France Building Permits Scraper

Export official French building permits and planning authorizations from the SDES SITADEL public data service.

Turn national permit files into structured JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or API-ready records without downloading and processing million-row source files yourself.

Use it to discover construction projects, refresh a property intelligence database, monitor local development, or build a repeatable lead pipeline.

What does France Building Permits Scraper do?

The Actor reads the official anonymous SDES DiDo API and normalizes four SITADEL datasets:

• 🏠 Residential construction authorizations
• 🏢 Non-residential construction authorizations
• 🗺️ Development authorizations
• 🧱 Demolition authorizations

It streams pages rather than loading the full national corpus into memory.

You choose the datasets, filters, and maximum number of records.

Every output row retains the complete official record in raw for advanced analysis.

Who is it for?

Contractors and construction suppliers

Find newly authorized projects by department and municipality.

Use addresses, project types, housing counts, and applicant names to prioritize outreach.

Developers and architects

Track local pipelines, authorization activity, planned floor area, and project destinations.

Proptech and data teams

Schedule monthly ingestion from a stable official source.

Keep a warehouse synchronized without maintaining a custom SITADEL downloader.

Researchers and public-sector analysts

Export bounded samples or targeted geographic slices for market, housing, and planning studies.

Why use this Actor?

• ✅ Official France-wide SDES source
• ✅ No account, login, API key, or browser automation
• ✅ Four planning authorization datasets in one interface
• ✅ Stable English field names plus raw French source codes
• ✅ SIREN and SIRET included when publicly available
• ✅ Bounded pagination for predictable runs
• ✅ Ready for schedules, webhooks, APIs, and cloud storage integrations

What France building permit data can I extract?

Field	Description
permitType	Housing, non-residential, development, or demolition dataset
permitReference	Official authorization reference
permitTypeCode	Raw SITADEL authorization type code
statusCode	Raw official status code
filingDate	Filing date when available
authorizationDate	Real authorization date
completionDate	Completion/declaration date when available
departmentCode	INSEE department code
municipalityCode	INSEE municipality code
address	Normalized project-site address
cadastralParcels	Cadastral section and parcel identifiers
applicantName	Public applicant or organization name
applicantSiren	Public SIREN identifier
applicantSiret	Public SIRET establishment identifier
projectNature	Declared or completed project nature
housingCreated	Number of housing units created
landAreaSqm	Land area in square metres
residentialFloorAreaCreatedSqm	Residential floor area created
nonResidentialFloorAreaCreatedSqm	Non-residential floor area created
raw	Complete source record for fields not normalized yet

How to scrape French building permits

1. Open the Actor input page.
2. Select one or more permit datasets.
3. Optionally enter department or municipality codes.
4. Add date, status, or applicant filters if needed.
5. Set maxItems to control the export size.
6. Click Start.
7. Download the dataset or consume it through the Apify API.

Start with a small limit to validate your geography and filters.

Increase maxPages only when a selective filter requires a deeper source scan.

Input

{
  "permitTypes": ["housing", "nonResidential"],
  "departments": ["75"],
  "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "maxItems": 500,
  "maxPages": 200
}

Input fields

Input	Type	Default	Purpose
permitTypes	array	housing	Official files to scan
departments	array	empty	INSEE department code filter
municipalities	array	empty	INSEE municipality code filter
dateFrom	date	empty	Earliest authorization date
dateTo	date	empty	Latest authorization date
statuses	array	empty	Raw SITADEL status codes
applicantQuery	string	empty	Applicant-name substring
maxItems	integer	20	Maximum saved permits
maxPages	integer	20	Maximum scanned pages per source

Output example

{
  "permitType": "housing",
  "permitReference": "00115819B0023",
  "statusCode": "3",
  "authorizationDate": "2019-08-02",
  "departmentCode": "01",
  "municipalityCode": "01158",
  "municipalityName": "FARGES",
  "address": "ROUTE DE COLLONGES",
  "cadastralParcels": ["AD42"],
  "projectNature": "Construction d'une maison individuelle",
  "housingCreated": 1,
  "residentialFloorAreaCreatedSqm": 120,
  "sourceUrl": "https://data.statistiques.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/dido/api/v1/datafiles/.../rows?page=1&pageSize=100",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-13T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Actual availability varies by authorization type and source reporting.

Missing official values are represented as null, not invented.

Geographic filtering

Departments use official codes such as 75, 13, 33, or 2A.

Municipalities use INSEE commune codes rather than postal codes.

Use both when you need a narrow local workflow.

The source files are ordered by the provider, so highly selective client-side filters may require multiple pages.

maxPages gives you an explicit safety boundary.

Permit datasets explained

housing covers residential construction and contains the richest housing-unit breakdown.

nonResidential focuses on premises such as commercial, agricultural, industrial, and public buildings.

development covers planning and land-development authorizations.

demolition covers demolition authorizations and associated site details.

Schemas differ between official files.

The Actor maps a shared core and preserves all dataset-specific fields in raw.

How much does it cost to scrape France building permits?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

• A small start charge covers run initialization.
• An item charge applies only to records saved in your dataset.
• Higher subscription tiers receive lower per-item prices.

The final cost appears before and after each run in Apify Console.

Use maxItems to set a hard output ceiling.

No proxy is required, keeping infrastructure overhead low.

Scheduling a construction lead monitor

Open Schedules in Apify Console and create a monthly schedule.

Use a recent dateFrom value and the departments relevant to your territory.

Connect the resulting dataset to a webhook, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, or your own ingestion endpoint.

Store permitReference in your system as the deduplication key.

Update the date range each cycle or deduplicate downstream.

Integrations

Google Sheets and Excel

Export the dataset directly as CSV or XLSX for sales and research teams.

Webhooks

Send a run-finished webhook to your CRM or data pipeline.

Make and Zapier

Trigger workflows when a scheduled permit export completes.

Cloud storage

Use Apify integrations to copy results to supported databases and storage services.

Your data warehouse

Fetch JSON through the dataset API and upsert on permitReference plus permitType.

API usage with Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/france-building-permits-scraper').call({
  permitTypes: ['housing'],
  departments: ['75'],
  maxItems: 100,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

API usage with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/france-building-permits-scraper').call(run_input={
    'permitTypes': ['development'],
    'departments': ['13'],
    'maxItems': 100,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~france-building-permits-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"permitTypes":["housing"],"maxItems":100}'

Poll the returned run ID, then download items from its default dataset.

Use with Apify MCP

Connect the Actor to Claude and AI coding tools through Apify MCP. The scoped endpoint exposes this Actor as an MCP tool and uses Apify's browser-based OAuth flow when your client connects.

Claude Code

Run this command in your terminal:

$claude mcp add --transport http france-building-permits "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/france-building-permits-scraper"

Start Claude Code, open /mcp, select france-building-permits, and complete the Apify sign-in flow.

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code

Use the same Streamable HTTP server in your client's MCP configuration. In Cursor, save it as .cursor/mcp.json. In VS Code with GitHub Copilot, run MCP: Open User Configuration and add it to mcp.json. In Claude Desktop, add it as a custom connector; clients or Desktop versions that expose JSON configuration can use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "france-building-permits": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/france-building-permits-scraper"
    }
  }
}

On first use, authorize access in the browser. If your MCP client does not support OAuth, add a headers object containing "Authorization": "Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>"; never commit a real token to source control.

Example prompts:

• “Export 100 recent housing permits for department 75.”
• “Find non-residential authorizations in Bouches-du-Rhône.”
• “Summarize the project types and floor area in this permit dataset.”
• “Create a CSV-ready list of applicant companies and project addresses.”

Tips for reliable results

• Begin with maxItems: 20 while testing.
• Use official INSEE codes, not free-text place names.
• Combine geography and dates for practical recurring exports.
• Raise maxPages when a narrow filter returns fewer items than expected.
• Retain raw if you may need source-specific fields later.
• Treat public applicant identifiers according to your applicable data-protection obligations.

Data quality and refresh frequency

SITADEL is administrative statistical data supplied through SDES.

Fields can be corrected, delayed, incomplete, or unavailable for a particular record.

The national files are refreshed by the source, typically on a recurring release cycle.

The Actor reports what the official API returns at run time.

It does not infer missing applicant names, addresses, dates, or metrics.

Legality: is it legal to scrape French building permit data?

The Actor accesses an anonymous official public-data API.

Public access does not remove your responsibility to use the data lawfully.

Consider GDPR, purpose limitation, direct-marketing rules, contractual obligations, and local regulations for your use case.

Avoid using personal data for harassment, discrimination, or unlawful profiling.

Consult qualified counsel when your workflow involves regulated decisions or outreach.

FAQ

Does this Actor require a French government API key?

No. The supported SDES DiDo rows endpoints are publicly accessible without authentication.

Can I export all national records?

The source contains millions of records. Use bounded runs, geographic/date filters, schedules, and incremental ingestion rather than a single unrestricted export.

Why did a selective filter return few or zero items?

Filters are applied to scanned source pages. Confirm your codes and dates, then increase maxPages within a reasonable bound.

Why are some fields null?

The official dataset does not provide every field for every authorization type. The Actor preserves missing values as null.

Can I identify companies?

Applicant names, SIREN, and SIRET are included when the official public record provides them.

How do I avoid duplicate permits?

Use permitType and permitReference together as a stable downstream key.

Does the Actor use residential proxies?

No. It calls the official public JSON service directly.

Can I request another normalized source field?

The complete source object is already available in raw. Feature requests can promote frequently used raw fields into stable top-level properties.

Related scrapers

Combine this Actor with other automation-lab data products:

• France Property Risk Scraper for environmental and property-risk context.
• France SIRENE Company Scraper for applicant-company enrichment.
• France Travail Jobs Scraper for regional labor-market signals.

Only actors under the automation-lab account are linked here.

Source attribution

Source: SDES, Base des permis de construire et autres autorisations d'urbanisme (SITADEL), distributed through DiDo.

Each item includes the exact page URL used for extraction.

Use attribution required by the source license and your downstream publication context.

Support

For reproducible support, include:

• The Apify run URL
• The exact input
• The affected permit reference, if available
• Expected versus actual output

Do not include private credentials or unrelated personal data.