NYC PLUTO Data Explained: What Every Field Tells You

NYC PLUTO (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output) is the city's master dataset on every tax lot in the five boroughs — over 800,000 records, updated quarterly by the Department of City Planning. It's the foundation almost every NYC property tool builds on, including ours.

PLUTO has 90+ fields per lot. This guide explains the ~25 that matter most for due diligence, what they mean, and the gotchas where the data is famously misleading.

Identification fields

BBL — Borough Block Lot (the primary key)

The 10-digit identifier for every tax lot in NYC. First digit = borough, next 5 = block, last 4 = lot. Every PLUTO record is keyed to a BBL.

Full BBL explainer →

Address

The primary street address. PLUTO addresses are normalized to NYC's CSCL (Centerline) format, which sometimes differs from how mail is delivered (e.g. "30-78 STEINWAY STREET" not "30-78 Steinway St").

OwnerName

The party listed as owner in the most recent PLUTO update. Often an LLC or corporation name; not always the actual beneficial owner. To find beneficial ownership, cross-reference with ACRIS deeds. PLUTO is updated quarterly so a recent sale may not be reflected for 3-6 months.

Physical attributes

YearBuilt

Year of original construction. Famous gotcha: many pre-1900 NYC buildings have yearbuilt = 0 because PLUTO can't reconstruct the date. Always cross-reference with DOB or NYC Landmarks if year matters.

NumFloors

Number of stories. Counts the basement and cellar differently than most renters/buyers expect. A "5-story walk-up" in PLUTO may have NumFloors = 5 (above ground) or 6 (including the cellar).

UnitsTotal

Total units (residential + commercial). Combined into one number — see UnitsRes and UnitsCommercial for the breakdown.

UnitsRes

Residential units only. The number that matters for HPD registration thresholds and rent-stabilization rules.

UnitsCommercial

Commercial units. Even small mixed-use buildings (residential above retail) have UnitsCommercial ≥ 1.

BldgClass

The building class code (A0, C1, D4, etc.) — primary use type. Full building class cheatsheet →

LotArea

Lot size in square feet. For a typical NYC residential lot, expect 1,500-3,000 sf; commercial lots in dense areas can be much larger.

BldgArea

Total floor area of the building in sq ft. Used in FAR calculations.

ComArea

Commercial floor area. Helpful for understanding mixed-use buildings — if BldgArea is 10,000 and ComArea is 2,000, the building is 80% residential by floor area.

LotFront / LotDepth

Lot frontage (street side) and depth in feet. Typical NYC townhouse lot is 20-25' front × 100' deep.

Zoning fields

ZoneDist1

Primary zoning district. Examples:

• R6 — medium-density residential
• R7-2 — higher-density residential
• C4-5 — commercial
• M1-4 — manufacturing
• R6B — contextual residential (height-limited)

ZoneDist2

Secondary zoning district when a lot crosses zoning boundaries. Empty for most lots.

Overlay1

Commercial overlay on a residential lot — allows ground-floor commercial in an otherwise residential building. Examples:

• C1-3 — local commercial overlay (deli, dry cleaner)
• C2-4 — larger commercial overlay (restaurants, larger retail)

SplitZone

Y/N flag for lots that span two zoning districts.

BuiltFAR / ResidFAR / CommFAR / FacilFAR

Floor Area Ratio fields — the ratio of built floor area to lot area. The "as-built" FAR vs. the "permitted maximum" tells you whether the building has unused development rights:

• BuiltFAR — what's currently built
• ResidFAR — maximum residential FAR allowed
• CommFAR — maximum commercial FAR allowed
• FacilFAR — maximum community-facility FAR allowed

If BuiltFAR is much less than the relevant maximum, the lot has development potential — and the building you're considering may be a future teardown.

Tax + assessment

TaxClass

1, 2, 3, or 4 — drives how assessment + tax rate are calculated.

AssessTot

Total assessed value. For Class 1 properties, this is roughly 6% of estimated market value (legal cap). For Class 2/4, it's a different formula (income approach).

AssessLand

Land portion of assessed value, separate from improvements.

ExemptTot

Total tax exemptions on the lot (J-51, 421-a, religious, governmental, etc.). Full tax abatement explainer →

Other useful flags

Landmark

Y/N for individual NYC Landmark designation. Landmark status restricts what exterior changes are allowed and adds significant cost to renovations.

HistDist

Historic district name if the lot is in one. Different from individual landmark but with similar exterior-change restrictions.

ExtCnstr

Exterior construction type: 0 = N/A, 1 = wood, 2 = brick / masonry, 3 = fireproof, 4 = non-fireproof, 5 = fire-resistant. Affects insurance pricing.

Garage

Y/N or code for on-lot parking. Empty / blank for most NYC buildings.

Famous PLUTO gotchas

• YearBuilt = 0 for pre-1900 buildings. Don't assume the building is new.
• OwnerName can be an LLC; cross-reference ACRIS for the real owner chain.
• UnitsTotal vs UnitsRes mismatch can mean a building has retail but PLUTO has stale data.
• Condo BBLs vs Building BBL — each condo unit has its own BBL but the building has a "parent" BBL. PLUTO sometimes lists data on one and not the other.
• Quarterly update lag — recent sales and renovations may not appear for 3-6 months.

How to access PLUTO directly

• NYC Department of City Planning — bulk CSV downloads (~10MB) at planning.nyc.gov
• NYC Open Data — searchable web interface at data.cityofnewyork.us
• ZoLa — DCP's official zoning + land use map: zola.planning.nyc.gov
• Our audit — surfaces the 15-20 PLUTO fields that matter for buyers and renters, with plain-English explanations

Run a free audit on any NYC address →

Related reading

For how PLUTO data feeds into building due diligence, see our NYC building due-diligence checklist.