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Reuse radar

Reykjavík

Reykjavík treats empty and surplus commercial buildings as a housing supply: its open housing-development layer holds 586 projects, 99 of them changes of use or transformations of business areas into homes, and on 28 April 2026 the City and the State agreed to put 1,200–1,400 homes on state sites, including about 90 homes in the existing state office building at Grensásvegur 9 and about 100 in the former tax-authority offices at Laugavegur 164–166, which the tax authority left on 29 August 2023. The City publishes no list of its own empty buildings as data; a report that its property office counted 29 empty or barely used city buildings in September 2026 sits behind a bot wall and could not be read.
An empty building in Reykjavík with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
10
from 8 open sources
Vacant office space
—
not yet measured
Homes potential
—
not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: No office-vacancy figure from an opened source: no open download of Iceland's property register was found and the commercial-property companies' reports were not read. Map built 2026-10-09.

Empty buildings in Reykjavík

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.

The City does not publish its empty buildings as data. Its property office told the planning committee in September 2026 that 29 city buildings stand empty or barely used (17 of them schools or kindergartens), according to an mbl.is report; the article sits behind a Cloudflare challenge and the council paper could not be found (fundur.reykjavik.is answers 403 to searches), so the list is a lead for a person: ask the office or read the committee papers.

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

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

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.

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

Borgartún, Laugavegur east and Brautarholt (office belt)

The central office belt has the State's former tax offices (Laugavegur 164–166), the Borgartún 5–7 / Guðrúnartún 6 lot and nine conversions on the City's layer.

  • Laugavegur 164–166: about 100 homes in the existing building (agreement, 28 April 2026)
  • Borgartún 5–7 and Guðrúnartún 6: homes raised from up to 120 to up to 220
  • 9 conversion records in the area on the housing-development layer

Risk: The State, not the City, owns the key buildings and the agreement fixes the programme (homes plus mixed use).

2 sources

Skeifan and Grensás (commercial district)

A shopping and office district with state-owned Grensásvegur 9 (about 90 homes in the existing building) and eleven "transformation of business area" projects on the layer, one completed in 2025.

  • Grensásvegur 9: part of the office building to become about 90 homes
  • Grensásvegur 1F completed in Q3 2025 (33 homes)

Risk: Mostly large commercial blocks owned by property companies that replace rather than reuse buildings.

2 sources

Ártúnshöfði and Vogar (former industrial area)

The largest cluster of business-area transformations: 27 projects at Ártúnshöfði and 21 at the Vogar blocks, many already under construction (stage 7).

  • 27 transformation records in the Höfði streets
  • 21 in Arkarvogur, Dugguvogur, Súðarvogur, Stefnisvogur and neighbours

Risk: Industrial land redeveloped by developers; a co-operative is more likely to buy homes than reuse a building.

1 source

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-04-28City and State agree 1,200–1,400 homes on state sites

    Sites include Grensásvegur 9 (about 90 homes in the existing office building), Laugavegur 164–166 (about 100), Borgartún 5–7 and Guðrúnartún 6 (up to 220), Laugarnesvegur 91 (up to 300) and Seljavegur 32 (about 90).

    1 source
  2. 2023-08-29Tax authority leaves Laugavegur 166

    Skatturinn moved its Reykjavík service from Tryggvagata 19 and Laugavegur 166 to Katrínartún 6, closing both old locations.

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

17 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 API5Live
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 download226 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 API47Live
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 research5Live
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)
Housing-development projects that convert commercial buildings and business areas to homes
Reykjavíkurborg — Skipulags- og samgönguráð, LUKR (layer "Húsnæðisuppbygging")
Open API98Live
2026-10-09
© Reykjavíkurborg – LUKR: no restrictions on use once moral rights are respected; users follow changes themselves (licence text of the dataset)
Schools, kindergartens, youth and leisure centres, libraries and depots owned by the City
Reykjavíkurborg — LUKR (layer "Stofnanir")
Open API225Live
2026-10-09
© Reykjavíkurborg – LUKR: no restrictions on use once moral rights are respected; users follow changes themselves (licence text of the dataset)
Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API46Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API1Live
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 research7Live
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 does not publish its empty buildings as data. Its property office told the planning committee in September 2026 that 29 city buildings stand empty or barely used (17 of them schools or kindergartens), according to an mbl.is report; the article sits behind a Cloudflare challenge and the council paper could not be found (fundur.reykjavik.is answers 403 to searches), so the list is a lead for a person: ask the office or read the committee papers.
  • No open download of Iceland's property register (Fasteignaskrá, with use and floor area) was found, so the radar has no national floor-area source beyond the Global Building Atlas.
  • Reykjavík's open layers give house footprints (Húsflákar, 28,449) without use, and the heritage list (Húsvernd), but no vacancy field.
  • No usable open aerial service: the City's 2025 orthophoto is an ArcGIS image service (no WMS) and the national mapping agency's image layers returned tiny, apparently blank images.
  • Only two city-owned buildings are named in sources read (the April 2026 agreement lists State sites); office vacancy in Reykjavík is not published as an opened figure.

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Reykjavík 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 nearest radars. All 149 cities in the atlas

The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.

Aarhus, Denmark18empty buildings on recordAmsterdam, Netherlands69empty buildings on recordBirmingham, United Kingdom148empty buildings on recordCork, Ireland415empty buildings on recordDublin, Ireland387empty buildings on recordEdinburgh, United Kingdom138empty buildings on recordGlasgow, United Kingdom176empty buildings on recordGothenburg, Sweden23empty buildings on recordGroningen, Netherlands15empty buildings on recordLondon, United Kingdom1,282empty buildings on recordManchester, United Kingdom94empty buildings on recordOslo, Norway149empty buildings on record