Surrey Building Permits – Open Data API

Building Permits for Surrey only, from the city's official open dataset (~2,000 recently issued permits), via the ArcGIS REST API — no website scraping.

• Key fields: permitNumber, permitType, workType, issuedDate, estimatedValueCad, unitsCreated.
• Licence: Open Government License – City of Surrey; every record carries the required credit and licence link.
• Output: structured JSON, or CSV / Excel from the Apify dataset. Filters run at the source (type, issued dates and more), up to 50,000 permits per run.
• Privacy: street addresses and free-text descriptions removed; postal codes cut to FSA and coordinates rounded to ~1 km where present.

Why not build it yourself? No ArcGIS/Socrata paging, field mapping, date normalising or de-duplication to write and maintain. You get one tidy row per permit with consistent field names and ISO dates.

Price: $0.003 per result (three-tenths of a cent; 1,000 results = $3.00), no start fee. You pay only for permits returned.

What it does

This Actor reads building permits from the City of Surrey's official open dataset (Surrey open data, about 2,000 (recently issued permits) source rows) through the ArcGIS REST query API. It does not scrape any website.

Rows are deduplicated so you get one record per permit number.

Free open data vs. this Actor

The dataset is free on the Surrey open-data portal. Use that for a one-off download. This Actor is for:

• Filters at the source: permit type, issued dates, minimum value, keyword
• Clean JSON: ISO dates, consistent field names, one row per permit
• Privacy trimming: no street addresses, no free-text descriptions, no owner/applicant/contractor names; the output is reduced, not anonymous (a permit number can still be tied to a property)
• Scheduled runs and Apify API / Sheets / Make / Zapier exports

Who it's for

• Contractors and suppliers (windows, HVAC, roofing, landscaping) watching new work in Surrey
• Developers and real-estate analysts tracking construction activity
• Housing researchers counting permits and new units

What data you get

Field	Meaning
permitNumber	City permit number
permitType	Permit type / class
workType	Kind of work
issuedDate	YYYY-MM-DD
estimatedValueCad	Estimated construction value (CAD)
unitsCreated	Dwelling units created
source	Source portal
licence	Required attribution statement and licence link

Input

Field	Key	Notes
Permit type contains	permitType	e.g. Single Family, Townhouse, Warehouse (case-insensitive).
Work type contains	workType	e.g. New, Tenant Improvement, Demolition.
Issued on/after (YYYY-MM-DD)	issuedFrom	Optional start date.
Issued on/before (YYYY-MM-DD)	issuedTo	Optional end date.
Minimum construction value (CAD)	minValue	Optional.
Keyword	keyword	Server-side filter on description, type and permit number (descriptions are not returned).
Max permits	maxItems	Stop after this many permits.

Bad dates or an inverted date range fail before any API call, with a clear error.

Example input:

{"permitType": "Single Family", "issuedFrom": "2025-01-01", "maxItems": 200, "minValue": 1000000}

Pricing

Pay per result: $0.003 per permit result (one result = one permit), with no start fee. You pay only for permits returned.

Licence and privacy

• Licence: Open Government License – City of Surrey. The licence allows use "including for commercial purposes" and lets you copy, publish, adapt and distribute the data. You must acknowledge the source with the statement "Contains information licensed under the Open Government License – City of Surrey." and, where possible, link to the licence; every record carries both. The licence does not cover personal information or City names, crests, logos or official marks.
• No endorsement: this Actor is independent. It does not use City of Surrey names, crests, logos or official marks and does not suggest official status or City endorsement.
• Privacy: The output is reduced, not anonymous: permit numbers can be looked up in City records and may be tied to a property, and a permit can still relate to an identifiable homeowner. Street addresses (civic number, street name and unit) and free-text work descriptions are removed. Postal codes, where present, are cut to the first 3 characters (FSA) and coordinates are rounded to 2 decimals (about 1 km). Owner, applicant and contractor names are not exported. Records still include permit number, permit type and category, dates, construction value and unit counts, and (where the source has them) ward, neighbourhood or building-use category. Also not exported: applicant and general-contractor organisation names (ApplicantOrganization, BuildingGeneralContractorOrganization; some are sole traders).

Limits

• Coverage is the City of Surrey only.
• Data freshness and completeness match the Surrey open-data feed. This Actor does not add or correct permits.
• Max 50,000 permits per run. Pages of 1,000 with a 1 s pause between pages.
• Fields can be null when the source left them blank.

FAQ

Is this scraping? No. It queries the city's public ArcGIS REST API.

Does it include owner or applicant names or addresses? No. Street addresses, names and descriptions are removed, but the data is reduced, not anonymous: a permit number can be looked up in City records and may relate to a specific property.

Can I use it commercially? Yes, under the Open Government License – City of Surrey, with attribution and without implying endorsement.