How long does a Vancouver building permit take? I checked 52,000 of them

Nearly every party running for City Hall this fall says it will make permits faster. In 2022, ABC made the most specific version of that promise. Its "3x3x3x1" target was three days for a simple renovation, three weeks for a single-family house, three months for a mid-rise and a year for a tower.

Instead of repeating anyone's progress report, I went to the City's own public permit data: all 52,125 building permits issued since 2017, downloaded on September 23. Here is what it shows for the permits most people deal with.

Home permits are faster than in 2022

A simple home renovation took a median of 51 days to reach a permit in 2022. In 2025 it took 28, and so far this year it's 23. That is a real change, and it started in 2023.

New houses sped up too. The median new single-family house took 249 days in 2022 and 142 days so far in 2026. Laneway houses dropped from 230.5 days to 98.

2022 was a slow year, so it's fair to ask whether this is just a bounce back. Mostly, it isn't. New houses and laneway homes are faster now than in any year back to 2017, and renovations are close: only 2024 was quicker.

Faster is still a long way from three days

The City has said 92 per cent of simple renovation permits now clear in three days. The public data doesn't show that. Of the 845 permits the City labels as lower-complexity home renovations in 2025, 10.1 per cent were issued within three days.

The two numbers probably count different things. The City's figure may cover a narrower fast-track stream, or start the clock at a different point. I asked the City on September 25 how its figure is measured. The City acknowledged the question the same day and said it would respond this week, but hadn't answered by publication.

New houses are further off. The three-week target would mean 21 days. No new single-family house in the data got its permit that quickly, in 2022 or since. A quarter of this year's took 89 days or less.

Multiplexes are getting slower

Multiplexes are the one type moving the other way. Since October 2023, most lots that used to be zoned for a single house can hold a building of up to six homes. The median permit took 108.5 days for the first 60 issued in 2024, 168.5 days in 2025, and 188 days so far this year, as applications piled up. If the next council wants more of them, that queue is the place to look.

What this doesn't cover

These numbers only time one step. The clock starts when the City opens a building permit file and stops when the permit is issued. For a renovation or a new house, that's most of the wait. For an apartment building or a tower, it's the last stretch. Those projects usually spend months, sometimes years, getting through rezoning and a development permit first, and none of that is in this data. So I can't tell you whether the three-month and one-year targets for bigger buildings were met, and I'd rather not guess.

If you're running for Council and promising faster permits, here is my question: which step in this process would you cut first, and what would you stop checking to do it?

How I did this

Source: City of Vancouver open data, issued building permits, downloaded September 23, 2026, with permits issued to September 22. Days are the City's own permit elapsed days field. Renovations are the City's "Renovation, Residential, Lower Complexity" category. Houses are new buildings recorded as single detached houses, with or without a suite, and not as duplexes or multiple dwellings. Multiplexes are new buildings whose description says multiplex. Medians are by year the permit was issued. The analysis script and the data are kept with our reporting notes, and I'll share them on request. ABC's 2022 targets and the City's 92 per cent figure are as reported in Daily Hive's review of ABC's promises.

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