2026 Los Angeles ADU Permit Report

Accessory dwelling units are now about four in ten of the homes Los Angeles permits, close behind apartment buildings and far ahead of new houses. The City records each one: whether it was carved out of a garage or built new, whether it rides on a new house, and whether it sits behind a house or an apartment building.

We counted every ADU and junior ADU the City has permitted since January 2020: 43,758 units on 40,168 permits. 2025 set a record of 7,714. The bigger change is in what gets built. On house lots, 23.7% of ADUs were new construction in 2020; in 2026 it is 49.1%, as garage conversions fall and two-story ADUs, ADUs built with new houses and ADUs on apartment lots rise.

This report publishes the figures and the dataset. It does not argue for a cause; where a number invites one, the competing readings are listed and left open. For rules and costs on estate lots, see our ADU & Guest House Report.

The Dataset

• Source: City of Los Angeles open data, dataset pi9x-tg5x — Building and Safety permits issued from 2020 to present. Public, updated daily, extracted with permits issued through November 7, 2026.
• Unit: an ADU or junior ADU created by a building permit (new building, addition or alteration), counted from the City's ADU fields and checked against the permit's description.
• Every way an ADU is permitted is counted. Our Residential Building Permit Report counted only brand-new ADU buildings, so its ADU figures are smaller.
• Revisions are removed (2,284 permits), and so are re-designations, such as an ADU turned into a junior ADU.
• Matched windows. Every year is cut to January 1 – October 31, so 2026 is compared like-for-like.
• These are permits, not finished units. Completion is measured in our Home Build Timeline Report.

Permits are issued by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.

Finding 1: A Record 7,714 ADUs in 2025, and Four in Ten of All Homes Permitted

ADU permits issued between January 1 and October 31 rose from 2,736 in 2020 to 6,313 in 2022, dipped, then reached 6,569 in 2025. In 2026 the figure is 6,203, 5.6% behind last year. Over a full year, 2025 was the record at 7,714. Junior ADUs, carved out of the house itself, went from 96 to 698 in the same window.

ADUs and junior ADUs permitted January 1 – October 31 of each year. Full-year totals are shown for completed years.

Since January 2023 the City has permitted 27,693 ADUs against 4,720 new houses: about six ADUs for every new house. In the City's own reports to the state, ADUs were 21.3% of all homes permitted in 2020 and 41.2% in 2025: 7,450 ADUs, against 7,829 homes in buildings of five or more units, 1,637 single-family houses and 1,153 homes in buildings of two to four (Annual Progress Report data, permits issued in the year). Statewide, the Department of Housing and Community Development puts the 2024 share at "more than 26.6 percent" (ADU Handbook).

Finding 2: Half of ADUs on House Lots Are Now Built New, Not Converted

In 2020, three ADUs in four on house lots were conversions, mostly of garages. That share has fallen every year. In 2026, new construction (new ADU buildings, additions and ADUs built with a new house) is 49.1%. Garage conversions peaked at 3,182 in 2022 and are down 24.7% on last year; new-construction ADUs are up 4.4%.

ADUs and junior ADUs on house lots (single-family and duplex permits), issued January 1 – October 31 of each year. ADUs on apartment and commercial lots are counted separately in Finding 5.

Finding 3: ADUs Are Going Up

Of new ADU buildings on house lots, 41.7% are described as two or more stories in 2026, against 24.3% in 2020. The share held near a quarter until 2022 and has climbed every year since. The count includes ADUs built over a garage.

Share of new ADU buildings on house lots described as two or more stories, January 1 – October 31 of each year.

Finding 4: Four in Ten New Houses Now Come With an ADU

Outside Brentwood – Pacific Palisades, 38.5% of new-house permits in 2026 include an ADU or junior ADU on the same permit, up from 1.7% in 2020. In the Palisades fire rebuild it is 120 of 872 (13.8%). Permits carrying wildfire-rebuild wording created 48 ADUs in 2025 and 246 so far in 2026, and 83.1% of Palisades ADUs since 2023 are new construction.

Share of new single-family house permits that include an ADU or junior ADU on the same permit, outside Brentwood – Pacific Palisades, January 1 – October 31 of each year.

Finding 5: ADUs on Duplex and Apartment Lots Are Climbing Fast

State law allows detached ADUs on lots that already hold a duplex or apartment building. Permits citing that rule created 3 ADUs in 2020 and 746 by October 31, 2026, rising every year. On apartment-building permits, new ADU buildings went from 66 to 227 in the past year, while conversions of storage rooms, garages and rec rooms inside existing buildings held at 505–731 a year since 2022.

January 1 – October 31 of each year. The first column counts permits that cite the multifamily detached-ADU provision, so it moves with how permits are written as well as with what is built. Columns overlap: duplex lots appear in the first, apartment permits in the other two.

Finding 6: More Unpermitted Units Are Being Permitted as ADUs

Permits that convert or legalize previously unpermitted space as an ADU numbered 1 in 2020 and 10 in 2023, then 43 in 2024, 83 in 2025 and 99 so far in 2026. Many cite structures built before 2020.

January 1 – October 31 of each year. * 2026 to date.

Finding 7: ADUs Are Built Across the City

Unlike new houses, which concentrate in a few areas, ADUs are spread widely: 51.5% of those permitted since 2023 are in the San Fernando Valley. Measured against new houses, the gap between areas is large: 31.1 ADUs for every new house in South Los Angeles against 0.4 in Brentwood – Pacific Palisades.

ADUs per new-house permit since January 2023: the six highest and six lowest of the 28 community plan areas with at least 150 ADUs and 30 new houses (ADU count in brackets). Every area is in the CSV below.

Shares are of ADUs on house lots. The highest garage-conversion share among areas with at least 300 ADUs is Mission Hills – Panorama City – North Hills (58.9%); the lowest is Brentwood – Pacific Palisades (12.5%).

Finding 8: A Conversion Gets Its Permit in About Half the Time of a New Building

From application to permit issue, the median for a garage conversion was 111 days and for a new ADU building 192 days. ADUs on apartment and other lots took longest, at a median of 257 days.

ADU permits issued from January 2023 to October 31, 2026. The clock includes time the application spends with the applicant, so it is not City processing time alone, and only permits that were issued are counted.

Possible Readings

• Fewer conversions, more new buildings fits the stock of convertible garages being used up after the 2021–22 rush, owners wanting larger units, or builders offering repeatable new-build designs. The permit record carries none of those variables, so it cannot separate them.
• Two-story ADUs began rising in 2023, the year state law raised the height cities must allow: 18 feet for a detached ADU near transit or on a lot with a multistory apartment building (16 feet elsewhere), and up to 25 feet for an attached ADU (HCD ADU Handbook). That fits the rule change; it equally fits smaller yards or ADUs built over a garage that is kept.
• New houses with ADUs fit owners valuing a rental or family unit from the start, lenders counting that income, or two-unit projects that add an ADU. The record shows the pairing, not the motive.
• Apartment-lot ADUs fit the state's multifamily rules, expanded from January 2025 to allow up to eight detached ADUs on a lot with an existing multifamily building. But the count was already rising every year before that change, so it is not the whole story.
• Legalizations fit a 2025 state law that limits when a city can deny a permit for an unpermitted ADU built before 2020 (LADBS information bulletin). The rise began in 2024, before it took effect.
• Rebuild ADUs fit the Governor's January 2025 Executive Order N-9-25, which lets an ADU on a substantially damaged lot be occupied before the main house is rebuilt. The permit does not say which rule a project relied on.
• The 2026 dip coincides with fewer new houses: outside the Palisades, new-house permits fell 29.6% in the same window. The data cannot separate demand, interest rates and costs.

Opportunity Spotlight

• A conversion is the fastest route to a permit. The median is 111 days for a garage conversion against 192 for a new ADU building.
• New-build and two-story ADUs are now mainstream. About half of ADUs on house lots are built new, and 41.7% of new ADU buildings are two stories, so designs and local precedent for both are plentiful.
• Building a new house? 38.5% now include an ADU on the same permit outside the Palisades. Deciding early lets one design and one permit cover both.
• Owners of duplexes and small apartment buildings are adding detached ADUs at a fast-rising rate: 746 so far this year.

Method

• Counting. Each permit's ADUs come from the City's adu_changed field and junior ADUs from junior_adu. A permit that turns an ADU into a junior ADU counts zero. Permits whose description mentions an ADU but whose fields record none are not counted, so totals are a floor.
• ⚠️ The ADU count field has typing errors. Square footage was entered as a unit count on a handful of permits (one garage addition shows 1,178 ADUs). Values above 60 count as one (4 permits); values from 3 to 60 count only when the description is plural, such as "43 storage rooms to accessory dwellings".
• Revisions. A supplemental permit revises an earlier one: an original's middle block ends in 0000 and a revision counts up from it. Revisions numbered as originals but described as "supplemental to permit #…" are removed as well. Separate permits on one parcel were checked by hand and are separate units (an ADU plus a junior ADU, or two buildings), so none is merged.
• Type. Apartment and commercial permits form their own group. On house lots, a new building with a new main house is "built with a new house"; other new buildings are "new ADU buildings"; conversion wording with a garage or carport is a "garage conversion"; other conversions are "other conversion"; and additions with no conversion are "additions". A hand check of 20 permits per type found about 95% correctly classified.
• Two-story and legalization flags are read from the description and were hand-checked (20 of 20 and 15 of 15 correct). The multifamily-lot count is of new-building permits that cite the state's detached-ADU rule for lots with an existing multifamily building.
• Cross-checks. The portal's own server-side totals match this report within 0.4% every year. The City's Annual Progress Reports to the state, counting permits issued in each year, come within 4% of this report's totals every year from 2020 to 2025.
• Not used: the square_footage field, which matches a stated ADU size only about 65% of the time, and declared valuation, which is a fee figure, not a construction cost. Truncated community plan area names are merged.

Download the Data

The processed dataset is published for reuse. Attribution to Blackbriar is welcome but not required; the underlying records are the City of Los Angeles'.

• adu-permits-by-year.csv — ADUs and junior ADUs by year in the matched window, with the type mix, two-story share, new houses with an ADU, multifamily-lot ADUs and legalizations
• adu-permits-by-type-and-year.csv — ADUs by type and year
• adu-permits-by-community-plan-area.csv — ADUs, new houses, ADUs per new house and the type mix by area since 2023
• adu-permit-approval-days.csv — application-to-issue days by ADU type
• adu-permits.json — the complete dataset, including counts at every cleaning step, type definitions, the state reference figures, source metadata and caveats

How Blackbriar Uses This

We design and build homes, additions and ADUs in Los Angeles, and the first ADU question is usually whether to convert space or build new. The record answers part of it: a conversion reaches a permit faster, a new building is now about as common, and on a new house the ADU is often designed in from the start. Our services and process pages set out how we work, our ADU & Guest House Report covers rules and costs, and you can talk to us directly.

FAQ

How many ADUs does Los Angeles permit each year?

The City of Los Angeles permitted 7,714 accessory dwelling units and junior ADUs in 2025, the most in the record, up from 3,393 in 2020. By October 31, 2026, it had permitted 6,203, 5.6% fewer than at the same point of 2025. In the City's own reports to the state, ADUs were 41.2% of all homes permitted in 2025.

Are most ADUs in Los Angeles garage conversions?

Not any more. On house lots, 49.1% of ADUs permitted in 2026 were new construction (new buildings, additions, or built with a new house), up from 23.7% in 2020. Garage conversions peaked at 3,182 in 2022 and fell to 2,110 by October 31, 2026, 24.7% below the same point of 2025.

How long does an ADU permit take in Los Angeles?

For ADUs permitted since January 2023, the median from application to permit issue was 101 days for a conversion of existing space, 111 days for a garage conversion and 192 days for a new ADU building. The clock includes time the application spends with the applicant and covers only permits that were issued.

How many ADUs in Los Angeles are two stories?

41.7% of new ADU buildings permitted in 2026 are described as two or more stories, including ADUs over a garage, up from 24.3% in 2020. The share began rising in 2023, the year state law raised the ADU heights cities must allow.

How many ADUs are being added to duplex and apartment lots in Los Angeles?

746 ADUs in new buildings permitted by October 31, 2026 cite the state rule for detached ADUs on lots with an existing multifamily building, up from 3 in 2020. Conversions of storage rooms, garages and other space inside apartment buildings have added 505 to 731 a year since 2022.

How many new houses in Los Angeles include an ADU?

38.5% of new single-family house permits issued outside Brentwood – Pacific Palisades by October 31, 2026 include an ADU or junior ADU on the same permit, up from 1.7% in 2020.

Where does this data come from?

From the City of Los Angeles open data portal, dataset pi9x-tg5x (Building and Safety permits issued from 2020 to present), with permits issued through November 7, 2026. Blackbriar removed revisions, corrected unit counts where the City's field contradicts the permit description, classified each permit from its work description, and published the processed figures as CSV and JSON files. The ADU share of all homes comes from the City's Annual Progress Report data published by the state.

Recommended

• 2026 Los Angeles ADU & Guest House Report — rules, sizes and costs for a guest house or ADU
• 2026 Los Angeles Home Addition Report — additions to the house itself, ADUs excluded
• 2026 Los Angeles Home Build Timeline Report — how long new houses and ADUs take to finish