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Reuse radar

Zurich

Zurich has almost no empty homes — 252 flats, 0.11% of the stock, on 1 June 2026 — but a growing pool of empty offices on its northern edge, where whole towers in Oerlikon stand vacant and the first are being turned into flats. The city is the decisive actor: it owns land it lets to cooperatives on building leases, holds 63 ha of reserve land and has bought property worth CHF 1.3 billion since 2022 to reach one third non-profit rental housing by 2050.
An empty building in Zurich with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Empty buildings on record
35
and 4 more with an empty shop, flat or floor
Vacant office space
330,700 m²
5.1% of the stock
Homes potential
≈ 1,250
if 30% of empty offices converted

Office figures: JLL, Zürich Q2 2026 — 5.1% of office space offered (market area incl. Opfikon/Glattbrugg) applied to the city's 6.48 million m² of office floor area (Leerflächenerhebung, 2021); vacant area = stock × rate, an estimate across two sources and dates. Homes: our economic model’s conversion engine. Map built 2026-10-09.

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

Empty buildings in Zurich

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.

Neither the city nor the federal register flags empty buildings: the city register has no building with the status 'not usable', so the radar shows office and industrial stock by type, not known vacancies.

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

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

5 more buildings in Zurich 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.

  • Former Swissôtel — reported conversion under way · formerly hotel · owner: Credit Suisse real-estate fund, now part of UBSRenovation will convert the tower to a hotel and about 120 apartments Tages-Anzeiger (2024-06-11)
  • Gewerbe- und Bürohaus Buck 40 — reported converted · formerly officeArchitecture review headline on the conversion of the Buck 40 commercial and office building in Zurich. Espazium (2024-12-05)
  • Kino Corso — reported conversion planned · owner: Stadt ZürichThe district council rejected the FDP appeal, so the city may close the Corso cinema and turn its halls into an events house during renovation. Südostschweiz (sda) (2026-04-27)
  • Sozialzentrum Wipkingen, Rosengartenstrasse area; exact address unknown — reported converted · formerly office · owner: Reformierte KircheThe former church has been converted for the adjacent school, with a library, dining and care rooms, and a multipurpose hall NZZ Zürich (2026-07-01)
  • Sunrise Tower — reported conversion planned · formerly office · owner: BVK Personalvorsorge des Kantons ZürichWith no new office tenant after Credit Suisse left, the cantonal pension fund plans about 260 flats in the Oerlikon towers. Blick (2025-01-28)

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. 330,700 m² of offices stand empty (5.1% of the stock).

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

Kreis 11 — Oerlikon, Seebach and Leutschenbach

Empty office towers, the city's largest reserve land holdings and two office-to-housing conversions already under way.

  • Kreis 11 office vacancy rose from 6.4% to 11.9% in 2025 — over 50,000 m² in Quadro, Vertex and SkyKey
  • 71 of the city's 180 reserve plots (29.1 ha of 63.1 ha) lie in Kreis 11
  • 202 office buildings of 4+ storeys with about 1.2 million m² of heated floor area

Risk: Tower conversions are expensive and owners such as pension funds plan their own; noise from rail and roads along the Glatt valley.

3 sources

Kreis 9 — Altstetten and Albisrieden

The second-largest office district outside the centre, with the highest office vacancy after Kreis 11 in the last city count, and the Koch-Areal showing what city land plus cooperatives can do.

  • 20,335 m² of offices empty in 2021 (2.9%); Albisrieden 4.7%
  • 197 office buildings of 4+ storeys, about 1.17 million m² heated floor area
  • Koch-Areal cooperative homes let from June 2026

Risk: The city's own office vacancy figures stop in 2021; current broker data is not split by district.

3 sources

Kreis 2 — Enge, Wollishofen and Leimbach

A large stock of older lakeside office buildings beside housing, plus 30 city reserve plots.

  • 326 office buildings of 4+ storeys (about 870,000 m² heated floor area)
  • 30 city reserve plots covering 4.2 ha
  • Enge had 8,590 m² of empty offices in 2021

Risk: Among the highest land values in Switzerland; office vacancy here was low (1.7% in 2021).

3 sources

Signals to watch

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

  1. 2026-09-23Ten old-age-care buildings to be handed back by 2040 — addresses withheld

    The City's care homes plan to return ten buildings with 71,000 m² of floor area to its property department by 2040; asked for the addresses, the City Council declined to name them, but said a non-profit housing developer could get them on a building lease once City uses are ruled out.

    1 source
  2. 2026-08-28City reviews its CHF 1.3 billion buying spree

    47 properties bought in 2022–25 (527 flats, 18 strategic reserves); the 2026 budget for purchases was raised from CHF 500 to 600 million.

    1 source
  3. 2026-08-05Office supply falls to 5.1%

    JLL reports offered office space in the Zurich market down from 5.2% to 5.1% in Q2 2026 as buildings are withdrawn for conversion.

    1 source
5 earlier signals
  1. 2026-06-01
    Only 252 empty flats in the whole city

    The annual count on 1 June 2026 found 252 empty flats among 238,459 — a vacancy rate of 0.11%.

    1 source
  2. 2026-02-04
    City restaurant empty since late 2024

    The City-owned Restaurant Wilder Mann (Freiestrasse 221) has stood empty since November 2024 while the building waits for a delayed full refurbishment; the Raumbörse advertised it for non-catering interim use in December 2025.

    1 source
  3. 2026-01-08
    Oerlikon towers empty

    Kreis 11 office vacancy jumped from 6.4% to 11.9% as more than 50,000 m² came free in Quadro, Vertex and SkyKey.

    1 source
  4. 2026-01
    Programm Wohnen 2026

    Non-profit share stuck at 27%; about 25,000 more non-profit flats needed to reach one third by 2050.

    1 source
  5. 2025-11-30
    Canton doubles its housing fund

    Voters rejected a municipal right of first refusal on land (59.3% no) but approved doubling the housing promotion fund to CHF 360 million (51% yes).

    1 source

Sources, and what we cannot see

22 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 API25Live
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 download14 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Storeys and footprints: federal building register (GWR)
Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS)
Bundesamt für Statistik; Eidg. Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister. Recorded storeys × recorded footprint of the nearest registered building.
Open API221 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
Free use with attribution (BFS)
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 API29Live
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 research14Live
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 with 4+ storeys (city building and dwelling register)
Statistik Stadt Zürich — Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister der Stadt Zürich (GWZ)
Open API2,717Live
2026-10-09
CC0 (Open Government Data Stadt Zürich)
Industrial buildings with 3+ storeys (city building and dwelling register)
Statistik Stadt Zürich — Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister der Stadt Zürich (GWZ)
Open API372Live
2026-10-09
CC0 (Open Government Data Stadt Zürich)
City-owned buildings held as land reserve
Stadt Zürich — Liegenschaften Stadt Zürich (Liegenschafteninventar OGD)
Open API155Live
2026-10-09
CC0 (Open Government Data Stadt Zürich)
City-owned land held as reserve
Stadt Zürich — Liegenschaften Stadt Zürich (Liegenschafteninventar OGD)
Open API180Live
2026-10-09
CC0 (Open Government Data Stadt Zürich)
City land let on a building lease (Baurecht)
Stadt Zürich — Liegenschaften Stadt Zürich (Liegenschafteninventar OGD)
Open API172Used, not shown
2026-10-09
CC0 (Open Government Data Stadt Zürich)
Unbuilt building-zone land, ready to build (cantonal zoning inventory)
Kanton Zürich — Amt für Raumentwicklung (OGDZHWFS)
Open API290Live
2026-10-09
CC0 (Open Government Data Kanton Zürich)
City and canton buildings emptied of their use and let for interim use (Raumbörse Zürich)
Raumbörse Zürich for the City of Zurich (Kultur, Wirtschaftsförderung, Liegenschaften Stadt Zürich)
Open download16Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — the Raumbörse's public project pages, used with credit to Raumbörse Zürich / Stadt Zürich; placed with swisstopo's address search (federal building address register, free OGD, © swisstopo)
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 research5Live
2026-10-14
Facts with a link to the article; the one-line summary is ours — no article text is republished
Year built: federal building register (GWR)
Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS)
Bundesamt für Statistik; Eidg. Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister. The recorded construction year (gbauj) of the nearest existing registered building, else its construction period (gbaup).
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-14
Free use with attribution (BFS)
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

  • Neither the city nor the federal register flags empty buildings: the city register has no building with the status 'not usable', so the radar shows office and industrial stock by type, not known vacancies.
  • The city's annual count of empty commercial space (Leerflächenerhebung) is open only up to 2021, by quarter; current office vacancy comes from brokers for the wider Zurich market.
  • Empty flats are counted every June but published only by quarter and flat type, never by building.
  • Who holds each city building lease (Baurecht) is not in the open inventory.
  • OpenStreetMap has only 25 disused buildings inside the city, several of them bunkers and kiosks; Wikidata has nothing useful.
  • City buildings that will fall empty are known internally (e.g. ten care-home buildings, 71,000 m², to be returned by 2040) but the City declines to name them; only buildings already in interim use appear, via the Raumbörse.

Know an empty building we have missed?

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

Augsburg, Germany249empty buildings on recordBern, Switzerland5empty buildings on recordKarlsruhe, Germany90empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany87empty buildings on recordMilan, Italy535empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany333empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany110empty buildings on recordStrasbourg, France30empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany186empty buildings on recordTurin, Italy100empty buildings on recordVaduz, Liechtenstein7empty buildings on recordVerona, Italy59empty buildings on record