How long does a building permit take in Vancouver?

The figure is the median number of days between the date an application was received and the date the permit was issued, for permits issued in each calendar year.¹ 2026 is a partial year and rests on 2,714 permits issued by late August. The earlier years rest on 4,600 to 5,900 permits each.

It depends on the size of the job

One median hides a wide range. Banded by the declared value of the work, for permits issued from 2023 onward, Vancouver's medians run from 53 days for a $25,000 to $100,000 job up to 220 days for work declared over $2 million.³ A small renovation permit and a multi-family building permit are not the same wait, and a quote of "62 days" to someone building a six-storey project would be wrong.

Why the drop is real and not a statistical trick

A median of permits issued in a year only counts files that finished. A city could make its number fall by quietly letting slow files pile up unissued. Vancouver is not doing that: it has issued more permits than it received in every year since 2022, so the queue is draining rather than hiding anything.¹ That is the check that makes the 62-day figure trustworthy.

How this squares with the City's own numbers

The City reports its own processing times by permit type, and they are larger than 62 days because they describe the biggest jobs. In June 2026 it said a single-detached house permit took 160 days in 2025, down from 250 in 2022; a laneway house 100 days, down from 200; a multi-family development permit 9.8 months, down from 18.1; and that 92% of simple renovation permits now issue within three days.² Those are the City's own start and end points for each type. The 62-day figure is the middle of every permit the City issued, most of which are renovations and additions. The two measures describe the same thing from different ends: Vancouver has become materially faster since 2022, and the wait still depends heavily on what you are building.

What this figure is not

It is not a promise for your project. Permit time depends on the completeness of the application, the zoning, whether a development permit is needed first, and the size of the work. It is the measured middle of what the city actually issued, which is a better planning number than any anecdote.