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Reuse radar

Marseille

After two buildings collapsed on rue d'Aubagne in November 2018, Marseille began publishing every building safety order in force, street by street, with the orders themselves. Read order by order, that list shows 1,291 addresses under an order today, and about 200 buildings closed to anyone living in or using them. Public bodies are taking on the worst: the Métropole's developers hold or are acquiring 58 degraded buildings in the centre to recycle into homes, and the City sells its own vacant property for housing through calls, auctions and listings.
An empty building in Marseille with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
471
from 15 open sources
Vacant office space
233,800 m²
3.6% of the stock
Homes potential
≈ 641
if 30% of empty offices converted

Office figures: Cushman & Wakefield, H1 2026 — 233,800 m² of offices available at once in the Aix-Marseille area (+20% in a year), vacancy 3.6%; the rise comes only from second-hand space released (+24% in Marseille), while take-up fell 35% to 48,300 m², its lowest in five years. Homes: our economic model’s conversion engine. Map built 2026-10-09.

Empty buildings in Marseille

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.

There is no open list of empty homes: the national vacant-homes file (LOVAC) is restricted to public authorities; the Métropole publishes only statistics by IRIS.

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

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

2 more buildings in Marseille 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.

  • bastide Athéna — reported empty · formerly residential building · owner: Ville de MarseilleThe city named the Athéna country house among its first neglected heritage properties seeking a project to bring them back into use. Made in Marseille (archive) (2025-01-11)
  • Galeries Lafayette du Centre Bourse — reported empty · formerly department store · 22,000 m² · owner: CitynoveThe former Galeries Lafayette space at Centre Bourse has stood empty since the store closed in late 2025; candidates floated ideas for reusing it. Made in Marseille (2026-02-25)

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. 233,800 m² of offices stand empty (3.6% of the stock).

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

Noailles, Belsunce and the 1st arrondissement

The heart of Marseille's failing-building crisis: the most safety orders in force, and the Métropole's recycling blocks (Noailles) where public developers hold dozens of buildings.

  • 308 buildings under a safety order in force, 55 closed whole (City list)
  • 31 of the 58 buildings held or being acquired by Marseille Habitat and the SPLA-IN

Risk: Small, deep, co-owned buildings with heavy structural works; most recycled buildings are already promised to social landlords.

3 sources

Belle de Mai, Saint-Mauront and the 3rd arrondissement

Dense 19th-century streets with the second-largest number of safety orders and a priority recycling block (Clovis Hugues / Belle de Mai).

  • 221 buildings under a safety order in force, 38 closed whole
  • 12 of the 65 degraded co-owned estates in the recovery agreement

Risk: Low incomes and a fragile tenant population: any purchase must keep people housed.

2 sources

Joliette and Euroméditerranée (2nd and 3rd)

The office district, where most of Marseille's lettings happen and where the City's former Paquet headquarters stands empty.

  • 90 boulevard des Dames: 4,000+ m² City building empty since 2020
  • Most of Marseille's 31,050 m² of H1 2026 take-up was in Euroméditerranée and Marseille Sud

Risk: Prime offices are let; empty space is mostly second-hand floors, not whole buildings.

2 sources

Northern arrondissements (13th–16th)

Large degraded co-owned estates of the 1960s–70s, many under the State–Métropole–City recovery agreement, and the most brownfields.

  • 34 of the 65 degraded co-owned estates (13th, 14th, 15th)
  • 216 buildings under a safety order in force

Risk: Estates are lived in; recovery means works and buy-backs of flats, not empty buildings.

2 sources

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-09-15Street building in Noailles closed and recorded as vacant

    16 rue de l'Académie: safety order forbidding all occupation until works; the rear building has been demolished.

    1 source
  2. 2026-07-01Office lettings at a five-year low

    Take-up −35% in H1 2026; available space +20%, all of it second-hand.

    1 source
  3. 2026-02-2390 boulevard des Dames to become a film hub

    The City's 4,000+ m² Art Deco building, empty since 2020, is chosen for 'Les Dames'; sale to be approved.

    1 source
3 earlier signals
  1. 2026
    43,594 private homes empty, 14,137 for two years or more

    Cerema's LOVAC file (tax records) counts 43,594 private homes vacant on 1 January 2025, 14,137 of them for two years or more, against 401,147 private homes. The 2026 edition changed method, so it runs above earlier years; the address-level file goes only to local authorities.

    1 source
  2. 2025-12-15
    Habitat indigne concession extended to 2028

    Marseille Habitat must finish acquiring 8 buildings and sell 12 it holds; 46 of its 63 acquisitions sold so far.

    1 source
  3. 2025-05-06
    First building declared manifestly abandoned

    9 traverse Sainte-Marie (3rd): report of manifest abandonment, the City's route to acquire empty, neglected property.

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

26 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 API312Live
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 download64 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Storeys and heights: BD TOPO buildings (IGN)
Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière (IGN)
Source : IGN – BD TOPO®. Recorded storeys (nombre_d_etages) where given, else the eaves height (lowest roof above lowest ground).
Open API1,377 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte 2.0 (Etalab)
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 API104Live
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 research8Live
2026-10-09
Facts cited to their publishers
Listed buildings: Mérimée (monuments historiques)
Ministère de la Culture (Plateforme ouverte du patrimoine)
Buildings classés or inscrits as monuments historiques, wholly or in part (the part is named). A monument counts when its point lies in the record’s BD TOPO outline or on its façade (within 3 m).
Open downloadscoringLive
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte 2.0 (Etalab)
Year built: IGN BD TOPO buildings
Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière (IGN)
The date a building appeared (date_d_apparition, from the land tax files) of the BD TOPO building a record sits in.
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte 2.0 (Etalab)
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 closed by a safety order: no one may live in or use them
Ville de Marseille — arrêtés de mise en sécurité (building safety orders in force)
Open download200Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — public administrative acts, used with credit to the Ville de Marseille
Buildings under a safety order (part closed, or works ordered)
Ville de Marseille — arrêtés de mise en sécurité (building safety orders in force)
Open download1,026Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — public administrative acts, used with credit to the Ville de Marseille
Degraded buildings held by the Métropole's developers to be recycled into homes
Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence — annual reports (CRAC 2024) of Marseille Habitat (habitat indigne concession) and the SPLA-IN (Multisites concession)
Open download50Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — annexes to public deliberations, used with credit to the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence
Degraded buildings the Métropole is acquiring by pre-emption or expropriation
Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence — CRAC 2024 of Marseille Habitat's habitat indigne concession (lot 1)
Open download8Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — annex to a public deliberation, used with credit to the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence
Degraded co-owned estates in the State–Métropole–City recovery agreement
Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence — Observatoire de l'habitat (data.ampmetropole.fr)
Open API65Live
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte 2.0 (Etalab)
Disused sites with no project yet (Cartofriches)
Cerema — Cartofriches (sites référencés, edition 7 October 2026), fed by the Métropole's own inventory
Open download60Live
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
Brownfields with a project, and unchecked former industrial sites (Cartofriches)
Cerema — Cartofriches (sites référencés, edition 7 October 2026)
Open download130Live
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
Permits turning offices, shops and public buildings into homes (Sitadel, 2013–2026)
SDES (Ministry for Ecological Transition) — Sitadel, list of planning permits creating homes
Open download93Live
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
Service buildings of six storeys or more with no homes (IGN BD TOPO)
IGN – BD TOPO, via the Géoplateforme
Open API173Live
2026-10-09
Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
Département des Bouches-du-Rhône: sale dossiers for buildings "libre de toute occupation"
Département des Bouches-du-Rhône
Open download4Live
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 research9Live
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

  • There is no open list of empty homes: the national vacant-homes file (LOVAC) is restricted to public authorities; the Métropole publishes only statistics by IRIS.
  • Most safety orders are anonymised scans: whether an order forbids occupation is read by OCR from pages 2–6, so some bans are missed (those buildings stay in the weaker layer); the City warns its list is not exhaustive.
  • The SPLA-IN's and Marseille Habitat's lists come from their 2024 reports; acquisitions since then are not yet published.
  • Live State property sales (cessions.immobilier-etat.gouv.fr) refuse automated requests.
  • No list of vacant buildings of AP-HM (the hospitals), the diocese or the State in Marseille was found.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Andorra la Vella, Andorra2empty buildings on recordBordeaux, France171empty buildings on recordGenoa, Italy176empty buildings on recordLille, France56empty buildings on recordLyon, France54empty buildings on recordMonaco, Monaco2empty buildings on recordMontpellier, France28empty buildings on recordNantes, France45empty buildings on recordNice, France48empty buildings on recordParis, France60empty buildings on recordStrasbourg, France30empty buildings on recordToulouse, France74empty buildings on recordTurin, Italy100empty buildings on record