Victoria Building Permits – Open Data API

Building Permits for Victoria only, from the city's official open dataset (~5,700 permits issued in the last 365 days), via the ArcGIS REST API — no website scraping.

• Key fields: permitNumber, permitType, status, issuedDate, neighbourhood, actualUse, estimatedValueCad, latitude, longitude.
• Licence: City of Victoria Open Data Licence; 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, status, 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 Victoria's official open dataset (Victoria open data, about 5,700 (permits issued in the last 365 days) 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 Victoria open-data portal. Use that for a one-off download. This Actor is for:

• Filters at the source: permit type, status, issued dates, keyword
• Clean JSON: ISO dates, consistent field names, one row per permit
• Privacy trimming: no street addresses, no free-text descriptions, no names
• Scheduled runs and Apify API / Sheets / Make / Zapier exports

Who it's for

• Contractors and suppliers (windows, HVAC, roofing, landscaping) watching new work in Victoria
• Developers and real-estate analysts tracking construction activity
• Housing researchers counting permits by type, neighbourhood and use

What data you get

Field	Meaning
permitNumber	City permit number
permitType	Permit type / class
subType	Sub-type of work
status	Permit status
issuedDate	YYYY-MM-DD
completedDate	YYYY-MM-DD
neighbourhood	Neighbourhood
actualUse	Property actual use
useGroup	Use group
estimatedValueCad	Estimated construction value (CAD)
latitude	Latitude
longitude	Longitude
source	Source portal
licence	Required attribution and licence link

Input

Field	Key	Notes
Permit type contains	permitType	e.g. Building Permit, Electrical Permit, Plumbing Permit (case-insensitive).
Status contains	status	e.g. ACTIVE, COMPLETED.
Issued on/after (YYYY-MM-DD)	issuedFrom	Optional start date.
Issued on/before (YYYY-MM-DD)	issuedTo	Optional end date.
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": "Building Permit", "issuedFrom": "2025-01-01", "maxItems": 200}

Pricing

Pay per result: you are charged only for permits returned (one result = one permit). See the Pricing tab for the current rate.

Licence and privacy

• Licence: City of Victoria Open Data Licence. Reuse, including commercial use, is allowed. Every record includes the required credit and a link to the licence terms.
• No endorsement: this Actor is independent. It does not use Victoria names or logos as branding and does not imply municipal endorsement.
• Privacy: 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, status, dates, construction value, and (where the source has them) ward, neighbourhood or building-use category. Also not exported: contact names, mailing addresses, phone, cell, email and fax fields.

Limits

• Coverage is the City of Victoria only.
• Data freshness and completeness match the Victoria 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 City of Victoria Open Data Licence, with attribution and without implying endorsement.