Strategic Incentive Basket for Temporary Use Activation in Riga
Riga aligns tax incentives, grants, and symbolic tools into a strategic basket to support temporary use of vacant properties through owner-user agreements.
About this good practice
The Strategic Incentive Basket for Temporary Use Activation in Riga combines existing municipal instruments to tackle persistent vacancy in the city, especially in its historic centre where surveys show commercial vacancy rates of over 23%. Rather than introducing a single new program or regulation, Riga has strategically aligned fiscal incentives, subsidies, and symbolic tools across municipal departments to create a supportive environment for temporary use.
Key instruments include
- Property Tax Discount (up to 90%) for owners leasing to NGOs with public benefit status, lowering costs and boosting NGOs' bargaining power.
- Slum Tax, a 3% surcharge on degraded properties that increases the cost of vacancy, encouraging owners to consider temporary activation.
- Subsidies for ground-floor businesses (earmarked €120,000 in 2025) to activate empty shops in the historic centre.
- Creative Quarters and Cultural NGO Funding, providing direct financial support for temporary cultural operators.
- Gallery of Empty Shopfronts, a symbolic but visible program showcasing art in vacant windows.
Together, these tools improve both the BATNA (Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement) for owners and for users, fostering collaboration. Civic actors like Free Riga play a crucial role in mediation and activation. Beneficiaries include NGOs, cultural initiatives, small businesses, and residents who gain access to revitalised spaces.
Expert opinion
The Strategic Incentive Basket for Temporary Use Activation addresses high commercial vacancy rates—especially in Riga's historic centre—in Latvia. Rather than creating new regulations, the city aligned tax incentives, subsidies and symbolic measures to support temporary use. Key instruments include a property tax discount of up to 90% for owners leasing to public-benefit NGOs, a 3% Slum Tax on degraded vacant properties, subsidies for ground-floor businesses, cultural funding for creative quarters, and the Gallery of Empty Shopfronts. These incentives, combined with mediation by organisations like Free Riga, encourage owners to activate vacant spaces. The approach offers inspiration for other European cities with high vacancy levels (>20%) seeking cost-effective, integrated strategies for temporary use activation.