One point per building, from public records, open data and cited reports. Open one to see who says so and whether it could become homes.
Check any building in Rotterdam: 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.
Office figures: Metropoolregio Rotterdam Den Haag office strategy 2025–2035: stock 3.17 million m² and vacancy 7.2% in the municipality of Rotterdam in 2023; vacant area = stock × rate (an estimate). Knight Frank (April 2026) puts the Alexander district highest, at 14.5%. Homes: our economic model’s conversion engine. Map built 2026-11-06.
The districts where empty space, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together, and the owners and programmes that open a door. 228,000 m² of offices stand empty (7.2% of the stock).
The city itself holds empty buildings here: former schools on the Huismanstraat and city-owned homes on the Beijerlandselaan.
Risk: The schools are earmarked for the 'scholenschuif' from 2026–2027, and some city homes are in poor repair.
The office district with the highest vacancy in Rotterdam, in older buildings next to a rail and metro hub.
Risk: Peripheral for offices, so owners may hold out for office tenants or demolition; which buildings are empty is not published.
The city's first plot for a housing co-operative, 'Landhuis', with room for about 30 mid-rent homes.
Risk: New build on a city plot, not a conversion; the tender was expected for October 2026.
Port areas in transformation that the city is studying for housing co-operatives.
Risk: Plans are at different, mostly early stages; port buildings may be listed or let to creative businesses.
Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.
After council questions on the city’s own empty property, the housing alderman promised a plan for a vacancy ordinance (fines for owners who leave buildings empty) in November 2026 and a new sweep of the whole municipal portfolio; 93 city buildings are said to be in too poor a state for temporary use.
Groups can sign up for city plots; the first, Landhuis in Nesselande (about 30 mid-rent homes), was due to go out by tender in October 2026.
Data the city gave the local newsroom OPEN Rotterdam show 327 empty and 228 temporarily used city-owned properties (4 Aug 2025), at least 255 of them homes, most in the Rotterdam-Zuid programme areas — Carnisse alone has more than 150. For 124 the city cannot readily say how long they have been empty.
Knight Frank names Alexander the Rotterdam district with the highest office vacancy, citing its older stock.
16 city-owned homes on the Beijerlandselaan and Groene Hilledijk were empty, half of them for more than two years.
About 17,000 Rotterdam homes stood empty in an average year between 2018 and 2024 (just over 5%); five parties proposed an ordinance.
The city lists 24 former school buildings, empty from a few months to more than ten years; most are held in reserve for temporary school housing, some will be demolished or sold. All but one are on this map.
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.
| Source | Access | Records | Status | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 31 | Live 2026-11-06 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-11-06 | 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 | 5 buildings sized | Live 2026-11-06 | CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL |
| Heights and floor areas: 3DBAG and the BAG register 3DBAG (TU Delft 3D geoinformation, 3DGI); Kadaster (BAG via PDOK) © 3DBAG by tudelft3d and 3DGI. The usable floor area of the units in each building (BAG verblijfsobjecten) where it has units, else storeys from the 70th-percentile roof height. | Open API | 314 buildings sized | Live 2026-11-06 | CC BY 4.0 (3DBAG); CC0 (BAG) |
| Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden) European Environment Agency | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-11-06 | 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 2026-11-06 | 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 | 1 | Live 2026-11-06 | 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 | 53 | Live 2026-11-06 | 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 | 175 | Live 2026-11-06 | Copernicus open data (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2006–2021, EEA) |
| Church buildings no longer used for worship (Reliwiki) Reliwiki — Dutch database of religious buildings (volunteers), found through Wikidata Every religious building in the city that Wikidata links to a Reliwiki page (P8897); scripts/reuse/import-reliwiki.ts reads the page (live, or its newest Wayback Machine snapshot when reliwiki.nl is down, as on 7 Oct 2026). Category "Buiten Gebruik" with no current use = empty; with another use = already converted (a precedent). Reliwiki states no licence: shown with credit and a link to each page (decision 6 Oct 2026), off on request. | EHC research | 0 | Live 2026-11-06 | No licence stated — credited and linked per building (Wikidata links: CC0) |
| 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 2026-11-06 | 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 2026-11-06 | 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 | 15 | Live 2026-11-06 | 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 | 27 | Live 2026-11-06 | Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished |
| Listed buildings: Rijksmonumenten Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (via PDOK) National monuments as outlines (INSPIRE protected sites). Municipal monuments are not in this register. | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-11-06 | CC BY 4.0 |
| Year built: BAG building register Kadaster (Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen, via PDOK) The original construction year (bouwjaar) of the BAG building a record sits in. | Open API | scoring | Live 2026-11-06 | CC0 1.0 |
| 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 2026-11-06 | ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors) |
| 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 2026-11-06 | 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 |
| Buildings registered as out of use (BAG) Kadaster — Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen (via PDOK) | Open API | 5 | Live 2026-11-06 | CC0 1.0 |
| Religious buildings the city records as without use Gemeente Rotterdam (religious buildings layer, ArcGIS Online) | Open API | 7 | Live 2026-11-06 | No licence stated; published openly by the City of Rotterdam's ArcGIS organisation — shown with credit (decision 6 Oct 2026 for unlicensed public layers) |
| School buildings out of teaching use (city answer to the council, Jan 2025) Gemeente Rotterdam — college van B&W, answer M2412-3918, attachment 1 | Manual download | 23 | Snapshot 2025-01-14 | Public council document (Woo/Gemeentewet publication); no licence stated — used with credit to the City of Rotterdam |
| Office-only buildings with a unit of 1,000 m² or more (BAG) Kadaster — Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen (via PDOK) | Open API | 274 | Live 2026-11-06 | CC0 1.0 |
| Buildings with a demolition permit granted (BAG) Kadaster — Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen (via PDOK) | Open API | 215 | Live 2026-11-06 | CC0 1.0 |
| Housing construction programme (city) Gemeente Rotterdam (Woningbouw Programma, ArcGIS Online) | Open API | 607 | Used, not shown 2026-11-06 | No licence stated; published openly by the City of Rotterdam's ArcGIS organisation |
| Brownfield land (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors | Open API | 27 | Live 2026-11-06 | ODbL 1.0 |
| City of Rotterdam property for sale and rent (gemeentelijkvastgoed010.nl) Gemeente Rotterdam — Stadsontwikkeling, Vastgoed | Open download | 32 | Live 2026-11-06 | not stated — credited to the publisher |
| Rijksvastgoedbedrijf: Bovenstraat 131, Rotterdam (Biedboek, State property for sale) Rijksvastgoedbedrijf / Biedboek.nl | Open API | 1 | Live 2026-11-06 | not stated — credited to the publisher (public JSON, no terms seen) |
Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Rotterdam 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.