treasury (14). The City itself planned to pull down 161 buildings in 2026 — 47 homes, 88 outbuildings and 26 utility buildings — with more than 100 gone by 24 August. Offices stand 19.8% empty, about 129,000 m². The City's property pages and bulletin answer automated requests with a bot challenge, so no sale or vacancy list could be read.
An empty building in Łódź with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
485
from 10 open sources
Vacant office space
129,000 m²
19.8% of the stock
Homes potential
—
not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland, end of Q2 2026 — 19.8% of the stock vacant, about 129,000 m² (read from the report chart; the stock, derived from it, is about 650,000 m², 9% of the eight regional markets). Only Katowice (22.2%) and Wrocław (21.8%) stand higher. Map built 2026-10-09.

Empty buildings in Łódź

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.

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

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

4 more buildings in Łódź 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.

  • Dawny I oddział banku PKO BP, al. Kościuszki — reported for sale or to let · formerly bank · owner: PKO BPThe bank branch was closed and put up for sale Dziennik Łódzki (2026-06-10)
  • Hala Expo, Stefanowskiego — reported demolition planned · formerly industrial buildingThe old exhibition hall, used until 2017, was pulled down in late 2018; a housing estate of nearly 400 flats is now rising there. Urząd Miasta Łodzi — Portal Rewitalizacji (2026-08-15)
  • Kamienica Ludwika Meyera („kamienica z motylem”), ul. Sienkiewicza 21, Łódź — reported for sale or to let · formerly public building · owner: Uniwersytet ŁódzkiThe university decided to sell the 'butterfly' tenement on Sienkiewicza street, valued at 12 million złoty, after dropping earlier renovation plans. Portal Rewitalizacji Łodzi (UMŁ) (2026-03-10)
  • pustostan przy ul. Dąbrowskiego, Dąbrowskiego — reported emptyHeadline reports a fire in a vacant building on Dąbrowskiego street. Dziennik Łódzki (2025-06-30)

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. 129,000 m² of offices stand empty (19.8% of the stock).

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

Polesie, Księży Młyn and the Scheibler quarter

The old cotton-mill quarter holds the densest cluster of recorded ruins and out-of-use factory buildings: 147 BDOT10k records within 2.5 km of Księży Młyn, among them the Osser factory and the former Uniontex preparation hall.

  • 49 of the 147 records have a footprint of 500 m² or more, 76,232 m² in all (BDOT10k, records of 9 Dec 2025)
  • The five-storey Osser factory building (2,706 m²) and the two-storey Uniontex hall (2,536 m²) are recorded ruined

Risk: Ruined factory buildings mean heavy remediation and heritage rules; some of the quarter is already loft housing.

1 source

Śródmieście — Kilińskiego, Wschodnia, Zachodnia

The centre is where the City's tenement demolitions fall: Wschodnia 18, Drewnowska 27, Okrzei 18 and Zgierska 74, a municipal tenement, are on its 2026 list, and mappers record further cleared plots at Wschodnia 50, Kilińskiego 93 and Zachodnia 78 and 80.

  • 119 records within 1.8 km, 34 of them of 500 m² or more (BDOT10k)
  • 161 buildings planned for demolition in 2026, more than 100 already pulled down by 24 August

Risk: Many of the buildings are past saving: the City says it demolishes those whose renovation would be 'unreasonable or impossible'.

3 sources

Bałuty — Łagiewnicka

A former hospital building of 3,945 m² footprint at Łagiewnicka 34/36 is recorded ruined, in the old working-class district north of the centre.

  • 76 BDOT10k records within 2.5 km, 21 of them of 500 m² or more
  • The Łagiewnicka building: three storeys, ruined (record of 9 Dec 2025)

Risk: The record is the only evidence found; owner and state need a site visit.

1 source

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-10-07First tenants in the renovated famuły at Ogrodowa

    The City lets the renovated former tenements through open calls, still running on 7 October.

    1 source
  2. 2026-08-24More than 100 ruins demolished in 2026

    161 buildings are planned (47 residential, 88 outbuildings, 26 utility); the Housing Department says it focuses on the most worn-out buildings.

    1 source
  3. 2026-08Office vacancy 19.8%, about 129,000 m²

    Against a regional average of 17.3% (PINK); only Katowice and Wrocław are higher.

    1 source
2 earlier signals
  1. 2026-03-05
    City plans to demolish 161 buildings in 2026

    The budget is about PLN 15m; named buildings include Wschodnia 18, Zgierska 74 (a municipal tenement), Drewnowska 27, Okrzei 18 and Przędzalniana 94a.

    1 source
  2. 2025
    Habitat Poland: BDOT10k flags about 2.5% of buildings as out of use or ruined

    A national study of empty non-residential buildings takes the topographic database as its first filter and warns that it rarely shows a recently abandoned building.

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

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.

Every source, its licence and when we last read it
SourceAccessRecordsStatusLicence
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API453Live
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 download461 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 permission0Pending
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 API188Live
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 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
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 research6Live
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 APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Buildings recorded out of use in the national topographic database (BDOT10k)
Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii (GUGiK) — BDOT10k, county package 1061 (Łódź)
Open download165Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse without restriction (Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a; GUGiK: no fees) — credit GUGiK. Street addresses from OpenStreetMap contributors' address points (ODbL; in Poland the national address points of GUGiK); ownership group from the City of Łódź's building register (mapa.lodz.pl ArcGIS, no licence stated) — credit Miasto Łódź
Buildings recorded as ruined in the national topographic database (BDOT10k)
Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii (GUGiK) — BDOT10k, county package 1061 (Łódź)
Open download158Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse without restriction (Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a; GUGiK: no fees) — credit GUGiK. Street addresses from OpenStreetMap contributors' address points (ODbL; in Poland the national address points of GUGiK); ownership group from the City of Łódź's building register (mapa.lodz.pl ArcGIS, no licence stated) — credit Miasto Łódź
Office buildings of four storeys or more in the national topographic database (BDOT10k)
Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii (GUGiK) — BDOT10k, county package 1061 (Łódź)
Open download401Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse without restriction (Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a; GUGiK: no fees) — credit GUGiK. Street addresses from OpenStreetMap contributors' address points (ODbL; in Poland the national address points of GUGiK)
Industrial and warehouse buildings of three storeys or more in the national topographic database (BDOT10k)
Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii (GUGiK) — BDOT10k, county package 1061 (Łódź)
Open download195Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse without restriction (Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a; GUGiK: no fees) — credit GUGiK. Street addresses from OpenStreetMap contributors' address points (ODbL; in Poland the national address points of GUGiK)
OpenStreetMap: land mapped as brownfield
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API266Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
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 research4Live
2026-10-14
Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished
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

  • The City's property pages (uml.lodz.pl) and bulletin (bip.uml.lodz.pl) answer automated requests with a human-verification challenge, which is an access control and was not worked around; its sale lists, tenders and councillors' interpellation answers about empty flats are therefore not on the radar.
  • The City map portal (msip.uml.lodz.pl) did not answer, so there is no open EGiB or building service: storeys and floor area come from BDOT10k.
  • No list of the 161 buildings in the 2026 demolition plan is published (only some streets and addresses are named), and no count of empty municipal flats could be read.
  • The revitalisation portal publishes area-level indicator maps only (PDFs), not building-level data.
  • BDOT10k's out-of-use and ruined flags lag reality: the City's own building register no longer holds 74 of the 397 flagged buildings of 100 m² or more (probably cleared in the 2026 demolition programme), so those are left out; the rest are still in the register but may be cleared soon.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Brno, Czechia201empty buildings on recordBydgoszcz, Poland285empty buildings on recordGdańsk, Poland421empty buildings on recordKošice, Slovakia43empty buildings on recordKraków, Poland356empty buildings on recordLublin, Poland205empty buildings on recordOstrava, Czechia42empty buildings on recordPoznań, Poland314empty buildings on recordPrague, Czechia1,064empty buildings on recordSzczecin, Poland355empty buildings on recordWarsaw, Poland1,369empty buildings on recordWrocław, Poland680empty buildings on record