Where New York City builds: DOB permits by borough
New York City has issued 3,989,483 building permits in the record kept by NYC OpenData, and 1,624,255 of them were filed in Manhattan. Yet Manhattan issues the fewest new-building permits of any borough. The pattern comes from the city's DOB Permit Issuance dataset, queried in July 2026: most Manhattan permits cover alterations to existing buildings, while new construction is concentrated in Queens and Brooklyn.
Manhattan leads on permits but builds the least
New York City's Department of Buildings (DOB) has issued 3,989,483 building permits in the record published by NYC OpenData, and Manhattan accounts for 1,624,255 of them. Brooklyn follows with 947,115, Queens with 841,002, the Bronx with 344,134, and Staten Island with 232,977.
The ranking flips for new construction. Although Manhattan files the most permits overall, it issues the fewest new-building permits of any borough, a sign that its building activity is dominated by work on structures that already exist.
These counts come from the DOB Permit Issuance dataset (dataset ipu4-2q9a), queried in July 2026. Each figure is a cumulative total, not an annual one.
Where new construction is filed
Across the city, DOB has issued 571,507 new-building (NB) permits, the category for constructing a structure from the ground up. Queens leads with 181,523, followed closely by Brooklyn at 176,087.
Manhattan sits last with 37,067 new-building permits. Queens issues roughly five times as many as Manhattan (181,523 versus 37,067), while Staten Island, with 101,019, and the Bronx, with 75,811, both out-file the borough most associated with the New York skyline.
The gap reflects geography and land use. Manhattan is largely built out, so most of its activity is renovation rather than replacement, while the outer boroughs still have room for new housing and commercial stock.
What most permits are for
Sorted by job type, the dataset is dominated by alterations rather than new construction. Minor alterations (type A2) account for 2,389,439 permits, far more than any other category.
New buildings (NB) come next at 571,507, followed by major alterations (A1) at 434,633 and A3 permits at 413,610. Demolition (DM) permits number 102,287 citywide, and sign (SG) permits 78,007.
Because minor alterations lead by such a wide margin, the citywide picture is mostly one of maintaining and modifying existing buildings, which helps explain Manhattan's profile as a borough of renovation.
How to read these numbers
A few caveats matter. The totals are cumulative: the dataset spans roughly 1989 to the present, so these are not counts for any single year.
Each row is one permit, not one building. A single project can generate several permits, and one building can appear many times over its life, so permit counts should not be read as building counts.
Issuance dates are stored as text in the dataset, which means a clean year-by-year trend is not available through the data portal's API (the interface that lets software query the data directly). Treat the figures as a cumulative snapshot, not a time series.
Checking a single building
These borough-level totals describe the city as a whole, not any one address. To see the permit history of a specific property, you can look it up directly. Tools such as RegWatch's NYC property search pull a single address's DOB permit record alongside its violations and other filings.
For any decision that turns on a particular building or case, verify the details against the official agency: the DOB for permits, HPD for housing, and the ECB or OATH for violations and hearings. Portal snapshots can lag or omit recent activity.
This article is general information drawn from public data, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
How many building permits has New York City issued?
3,989,483 in total, according to NYC OpenData's DOB Permit Issuance dataset (ipu4-2q9a), queried July 2026. The figure is cumulative, covering roughly 1989 to the present rather than a single year.
Which borough has the most building permits?
Manhattan, with 1,624,255 permits, the most of any borough. Brooklyn has 947,115, Queens 841,002, the Bronx 344,134, and Staten Island 232,977.
Which borough files the most new-building permits?
Queens, with 181,523 new-building permits, followed by Brooklyn at 176,087. Manhattan is lowest at 37,067, roughly five times fewer than Queens.
Why does Manhattan have so many permits but the fewest new buildings?
Most Manhattan permits are A2 minor alterations to existing buildings. The borough is largely built out, so its activity is renovation rather than new construction, which drives the overall count up while new-building permits stay low.
Can I look up a specific address's permit history?
The public dataset is cumulative and counts permits, not buildings, so it does not summarize one property. For a single address, use an address search tool and verify the details against the DOB. This is general information, not legal advice.