🏗️ NYC Building Permits Scraper

Get comprehensive building permit data from New York City's official databases. Access 4.87 million+ permit records across all five boroughs with advanced filtering by location, job type, date range, and more. Perfect for real estate investors, contractors, market researchers, and data analysts who need accurate, structured permit data without manual searches.

🔴 Always up to date — real-time data direct from the NYC Department of Buildings. Every run pulls the latest permit records from the city's live databases. No stale CSVs, no outdated snapshots.

Who is this for? Real estate investors, contractors, market researchers, property developers, compliance teams, and data journalists.

What data can you scrape from NYC building permits?

This Actor pulls building permit records directly from NYC Open Data's official Socrata API — no browser automation, no proxies needed. Direct API calls to the city's live, continuously updated datasets, delivering clean, structured data in seconds.

• 📍 Location Details: Full address, borough, ZIP code, block, lot, BBL, BIN, and GPS coordinates
• 🔨 Job Details: Job type (new building, alteration, demolition), work type, description, and estimated cost
• 👤 People & Companies: Owner name, business name, phone; applicant name, business, license; permittee details
• 📅 Timeline: Filing date, issuance date, expiration date, job start date — all normalized to YYYY-MM-DD
• 📋 Status & Classification: Permit status, type, subtype, filing status, building type, self-certification flag
• 🌍 Geography: Community board, council district, census tract, NTA neighborhood, latitude/longitude

Business Value: Make data-driven decisions about NYC construction markets, identify active development zones, find potential customers, and monitor competitive activity — all from the city's authoritative source.

Input

To start extracting NYC building permit data, configure your filters in the input form. You can filter permits based on:

• Borough — Select from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, or Staten Island
• Zip Code — Filter by specific ZIP code for neighborhood-level analysis
• Job Type — Choose NB (New Building), A1 (Major Alteration), A2/A3 (Minor Alteration), or DM (Demolition)
• Date From — Only include permits filed on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Date To — Only include permits filed on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Dataset — Query active permits (dob_now), historical permits, or both (default)
• Max Items — Control how many results to return. Free users: maximum 100. Paid users: up to 1,000,000

Here's what the JSON input looks like:

{
  "borough": "MANHATTAN",
  "jobType": "NB",
  "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "dateTo": "2024-12-31",
  "dataset": "both",
  "maxItems": 1000
}

Pro Tip: 💡 Start with a specific borough and date range to explore the data, then expand your filters as needed.

Output

After the Actor finishes, you'll get a dataset with structured permit records. Each record contains 42 normalized fields. You can download results as Excel, CSV, JSON, or HTML.

Here's an example of a scraped NYC building permit record (actual data from a live run):

{
  "Job Number": "M01288275-I1",
  "Borough": "MANHATTAN",
  "Address": "136 Delancey Street",
  "ZIP Code": "10002",
  "Block": "346",
  "Lot": "24",
  "BBL": "1003460024",
  "BIN": "1003757",
  "Work Type": "General Construction",
  "Job Description": "Interior renovation of commercial space on ground floor",
  "Estimated Cost": 250000,
  "Owner Name": "136 Delancey LLC",
  "Owner Business": "136 Delancey LLC",
  "Applicant Name": "James M Costello",
  "Applicant Business": "Costello Construction Group",
  "Applicant License": "618334",
  "Filing Date": "2025-09-29",
  "Issuance Date": "2026-01-06",
  "Expiration Date": "2026-07-06",
  "Permit Status": "Permit Issued",
  "Latitude": 40.718512,
  "Longitude": -73.988241,
  "Source Dataset": "DOB NOW"
}

What You Get: Complete permit profiles with location, cost, owner/applicant/permittee details, dates, status, and GPS coordinates — all in a consistent schema across both datasets.

Download Options: CSV, Excel, JSON, or HTML formats for easy analysis in spreadsheets, databases, and business tools.

Why use NYC Building Permits Scraper instead of manual search?

• 🎯 4.87 million+ records across all five NYC boroughs in one place
• ⚡ No browser automation — direct API calls mean fast, reliable, cheap runs
• 📊 42 normalized fields — consistent schema across both active and historical datasets
• 🌍 All five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island
• 🔍 Powerful filters — borough, ZIP code, job type, date range, and dataset
• 📅 Clean dates — all normalized to YYYY-MM-DD regardless of source format
• 💼 Contact data included — owner names, phone numbers, business names, license numbers
• 📍 GPS coordinates — latitude/longitude for mapping and spatial analysis
• 💰 Pennies per run — no browser or proxy costs, just lightweight HTTP requests
• 🔄 Schedule runs — automate daily/weekly data collection with Apify scheduling
• 🔗 API access — integrate with Make, Zapier, Slack, Google Drive, and 1000+ apps

Save 10-20 hours per week compared to manually searching NYC DOB websites.

💰 How much does it cost to scrape NYC building permits?

	Cost
Per result	$0.003 ($3.00 per 1,000 results)
Actor start	$0.01 per run
Platform usage	Free (included)

Example costs:

• 100 results = $0.31 (great for testing)
• 1,000 results = $3.01
• 10,000 results = $30.01
• 100,000 results = $300.01

New to Apify? Sign up and get $5 in free credits — enough for ~1,600 permit records to evaluate the data quality before committing.

No browser or proxy costs. This actor uses direct API calls, so there are zero additional platform usage fees. You only pay for results.

How to scrape NYC building permit data

1. Sign Up: Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes)
2. Find the Scraper: Visit the NYC Building Permits Scraper page
3. Set Filters: Choose your borough, date range, job type, and other criteria
4. Set Limits: Configure maxItems (up to 1,000,000 per run)
5. Run It: Click "Start" and get your filtered permit data
6. Download Data: Get results as CSV, Excel, or JSON from the "Dataset" tab

Total Time: 2 minutes setup, 1-3 minutes for data collection. No technical skills required.

Business Use Cases

Real Estate Investors:

• Identify new construction activity and development hotspots by neighborhood
• Track permit volumes to spot emerging markets before prices rise
• Monitor competitor developments and renovation activity
• Analyze estimated costs to understand market investment levels

Contractors & Suppliers:

• Find active projects and potential customers by borough and job type
• Identify building owners and applicants for outreach
• Track new building permits for early-stage business development
• Monitor permit expirations for renewal opportunities

Market Researchers:

• Analyze construction trends across NYC boroughs over time
• Compare permit volumes by job type (new builds vs. renovations vs. demolitions)
• Study geographic distribution of development activity
• Track estimated costs to understand market dynamics

Compliance Teams:

• Monitor permit status and expiration dates for portfolio properties
• Track filing status changes across multiple properties
• Verify contractor licenses and permittee information
• Audit building permit histories for due diligence

Data Journalists:

• Investigate development patterns and gentrification trends
• Analyze demolition permits in specific neighborhoods
• Cross-reference owner data with other public records
• Map construction activity using GPS coordinates

Using NYC Building Permits Scraper with the Apify API

For advanced users who want to automate data collection, you can control the scraper programmatically with the Apify API.

• Node.js: Install the apify-client NPM package
• Python: Use the apify-client PyPI package

See the Apify API reference for full details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much does it cost? A: $3.00 per 1,000 results plus a $0.01 per-run start fee. Platform usage (compute, storage) is free. No browser or proxy costs. New Apify users get $5 in free credits to try it out.

Q: Which NYC data sources does this use? A: Two official NYC Open Data datasets maintained by the Department of Buildings: DOB NOW Approved Permits (891K+ records, ID: rbx6-tga4) and DOB Permit Issuance Historical (3.98M+ records, ID: 83x8-shf7).

Q: Does this use browser automation? A: No. It uses direct HTTP requests to the Socrata SODA API. This makes it fast, reliable, and cheap to run — no proxy costs required.

Q: How accurate is the data? A: The data comes directly from NYC's official Open Data portal, maintained by the Department of Buildings. It's the same data the city uses for its own records.

Q: Can I schedule regular runs? A: Yes! Use the Apify scheduling feature or API to set up daily, weekly, or monthly runs automatically. Perfect for ongoing market monitoring.

Q: Why are some fields null? A: The two source datasets have different fields available. DOB NOW records may lack owner phone numbers, while historical records may have different field coverage. The actor normalizes both into the same 42-field schema, filling unavailable fields with null.

Q: Why do I get fewer results than my maxItems setting? A: Your filters may be narrowing the result set. For example, filtering by a specific ZIP code and job type will return fewer results than querying an entire borough.

Q: What happens if my input is invalid? A: The actor validates all inputs before making API calls. Invalid values produce a clear error message and the run exits gracefully.

Q: Can I export data to my existing tools? A: Yes! Export in CSV, Excel, JSON, or HTML formats for easy integration with spreadsheets, databases, CRMs, and other business tools.

Q: Is the data updated in real-time? A: Yes. Every run pulls directly from NYC Open Data's live API, which is continuously updated by the Department of Buildings. You always get the most current permit records available — no cached or stale data.

Integrate NYC Building Permits Scraper with any app

Last but not least, NYC Building Permits Scraper can be connected with almost any cloud service or web app thanks to integrations on the Apify platform.

These include:

• Make
• Zapier
• Slack
• Airbyte
• GitHub
• Google Drive
• and much more.

Alternatively, you can use webhooks to carry out an action whenever an event occurs, e.g. get a notification whenever NYC Building Permits Scraper finishes a run.

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Pro Tip: 💡 Browse our complete collection of data collection actors to find the perfect tool for your business needs.

Need Help? Our support team is here to help you get the most out of this tool.

Contact us to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report a technical issue with this actor at https://tally.so/r/BzdKgA

⚠️ Disclaimer: This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the City of New York, NYC Department of Buildings, or NYC Open Data. All data is sourced from publicly available government datasets. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.