Mayor Lurie Adds More Building Permits to PermitSF Portal, Speeding Up Housing Construction

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Daniel Lurie today launched a significant expansion of the PermitSF portal, the city’s digital permitting hub, which now hosts 75% of all building permits issued annually and the most common permits needed by San Franciscans—with more than 100 of these permit types filed per day. Bringing kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, and electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits to the portal will accelerate housing construction and support homeowners making repairs and completing renovations in their homes.

Since launching PermitSF last year to make permitting fast, predictable, and transparent, the Lurie administration has introduced more than 20 ordinances, including common-sense reforms to make it easier for homeowners to park in their driveway and for businesses to set up cafe tables on the sidewalk and paint their own business name on their storefront. One year after launch, Mayor Lurie launched a fully digital permitting portal allowing homeowners and business owners to submit applications without making any in-person trips to the Permit Center. Within its first seven months, the PermitSF portal has seen a year-over-year increase in the number of permits issued, with a 50% increase in permits issued for doors, siding, and windows, and a 42% increase for fire alarms and sprinklers. And because applicants can submit 24/7, over a quarter of applications now come in outside of weekday business hours—with the convenience driving demand.

“San Francisco’s broken permitting system has prevented small businesses from opening, stopped us from building housing, and held back our economic recovery. Under PermitSF, we’ve made permitting faster, easier, and more transparent—but we're just getting started,” said Mayor Lurie. “Bringing these new permits onto the portal means San Franciscans can submit, track, and manage inspections for their most common home projects. We're going to keep our foot on the accelerator, make this process faster and easier, and keep our recovery moving forward.”

Previously, only single-family homes qualified for express permits for minor kitchen and bathroom remodels, such as new fixtures, appliances, and counters—projects that don’t involve moving a wall or other structural changes. Now, households in multifamily residential buildings also qualify for this express pathway, and property owners can apply directly online at their convenience. With 78% of the city’s housing stock in multifamily buildings, this expansion makes home improvements easier for more San Franciscans. In 2025, over 2,000 permits for minor kitchen and bathroom remodels were submitted, and that volume will likely grow with this change.

“The PermitSF portal is being built to be a customer-friendly platform that is easy to use and enables the entire permitting process to be completed online without having to apply in person,” said David Kane, Department of Building Inspection Interim Director. “Today, our staff at the Department of Building Inspection and our colleagues on the PermitSF team achieved an important milestone in streamlining construction permitting and making it easier to build in San Francisco.”

“Quick and accessible permits are critical to our construction industry,” said Eric Petersen, Project Executive at Decker Electric. “Projects are picking up again following the pandemic lull, and the new permitting portal allows us to keep up with the pace. It streamlines our work and lets each project manager track their activities in one place. Ultimately, that means we can quickly keep projects moving for our customers.”

The PermitSF portal continues to deliver faster, easier, and more transparent permitting. It launched in February with door, window, and siding permits, as well as special event intake applications, fire alarms, sprinklers, and other fire suppression systems. It expanded to include water flow information requests and contractor authorization in April. In July, the portal launched reroofing with no plans, signs, and awnings.