How to read NYC's public property record before you visit a deal

The public record is the first site visit

Before a deal team sets foot in a building, New York City has already published a significant amount of what they need to know. Four datasets — PLUTO, ACRIS, DOB, and HPD — are free, specific, and updated regularly. Together they answer the questions that matter most in early screening: what is this lot, who owns it, what has been permitted, and what problems have been flagged.

Understanding what each dataset contains — and what it cannot tell you — is a basic skill for anyone working in NYC residential real estate.

PLUTO: the lot itself

PLUTO (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output) is published by the Department of City Planning. It assigns every tax lot in the five boroughs a structured record containing:

• Zoning district and overlay designations
• Lot dimensions, total square footage, and building square footage
• Year built and last alteration year
• Building class and land use category
• Floor area ratio (FAR) used versus what the zoning allows

The FAR comparison is particularly useful. If a lot has significant unused development rights, a deal team notes that early. If it is already built to or near the zoning envelope, that shapes how they model the opportunity.

PLUTO does not tell you condition, rent rolls, or whether the building has open violations. That is where the other datasets come in.

ACRIS: the recorded transaction history

ACRIS (Automated City Register Information System), run by the Department of Finance, records every deed, mortgage, and lien filed in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. (Staten Island uses a separate system.)

From ACRIS a deal team can pull:

• The chain of title: who sold to whom, and when
• The recorded sale price of each transaction
• Outstanding mortgages and satisfaction filings
• UCC filings and other encumbrances

The recorded sale price matters because it establishes what the current owner paid and when. That context informs how a team thinks about basis, holding period, and the owner's likely expectations. It does not tell you what a property is worth today — that requires current market analysis — but it anchors the conversation.

ACRIS also surfaces whether a property has been through foreclosure proceedings or has recorded judgments against it. Both are flags that require deeper legal review before any deal advances.

DOB: the permit and violation record

The Department of Buildings maintains a record of every permit filed and every violation issued on a property. A deal team reviews this to understand:

• What work has been permitted over time, and whether permits were closed out
• Open permits that were never finalized — a common complication in acquisitions
• DOB violations, which range from minor paperwork issues to unsafe structure findings
• Stop-work orders, active or historical

Open permits and open violations carry with them legal obligations that transfer with ownership in certain circumstances. A property with a pattern of unpermitted alterations signals both a legal exposure and a renovation budget question that needs to be resolved before underwriting is reliable.

DOB BIS (Buildings Information System) and the newer DOB NOW platform are the primary portals for this data.

HPD: the housing quality record

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development tracks violations and complaints on residential properties with three or more units. HPD violations are classified A, B, and C — non-hazardous, hazardous, and immediately hazardous, respectively.

A deal team looks at HPD to understand:

• The volume and class of open violations
• How quickly prior violations were certified as corrected
• Underlying conditions that may be more systemic than the violation count suggests

A building with a high concentration of Class C violations — particularly heat, hot water, or rodents — is telling a story about either deferred maintenance or an owner who has been unresponsive to tenant complaints. Both have operational and financial implications that belong in a deal memo.

HPD data also connects to the Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP) and the Underlying Conditions Program, which impose additional city oversight on severely distressed buildings.

Using the four datasets together

No single dataset gives a complete picture. PLUTO tells you the bones. ACRIS tells you the ownership and financing history. DOB tells you what has been permitted and what problems have been cited by inspectors. HPD tells you how the building has functioned as housing.

A deal team runs all four before scheduling a physical inspection. The goal is to arrive at the building with specific questions — not a blank page.

The takeaway

NYC's public datasets are a disciplined screener's first tool: free, specific, and available before any conversation with a seller begins.