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Reuse radar

Warsaw

Warsaw's national topographic database flags about a thousand buildings as out of use or ruined, and the City itself holds 9,607 empty council flats. Older offices outside the centre stand emptier than the rest, and 604,000 m² of offices have been converted, or are being converted, to homes since 2020. Since 2023 a city council may sell land to housing co-ops alone, in a limited tender.
An empty building in Warsaw with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
1,369
and 127 more with an empty shop, flat or floor
Vacant office space
529,500 m²
8.5% of the stock
Homes potential
—
not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK), Q2 2026 — 529,500 m² of modern office space vacant, 8.5% of about 6.24 million m²; 4.8% in central zones and 11.8% outside the centre. Map built 2026-10-09.

In 3D, from today’s sources — a potential we spotted, not a plan.

Empty buildings in Warsaw

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 Warsaw: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?

5 more buildings in Warsaw 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.

  • Curtis Plaza, ul. Wołoska — reported demolition planned · formerly office · Company-ownedA new 500-bed student residence is being built where the Curtis Plaza office building stood in Mokotów. Eurobuild CEE (2025-10-21)
  • former dermatology clinic — reported for sale or to let · formerly hospital · owner: University of WarsawThe former clinic, vacated in autumn 2024, is for sale TVN24 Warszawa (2026-08-29)
  • Moniuszki 8, ul. Moniuszki 8 — reported conversion under way · owner: LivUpRenovations have begun to convert the former Café Adria building into rental apartments Eurobuild CEE (2026-02-09)
  • opuszczone baseny na Ochocie — reported emptyA once-modern swimming pool complex in Ochota has been abandoned and is falling into ruin. Warszawa Nasze Miasto (2026-06-28)
  • Warsaw pavilion, Grochowska Street — reported emptyThe prewar pavilion has stood empty and deteriorating for several years Warszawa Nasze Miasto (2026-07-09)

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. 529,500 m² of offices stand empty (8.5% of the stock).

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

Wola (Mirów, Czyste, Powązki)

Warsaw's old industrial west holds the most buildings the national database marks as out of use, and the City is selling large built sites there, the Okopowa 78 tannery among them.

  • 90 buildings mapped out of use or ruined in BDOT10k, 29 of them with a footprint of 300 m² or more (the most of any district)
  • Okopowa 78: City-owned former tannery, empty since 2007, auction from PLN 310m
  • City built site at Burakowska / Młocińska (7,747 m²) planned for sale

Risk: Wola is the hottest office and housing development market in the city, so land prices are high and heritage rules apply to the old factories.

3 sources

Praga-Północ and Praga-Południe

The right bank holds much of the City's own housing and its empty flats, with small City-owned built plots in Old Praga up for sale.

  • Empty City flats rose by 317 in Praga-Południe and 139 in Praga-Północ between 2019 and 2022
  • 80 buildings in Praga-Północ mapped out of use or ruined in BDOT10k
  • City built plots at Sprzeczna 8 (654 m², PLN 6m) and Wileńska 3 (549 m²) on the sale list

Risk: Many empty council flats sit in buildings with restitution claims, which the City cannot easily let or sell.

3 sources

Służewiec Przemysłowy (Mokotów)

Warsaw's 1990s office district outside the centre, where vacancy runs highest and empty office buildings change hands at a fraction of central prices.

  • Vacancy outside the centre 11.8% against 4.8% in central zones (Q2 2026)
  • Empty office buildings sold for €600–800 per m² in Służewiec against €2,800–3,000 in the centre (JLL)
  • 240,000 m² of post-1990 offices demolished in three years, mostly in central Warsaw and Mokotów

Risk: Developers are already demolishing and rebuilding here for sale, so whole buildings rarely stay on the market for long.

2 sources

Targówek and Żerań

The north-east's industrial belt along the Żerań canal and the FSO lands has disused factory buildings and several City plots planned for sale.

  • 18 buildings in Targówek with a footprint of 300 m² or more mapped out of use or ruined in BDOT10k
  • City built plot at Diamentowa 2A (969 m², PLN 1.88m) designated for sale; City plots at Rzeszowska and Cmentarna planned for sale

Risk: Much of it is land, not buildings, and the industrial sites need remediation.

2 sources

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-10-08282 council units to let, 43 City properties for sale

    The City's map portal lists 282 empty council commercial units (8,830 m², 191 let first-come without a competition) and 43 properties on its sale list — 25 unbuilt plots, 10 built plots and 8 flats, seven of them on one floor of Marszałkowska 81.

    1 source
  2. 2026-07-14Office vacancy down to 8.5%

    529,500 m² of Warsaw offices stood empty at the end of June 2026; 11.8% outside the centre against 4.8% in it.

    1 source
  3. 2026-06-09City auctions the Okopowa 78 tannery

    The former Temler i Szwede tannery, empty since 2007, offered at an open auction from PLN 310m; homes allowed on up to 40% of the floor area.

    1 source
3 earlier signals
  1. 2025-07
    604,000 m² of offices turned to homes since 2020

    JLL counts 604,000 m² of Warsaw office space converted or being converted to housing since 2020, and 200,000 m² more earmarked for hotels, rented homes or student housing.

    1 source
  2. 2025-01-21
    City takes over Sobieskiego 100 for housing

    The State Treasury donated the former Russian diplomatic compound to the City, which plans homes for key workers.

    1 source
  3. 2023-04-28
    Audit: 9,607 empty council flats

    The Supreme Audit Office found the City's empty flats rising from 8,296 (end of 2019) to 9,607 (end of 2022), 367,790 m² and 12% of its housing stock; 30% of the 2019 empties were in buildings with restitution claims.

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

21 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 API1,363Live
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 download1,286 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 download3Live
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 API215Live
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 research10Live
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)
Office buildings of four storeys or more in the land and building register
Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa — Biuro Geodezji i Katastru (EGiB WFS)
Open API1,211Live
2026-10-09
No open licence stated; the service declares no access constraints and fees 'according to the law' — public EGiB services are free under Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a. Credit the City of Warsaw.
Industrial and warehouse buildings of three storeys or more in the land and building register
Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa — Biuro Geodezji i Katastru (EGiB WFS)
Open API399Live
2026-10-09
No open licence stated; the service declares no access constraints and fees 'according to the law' — public EGiB services are free under Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a. Credit the City of Warsaw.
OpenStreetMap: land mapped as brownfield
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API393Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Buildings recorded out of use in the national topographic database (BDOT10k)
Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii (GUGiK) — BDOT10k, county package 1465 (Warszawa)
Open download349Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse without restriction (Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a; GUGiK: no fees) — credit GUGiK. Street addresses from the City of Warsaw's address points (EGiB WFS, credit the City)
Buildings recorded as ruined in the national topographic database (BDOT10k)
Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii (GUGiK) — BDOT10k, county package 1465 (Warszawa)
Open download131Live
2026-10-09
Free reuse without restriction (Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne art. 40a; GUGiK: no fees) — credit GUGiK. Street addresses from the City of Warsaw's address points (EGiB WFS, credit the City)
Empty council commercial units the City is letting now (district housing offices, ZGN)
Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa — map portal (Nieruchomości: lokale użytkowe do wynajęcia)
Open API140Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — City of Warsaw public information, used with credit to Urząd m.st. Warszawy
City of Warsaw plots planned or designated for sale, or put to tender
Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa — map portal (Nieruchomości: oferta sprzedaży)
Open API34Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — City of Warsaw public information, used with credit to Urząd m.st. Warszawy
City of Warsaw flats for sale (seven of them at Marszałkowska 81)
Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa — map portal (Nieruchomości: oferta sprzedaży)
Open API8Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — City of Warsaw public information, used with credit to Urząd m.st. Warszawy
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 research26Live
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 open-data API (api.um.warszawa.pl) did not answer from outside Poland, so it is treated as blocked.
  • Office vacancy is published only as broker headline rates; there is no building-level or district-level open data.
  • Empty council flats are published only as counts (NIK audit) and in per-competition PDF annexes of the districts, never as an address list.
  • The BDOT10k out-of-use and ruined flags lag reality (an open hotel still carries one) and name no owner; they need a desk check before a building reaches the shortlist.
  • The City's land-ownership map (City / State Treasury / other per parcel) is served only as Oracle MapViewer JSON in EPSG:2178 and is not on the map yet.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Bydgoszcz, Poland285empty buildings on recordGdańsk, Poland421empty buildings on recordKaunas, Lithuania68empty buildings on recordKošice, Slovakia43empty buildings on recordKraków, Poland356empty buildings on recordŁódź, Poland485empty buildings on recordLublin, Poland205empty buildings on recordOstrava, Czechia42empty buildings on recordPoznań, Poland314empty buildings on recordSzczecin, Poland355empty buildings on recordVilnius, Lithuania291empty buildings on recordWrocław, Poland680empty buildings on record