About the platform
NYC Building Data turns the city's permit filings into one searchable record of what is being proposed, and who filed it.
New York publishes its construction filings as separate, dated reports. We consolidate them, keep one clean record per job, and make the whole file searchable in seconds — with owner and applicant contacts available to subscribers.
22,678 active filings currently indexed
The value
Less time reconciling files. More calls that lead somewhere.
The filings are public either way. The work — and the money — sits in finding the right one and knowing who to call about it. That is the part this platform removes, four ways.
A property answered in seconds
What is filed at an address, what the work is, and how big the building will end up — one lookup instead of reconciling overlapping city reports by hand.
The people, while it still matters
Owner and applicant names, phones and emails as recorded on the filing, so you can reach the person who filed it near the start of a job rather than after it is finished.
A whole area at a glance
Screen a block, a neighborhood or a borough in one pass: what is proposed, at what scale, and how it compares with what is already standing there.
A record you can stand behind
Every filing carries its source file and import dates, so when a number has to hold up in front of a client you can show exactly where it came from.
Why it exists
The city's data is public. Using it shouldn't require a research team.
Every new building, alteration and demolition application in New York is filed publicly. But the information arrives as overlapping reports that repeat the same jobs, renumber addresses, and bury the useful facts inside free-text descriptions. Answering a simple question — what is planned for this block, and who filed it — means reconciling dozens of files by hand.
NYC Building Data does that reconciliation once, continuously. Each filing becomes a single record with its location, scale, status and description normalized, and its contact details held in a protected layer. Professionals who need to know what is happening to a property can then look it up in seconds instead of spending an afternoon in spreadsheets.
The platform is built to be honest about what it holds: these are filed applications and the status the city recorded for them, not a guarantee that a permit was issued or that work took place.
Database now holds 22,678 unique filings (12,222 new building, 7,537 alteration, 2,919 demolition). No duplicates.
New Building Permits
Ground-up construction filings: proposed units, stories, height and building type.
Alteration Permits
Renovations, enlargements, conversions and change-of-use applications.
Demolition Permits
Applications to raze existing structures before redevelopment.
How it is maintained
Built like a dataset you can rely on, not a scraped list.
Imported daily
Each new city report is loaded as a tracked batch. Re-uploading the same filing updates it in place rather than creating a duplicate, and an older report can never overwrite newer values.
One record per job
Filings are keyed by job number, which is unique citywide, so a property's history stays in a single thread across every report that mentions it.
Contacts kept separate
Owner and applicant details live apart from the public filing record, which is what makes per-dataset unlocking possible without exposing contact data to search engines or scrapers.
Auditable
Every record carries its source file, first-seen and last-imported timestamps, and a version count. An entire import can be reversed if a source file turns out to be wrong.
Who it is for
Anyone whose next decision depends on what is being built nearby.
Agents and brokers
Spot conversions and unit additions while the application is recent, and see which owners and architects are named on the filing.
Contractors and trades
Find alteration filings that name your trade, by borough and building type, and read the recorded scope before deciding whether to follow up.
Developers and investors
Track pipeline by neighborhood, compare proposed scale across a block, and follow a site from demolition through new building.
Lenders, insurers and consultants
Verify what is actually filed on a property, with the source description and official status attached to every record.
What is free and what is paid
Search, filters and records are free. Contacts are the subscription.
Every filing, its description, measurements, status and provenance is open to anyone. Owner and applicant names, phones, emails and business addresses unlock with one $45 monthly subscription covering every category, with no contract.
A note on the data
Records reflect what was filed with the city as of the most recent report we have imported, and dataset names use the word permits even though a record is an application rather than an issued permit. Contact information is published by the city as part of the public filing; we consolidate and protect it, we do not verify it. Always confirm a filing against the official record before relying on it for a transaction.