Monthly Update: Building Permits

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City of Houston building permits totaled $909.1 million in May ’19, up 81.8 percent from $500.0 million in May ’18, according to the latest data released by the city’s Public Works Department. Commercial permit values increased 153.4 percent to $563.9 million; residential permit values increased 24.4 percent to $345.2 million. Year-to-date building permits for Houston are up 58.5 percent from the same period last year; 99.4 percent for commercial permits and 18.0 percent for residential permits. 

Three projects of note that were permitted in May:

• Trammell Crow's Alexan Lynn Park ($55.7 million permit value), a 4-story, 383-unit apartment project near River Oaks, featuring a parking garage, retail space, lobby and amenities. Houston-based EDI International is listed as the design firm. 
• Transocean's New Houston HQ ($37.0 million permit value), a 11-story, 300,000-square-foot build-out project, built by Houston-based Tellepsen Builders. Transocean filed building permits for each floor of the 11-story Enclave Place building, which they will lease starting July ’19. 
• Insperity's New Building ($35.6 million), a 10-story, 270,000-square-foot project, which will be the fifth multistory office building at Insperity’s Kingwood corporate campus. Construction is led by Houston-based D.E. Harvey Builders and the project is expected to be complete in ’20.

For the 12 months ending May ’19, city building permits totaled $7.4 billion, up 27.3 percent from $5.8 billion for the same period a year ago. Commercial permit values rose 37.1 percent to $4.4 billion while residential permit values increased 15.5 percent to $3.0 billion. 

Melissa Verhoef, PhD
Analyst, Research
713-844-3653
mverhoef@houston.org

Patrick Jankowski, CERP
Senior Vice President, Research
713-844-3616
pjankowski@houston.org