How Long Does an ADU Permit Take in San Francisco?

The record

How long 194 San Francisco ADU permits actually took

We took every ADU-flagged building permit filed in San Francisco from January 1, 2023, removed the ones that bundle an ADU with a larger remodel or a new building, and measured the days from the filing date to the issue date. 194 standalone ADU permits had been issued by the day we pulled the data.

Read the table from the bottom as well as the top. Fifty of the 194 took longer than a year, and seven took longer than two. The fastest was issued the day it was filed; the slowest took 1,338 days.

If you are planning around a move-in date, plan around the middle of this table, not the first row.

One caution about what this number is. It runs from the day the application was filed to the day the permit was issued. It includes the city's review time and the applicant's time — every week a designer spent answering comments and resubmitting. The public record does not split the two, and we do not guess at the split.

By project type

Does the kind of ADU change the wait?

Somewhat — but the samples get small quickly, so treat the smaller rows as a hint, not a rule.

Two things stand out. First, the three largest groups sit within a few days of each other — in San Francisco the type of ADU moved the median far less than people expect. Second, garage conversions ran slower, not faster: the middle half of the 24 took 180 to 458 days. A garage conversion is often sold as the simple route. On this record, in this city, it was not the quick one.

We classify type from the words in the permit description. Eighty-two descriptions did not say clearly enough, and we left them unclassified instead of guessing.

By filing year

Is it getting faster?

The medians fall each year — but most of that fall is an illusion, and it matters that you see why.

A permit filed in 2026 can only appear in this table if it was issued quickly. The slow 2026 applications are still open, so they are not counted yet. The same is true, to a smaller degree, of 2025 and 2024. Only the 2023 row has had time to fill in — and its median is 363 days.

So the honest reading is this: the 2023 cohort took about a year at the median, and the later rows will rise as their slow permits are finally issued. A state completeness rule took effect on January 1, 2026 (below), and it may shorten the wait, but this table cannot yet show whether it has.

Still waiting

The applications that have not been issued

A median of issued permits leaves out everyone still in the queue. Of the 314 standalone ADU applications in our pull, 120 had not been issued:

• 91 were still at "filed" and 16 were approved but not yet issued.
• 10 had been withdrawn and 3 cancelled.

For the 107 still open, the median age on the day we pulled the data was 352 days, and 52 of them were more than a year old. Some of those are abandoned projects that nobody formally withdrew. Some are live projects stuck between rounds of comments. The record does not say which.

This is the part a "typical timeline" chart leaves out: some San Francisco ADU applications never come out the other end, and many wait far longer than a median of issued permits suggests.

The 60-day rule

Why the law says 60 days and the record says 216

Both are true, because they measure different things.

What state law requires. A city must approve or deny a complete ADU application within 60 days, without a hearing or discretionary review. The clock does not start at filing. It starts when the application is complete.

What changed in 2026. Under SB 543, in force since January 1, 2026, the city has 15 business days to tell you whether your application is complete, and if it is not, to give you a list of what is missing. Each resubmittal gets another 15 business days. If the city says nothing in that window, the application is deemed complete and the 60-day clock starts. Note the wording: deemed complete, not deemed approved.

What sits in between. Everything that happens before "complete" — the first completeness review, the list of missing items, your designer's corrections, the resubmittal, and sometimes a second round — sits outside the 60 days. So does the time between approval and the day the permit is actually issued and paid for.

That is how a 60-day law and a 216-day median exist in the same city.

What adds rounds in San Francisco

Five decisions that should be settled before anyone files

The record cannot tell us why a particular permit was slow. But every item below is a decision that, left open, changes the drawings after they are submitted — and changed drawings mean another round.

1. Which programme you are filing under

San Francisco has two ADU routes: the Local Programme (Planning Code §207.1) and the State Mandated Programme (§207.2). They have different standards, and the choice has a consequence that outlasts the permit: an ADU built under the Local Programme, or with a waiver, or added to a building that already has a rent-controlled unit, is subject to the Rent Ordinance. Decide this first. Our guide: Will my SF ADU be rent controlled?

2. Whether you need a waiver — and whether one exists

Under the Local Programme, waivers exist for density, open space, rear yard and exposure. Waivers are never available for ceiling height, ventilation, fire safety or exits. A design that depends on one of those four has no waiver to ask for, however many times it is resubmitted.

3. Whether the space is a tenant's housing service

If the building has tenants, the garage, parking, laundry, storage, deck or garden you plan to convert may be a housing service under the Rent Ordinance. Legal analysis of the 2025 amendments reports that removing one without just cause exposes the owner to treble damages — and that building an ADU is not just cause. Settle this with a lawyer before design, not after filing.

4. Whether the lower level can physically qualify

For a basement or ground-floor conversion, the gates are ceiling height, light and air, a way out, structure and fire protection. Have them measured against the code by a licensed designer before you pay for full drawings. Our guide: SF basement to ADU.

5. One scope, not two

We removed 155 of the 469 permits from every figure on this page because they bundled an ADU with a wider remodel or a new building. If speed matters to you, ask your designer whether the ADU can be filed as its own permit.

After the permit

Then the build: a median of 539 days

California's housing department collects a second set of dates from every city: when each housing permit was issued and when the unit was recorded complete. For San Francisco ADUs permitted from 2018 to 2023, the median was 539 days from permit to completion, across 765 projects. The middle half took 321 to 813 days.

That span includes everything after issuance: the weeks before work starts, the construction itself, change orders, inspections and final sign-off.

Do not add 216 and 539. They come from different projects in different years, and a median of one group plus a median of another is not the median of anything. What each number tells you on its own is enough: the permit has typically taken most of a year, and the build has typically taken longer than the permit.

Ready to start

If you want to file in the next 90 days

Owners in the faster quarter of the record were issued in 132 days or fewer. We cannot tell you what they did differently. We can tell you what is in your control:

1. Know your lot. Zoning, the number of existing units, and whether any unit is rent controlled. The lot checker below takes about a minute.
2. Choose the programme before a designer draws anything.
3. Clear the tenant question if the building is occupied.
4. Hire a designer who has taken an ADU through San Francisco's process — and ask for the permit numbers, so you can look up how long theirs took.
5. File a complete application. From 2026 the city owes you a completeness answer in 15 business days. A complete first submittal is the only way to start the 60-day clock on day one.
6. Answer every comment in one resubmittal, quickly. Your team's turnaround is the part of the 216 days you control.
7. Get builders' bids on the same drawings while the permit is in review, so the build can start when the permit is issued. Use our quote comparison worksheet.

Method

How these numbers were made

• Source. The City's public Building Permits dataset on DataSF, filtered to permits the City itself flags as ADUs, filed on or after January 1, 2023. Pulled November 4, 2026.
• Standalone only. 155 permits that bundle an ADU with other work are excluded. 314 remain.
• The measure. Calendar days from the filing date to the issued date, for the 194 standalone permits issued by the pull date.
• What it cannot show. City time versus applicant time; the reason for any delay; anything about planning approvals that happen outside the building permit; permits filed before 2023.
• Build time comes from a different source — the state's Annual Progress Report data — and covers permits issued 2018–2023.

We re-pull the data and update this page when the numbers move. If you find an error, write to [email protected].

Questions, answered

San Francisco ADU permit timing: quick answers

Keep going

Related San Francisco guides

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