From plot to permit: the whole route
Nine stages between buying a plot and holding the building permit. Which of them carry a legal deadline and which depend on you, what can run in parallel, and the three points where almost every project falls behind.
Gustavo Mejía Martínez5 min read
"How long does this take?" is the most asked and the worst answered question, because the honest answer comes in two parts: there are stages with a deadline set by law and stages that depend entirely on how quickly you decide. And the second kind are usually the long ones.
This is the whole route, with what is known and what is not.
The route
| Stage | What happens | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Checking the property | Certificado de tradición (the land registry extract), planning enquiry, class of land, encumbrances, risk, watercourse setbacks | Days. And before you buy, not after |
| 2. Soil survey | Boreholes, laboratory tests and a geotechnical report signed by a civil engineer | Weeks. It governs everything that follows |
| 3. Topographic survey | The plot as it really measures, which almost never matches the title deed | Days |
| 4. Outline scheme | The general outline: zones, access, how the rooms relate to one another | Depends on you |
| 5. Concept design | Floor plans, sections and elevations, enough to understand the building and decide | This is where almost everything stalls |
| 6. Architectural project | Details, specifications and coordination with the other disciplines | Weeks |
| 7. Technical designs | Structural, plumbing and drainage, electrical and gas, each with its own signature | In parallel with 6 |
| 8. Filing | The complete file lodged with the curaduría urbana (a private office licensed by the state to issue permits) or with the planning office | One day, if it is complete |
| 9. Review of the application | The authority reviews, raises observations and decides | 45 working days, by law |
What the law does say
Of the nine stages, only the last one has a legal deadline, and it is a fairly precise one:
Curadores urbanos and the municipal or district body in charge of the study, processing and issuing of permits shall have a maximum term of forty-five (45) working days to resolve applications […] Once that term has expired, positive administrative silence shall apply.
- The 45 working days run from filing in due and proper form, that is, with the file complete. An incomplete file does not start the clock.
- The term may be extended once only, by up to half, where the size or the complexity of the project warrants it.
- If a record of observations arrives, you have 30 working days to answer, extendable by 15.
- Positive administrative silence operates "on the terms applied for", but never against the planning rules. It is not a back door.
How long the permit lasts once it is issued
| Modality | Validity | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| Urbanisation, parcelación (its rural counterpart) and construction in the new build modality | 36 months | Once, +12 |
| Construction in modalities other than new build | 24 months | Once, +12 |
| Urbanisation + parcelación + new build in one and the same act | 48 months | Once, +12 |
| Subdivision | 12 months | Cannot be extended |
The extension has to be applied for no later than 30 working days before expiry (working days, not calendar days), with the documentation complete and a sworn statement that the works have already begun.
The three points where everything falls behind
1. The concept design that never closes
It is, by some distance, where most time is lost, and the one nobody counts, because no procedure produces it. A concept design that goes back and forth six times can eat up more weeks than the remaining eight stages put together.
The cause is almost never the architect: it is that the decision has not been taken. If there are two people in the household who want different things, the drawing is not going to settle it.
2. The incomplete file
Filing before everything is ready, "to secure a date", gains you nothing: the term does not start running and the rules do not freeze. And in the worst case the procedure ends in abandonment and you have to start again.
3. The soil survey that arrived late
The soil survey governs the foundations, the foundations govern the structure, and the structure governs the architectural project. Commissioning it at the end forces you to redo everything backwards.
What can be done in parallel
- The soil and topographic surveys, with each other and with the outline scheme.
- The technical designs, alongside the development of the architectural project. There is no need to finish one before starting the others.
- Checking the property, alongside all of the above, although strictly it should come before you buy.
What cannot be run in parallel is the sequence of decisions: outline scheme, concept design, project. Each one settles questions that the next one takes as settled.
A warning about total timescales
You will see round figures in circulation: "six months from plot to permit", "a year". They are not data, they are averages of nothing. The only deadline with regulatory backing anywhere along the route is the 45 working days for the review of the application.
Everything else depends on the size of the project, on the city, on how complicated the property is and, above all, on how quickly the decisions get taken. A small project with a decisive client can move surprisingly fast. A medium one with three opinions may never finish at all.
The useful question is not "how long does it take" but "what depends on me, and when do I have to decide it". That one can be answered from day one.
Sources
- Decreto 1077 de 2015, plazos y trámite de las licencias urbanísticas · Departamento Administrativo de la Función Pública · 26 May 2015
- Decreto 1783 de 2021, artículo 27: vigencia de las licencias · Departamento Administrativo de la Función Pública · 20 December 2021
- Ley 400 de 1997, estudios geotécnicos y diseño estructural · Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial · 19 August 1997
- Decreto 2090 de 1989, etapas del servicio de arquitectura · Departamento Administrativo de la Función Pública · 13 September 1989
I have a plot and I want to build on it.
We check what the planning rules allow on your plot, what can be built and what it costs, before drawing anything. Then we develop the full project through to the drawings and the permit application with the curaduría (the licensed private office that issues building permits in Cali and other large Colombian municipalities; in smaller ones, the municipal planning office).
The first call is free and lasts 15 minutes. You come away knowing whether we can help and what it would involve.