NYC New Building Applications: What's Coming Next

Owners filed 1,761 new building applications in DOB NOW in 2025, proposing 41,574 homes. That is close to the 2022 level and far above 2023 and 2024. 2026 is running ahead of 2025: 41,066 proposed units through October 9, versus 29,323 in the same stretch last year. Brooklyn had the most proposed units in 2025. A filing is a plan, not a building, so read the limits below.

How we counted

DOB NOW records each new building job as an initial filing (its number ends in -I1), followed by subsequent filings and post-approval amendments under the same job number. The dataset has 57,460 New Building rows, but only 9,774 are initial filings. We count each job once, in the year of its initial filing, and use the proposed dwelling units and stories on that filing. Withdrawn filings count toward the number of applications but not toward units, stories or anything else. The earliest initial New Building filing in this dataset is from March 3, 2021, so 2021 is a partial year. DOB required new building applications to be filed in DOB NOW starting March 1, 2021; earlier filings were made in DOB's older BIS system and are not in this dataset.

Filings by year

Applications peaked at 1,960 in 2022 and 1,906 in 2023, fell to 1,259 in 2024, then rose to 1,761 in 2025. Through October 9, 2026 already has 1,501. Most filings are for small buildings: the median proposed height has been 3 stories every year, and the median residential filing in 2025 proposed 3 units.

Proposed units swing much more than filings, because a few large projects carry most of the total. Units were 41,176 in 2022, dropped to 14,545 in 2023 and 15,457 in 2024, then jumped to 41,574 in 2025. In 2023 and 2024 the number of filings for buildings with 50 or more units fell to 61 and 81, from 214 in 2022. In 2025 it was 259, and 2026 has 289 so far. The dataset does not record why developers filed when they did, so we do not attribute these swings to any one law or market change.

Most homes are in a few big buildings

In 2025, 652 filings were for one- or two-unit homes, but together they proposed only 1,134 units. The 259 filings for buildings with 50 or more units proposed 32,465, or 78% of the year's total. 267 new building filings listed zero dwelling units. Most have a building type of "Other," but 99 are labeled one- or two-family, so the unit field is not always filled in and small-home totals may be slightly low.

Where development is heading

Brooklyn (13,257), the Bronx (11,642) and Queens (11,537) each proposed more than 11,000 units in 2025. Manhattan proposed 4,340 and Staten Island 798. Staten Island has many filings (313 in 2025) but they are mostly one- and two-family homes, so its unit total is small. Manhattan has the fewest filings (72) but large buildings.

Top 20 neighborhoods by proposed units, 2025 and 2026

From January 2025 through October 9, 2026, Jamaica in Queens had the most proposed units, followed by Chelsea-Hudson Yards and East Harlem (North) in Manhattan. 7 of the top 20 are in the Bronx. Neighborhood names are the Neighborhood Tabulation Areas recorded on each filing. 3,342 proposed units had no NTA and are not in the table.

The largest proposed buildings

How many filings become buildings?

Older filings show how the pipeline thins out. Of the 5,164 new building applications filed from 2021 through 2023, 2,177 (42%) had a status of CO Issued on our query date, 1,564 had a permit, 658 were listed with objections, 492 had a status of Approved, and 206 were withdrawn. Recent filings will take years to reach a certificate of occupancy, and some never will. For what has actually been completed, see our report on certificates of occupancy by year.

The full yearly table

What this data can and cannot tell you

Check a site near you

If a lot near your home or a building you are renting has a new building filing, look up the address on Roofy's NYC building lookup and read how to read DOB permits and job filings. For why some lots can hold bigger buildings than others, see zoning, FAR and air rights. For the existing stock, see NYC housing stock by building type.