Cluj-Napoca · building permits · 2022–2026
Building permits in Cluj-Napoca: the median wait rose from 57 to 101 days between 2022 and 2026
Each glowing dot is a file waiting: it lights up on the day the request was registered and goes out on the day the permit was issued. Search a street to see what was permitted there and how long it waited.
From January 2022 to 11 November 2026 the city hall issued 5,065 building permits (autorizații de construire). The median time between the registered request and the permit was 55 to 62 days in 2022–2024, 69 days in 2025 and 101 days in 2026.
The map stops at 30 June 2026. It includes only files that had received a permit by 11 November; files filed and not yet permitted are missing, so the number of files waiting is a minimum, all the more toward the end.
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How long does a building permit take in Cluj-Napoca?#
Days are counted from the registered request to the permit date. The median was 57 days for permits issued in 2022, 62 for 2023, 55 for 2024, 69 for 2025 and 101 for 2026. In 2026, 60% of permits waited more than 90 days; in 2022, 23%.
The rise appears in all seven kinds of work with at least 30 permits in 2026: new homes and buildings, demolitions, interior changes, utility connections and the others in the table below. Without the permits that continue or change works already permitted, the median goes from 58 days in 2022 to 105 in 2026. Leaving out waits over 180 days, it goes from 56 days in 2022 to 97 in 2026.
The change starts in the last quarter of 2025: requests filed then had a median of 91 days, against 60 for the quarter before; those filed in the first quarter of 2026, 107 days. These are minimums, because files still waiting are not in the register.
The number of permits issued fell too. Between 1 January and 11 November there were 1,077 in 2022, 978 in 2025 and 699 in 2026.
The city hall also issues the urbanism certificate (certificat de urbanism), the document an applicant needs at the start of a project. The median certificate took 12 to 15 days in 2022–2025 and 27 days in 2026 (31 days for requests from the first quarter). By 11 November 2026, 1,861 certificates had been issued, against 2,426 in the same period of 2025.
The register does not show why. The rise begins before Law 169/2026 (the Urbanism Code) took effect on 25 August 2026. The new rules are explained in the Urbanism Code: which rules apply to your land or file.
What is permitted in Cluj-Napoca?#
The register describes the works in one sentence. Grouped by the words in it, most permits are for new homes and buildings, utility connections, continuations of permits already issued, and interior changes. The grouping is approximate and serves only for comparison; a median appears only from 30 permits. The table leaves out the 82 permits with no description in the register and the 288 whose description fits no kind.
| Kind of works | Permits | Median 2022–2025 | Median 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New homes and buildings | 878 | 77 | 120 |
| Continuations and changes to an issued permit | 868 | 54 | 91 |
| Utility connections and networks | 746 | 46 | 99 |
| Interior changes and change of use | 480 | 65 | 103 |
| Other construction, fences | 389 | 61 | 98 |
| Renovation, facades, energy efficiency | 373 | 49 | 82 |
| Demolition, with or without rebuilding | 341 | 84 | 113 |
| Illuminated signs, panels, terraces, containers | 315 | 39 | under 30 |
| Extensions, extra storeys, attic conversions | 243 | 82 | under 30 |
Three examples from the register for each kind of works, reproduced in lower case, with diacritics restored and flat numbers removed, in Romanian; addresses are left out:
New homes and buildings
- Construire imobil de locuințe colective s+p+2e+m și amenajări exterioare
- Construire locuință individuală - p+e, împrejmuire teren, amenajări exterioare
- Construire imobil cu functiune de birouri, regim de înălțime s+p+5e+er, împrejmuire și amenajări exterioare
Demolition, with or without rebuilding
- Desființare corp c1, construire locuință semicolectivă s+p+1e+er, împrejmuire teren și amenajări exterioare
- Desființare construcții - corp c1, corp c2
- Amenajări exterioare, desființare parțială împrejmuire laterală
Extensions, extra storeys, attic conversions
- Extindere, mansardare și recompartimentări interioare locuință corp c1. regima final de înălțime: p+m
- Extindere și etajare corp c1, împrejmuire teren, amenajări exterioare regim de înălțime: sp+p+e
- SUPRAETAJARE CORP C2 (regim final de înălțime S+P+3E)
Interior changes and change of use
- Modificări la fațade, recompartimentări interioare corp c1, construire piscina și spațiu tehnic în regim ingropat
- Recompartimentări interioare și modificări goluri acces balcon apartament
- Modificări interioare apartament în vederea realizării a două unități individuale, cu menținerea funcțiunilor existente
Renovation, facades, energy efficiency
- Lucrări de refațadizare, modificare luminatoare, amplasare firmă luminoasă pe fațadă, organizare de șantier
- Refațadizare și refacere învelitoare corp c1 și organizare de șantier
- Amplasare două firme luminoase pe fațadă imobil în sistem provizoriu și demontabil
Utility connections and networks
- Extindere conductă canalizare ape uzate menajere și canalizare pluvială
- Branșament gaze naturale și prm
- Racordare la rețeaua electrică clădire anatomie
Illuminated signs, panels, terraces, containers
- Amplasare firmă luminoasă corp c1 cu caracter provizoriu și demontabil
- Amplasare firmă luminoasă și amenajare terasă sezonieră în sistem provizoriu și demontabil
- Amplasare totem publicitar pe teren proprietate privată
Other construction, fences
- Împrejmuire parțială pe latura vestică și amenajări exterioare
- Împrejmuire teren în sistem provizoriu și demontabi
- Împrejmuire proprietate în regim provizoriu și demontabil
What the register does not show#
- The days measure the applicant’s whole wait: they include the time spent completing or correcting the file, and the register does not show when a file was complete.
- The register lists only permits that were issued. Requests that were refused, withdrawn or are still waiting are missing, so the 2026 waits are minimums.
- Why the wait grew is not known. The register does not show whether staffing, procedure or the way requests are submitted changed.
- Of the 5,003 permits with both dates, 20% could not be placed on the map: the address has no street, or the street is not found in OpenStreetMap. Another 57% are located only to the street: either the house number is not found in OpenStreetMap, or it is a private home, which the map places on its street only. Only 24% sit at the building in the address. Street dots take a position chosen at random along the street.
- 45 records have no request date and 17 have the permit before the request. They count as permits issued but not in the calculation of days. For 82 permits the works field holds only the word “ARRAY”.
- The register contains no applicants’ names. The page prints no house or flat numbers, and private homes are placed on the map on their street only.
Where the data comes from#
The building-permit and urbanism-certificate registers of the Cluj-Napoca city hall, published on data.gov.ro under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, in the yearly files for 2022–2026 (version of 12 November 2026). Streets, buildings and water come from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) and relief from Copernicus GLO-30. A permit is placed by the street and number in its address; if no number is found, on the line of the street; with no street, it does not appear on the map.