How long does it take to get a building permit in Arizona?

A building permit for a new home in Arizona usually takes two to eight weeks of plan review, and the number swings with the city and the quality of your plans. Scottsdale targets 15 business days for the substantive first review of a standard residential plan, plus a few days for the intake check. Phoenix can issue some permits same-day over the counter for simple work, and its self-certification path can land a permit within a few business days. The biggest variable is corrections. If your plans come back with comments, each resubmittal adds days or weeks. A clean, complete submittal is the single best way to get a permit fast. Confirm current timelines with your city, since review queues shift with workload.

What the timeline looks like for a new home

A new custom home permit moves through two reviews, and the clock is measured in business days, not calendar days. The first is an administrative review that checks your submittal is complete. The second is a substantive review that checks your plans against the building code. Both have to clear before the city issues the permit.

Scottsdale publishes its targets in a plan review table. For "All Other Plan Types," which includes a standard new home, the city lists 7 business days for administrative review and 15 business days for substantive review. Scottsdale describes the administrative review as verifying "document completeness," while the substantive review "examines compliance with codes and ordinances." Smaller projects move faster. Scottsdale's Small Scope Review track lists just 1 day administrative and 5 days substantive.

Stacked together, a smooth first pass on a full home in Scottsdale runs roughly three to four weeks before any corrections. Other Valley cities run on similar timelines, with the busiest periods stretching longer. This is why "two to eight weeks" is the honest range: the low end is a clean plan in a fast city, and the high end is a complex plan in a busy queue with a round of corrections.

It also helps to know what the clock does and does not count. The published review days are the time your plans sit in the city's hands. They do not include the days your plans sit on your side after a correction request, waiting for your designer to revise them. They also do not include the time before submittal, when you are still finishing the drawings. So a permit that the city reviews in 15 days can still take two months start to finish if a correction round bounces back to you and sits for a week or two before you resubmit.

What makes a permit faster or slower

The single biggest factor in your permit timeline is whether your plans pass review on the first try. Corrections, not the city's base review time, are what turn a three-week permit into a three-month one.

Here is what speeds a permit up or slows it down:

• Complete plans. A submittal with every required sheet, calculation, and form clears the administrative review fast. A missing structural calc or energy form gets the package kicked back before review even starts.
• Code-ready design. Plans drawn to the current adopted code (the IRC edition your city enforces) pass substantive review with fewer comments. Plans that miss a code requirement come back for revision.
• Number of correction cycles. Each round of comments means you revise, resubmit, and wait for another review. Two or three cycles can add a month or more.
• Project complexity. A simple rectangular home reviews faster than one with custom structural spans, a pool, retaining walls, or a hillside lot that triggers extra review.
• City workload. Review queues swell in busy building seasons, pushing actual times past the published targets.

A builder who knows your city's reviewers and submits clean, code-compliant plans the first time is worth real weeks of saved schedule.

Outside reviews can stretch the timeline too. If your lot sits in a floodplain, near a wash, or in a hillside district, the city may route your plans to a second department for drainage or grading review. A homeowners association or design review board can add its own approval step before the city will even take the plans. None of these show up in the published building review days, so ask early whether your lot triggers any of them. Knowing about a flood or hillside review up front lets you start it in parallel instead of discovering it weeks in.

How timelines differ across Arizona cities and counties

Permit timelines vary by jurisdiction, so where you build changes how long you wait. The cities and counties Jematell Homes serves each run their own review process.

• Scottsdale targets 15 business days for substantive review of a full residential plan and offers no expedited option, so a clean plan is your fastest route.
• Phoenix offers over-the-counter, same-day permits for simple residential work like re-roofs and water heaters. For larger projects, its self-certification program lets a registered professional get a permit within a few business days, far faster than a full city review.
• Maricopa County, which permits unincorporated areas like Rio Verde Foothills, runs its entire process through the online Permit Center. Rural builds can take longer because they often need separate well, septic, and drainage reviews on top of the building permit.
• Pinal County cities, covering Casa Grande and Apache Junction, set their own review times, which can be quicker than Scottsdale's for a standard home.

A rural Maricopa County build is often the longest of the group. The well and septic approvals run on their own schedules, and a drainage review can add weeks. A standard home inside a city limit is usually the quickest, since the city handles water and sewer through its own utilities.

Because these timelines move with staffing and season, treat any published number as a target, not a promise. Ask your city's permit center for its current average review time when you submit.

How to plan your build around the permit wait

Plan for the permit as a real phase of your project, not an afterthought, because nothing on site can start until it is in hand. For a custom home, fold four to eight weeks of permitting into your schedule between finished plans and groundbreaking, and more if corrections are likely.

The fastest path has three parts. First, submit a complete package so the administrative review does not bounce it. Second, design to your city's adopted code so the substantive review finds little to flag. Third, respond to any correction comments quickly, since the clock on a resubmittal does not start until you turn it back in. Owner-builders often lose the most time here, because gathering the right calculations and forms takes longer when you are doing it for the first time.

When Jematell Homes handles your build, we prepare and submit the permit package for your specific city, track the review, and respond to comments fast, so the permit phase stays as short as it can be. As of 2026, plan on a few weeks at minimum for a new-home permit in the Phoenix metro, and confirm the current review time with your city before you set a groundbreaking date.

How Jematell Homes helps

We handle jurisdiction, submittals, and inspections as part of every build. Reach out and we will talk through how this applies to your specific lot and plan.

Sources

• City of Scottsdale: Plan Review Services
• City of Scottsdale: Permit Services
• Maricopa County: Construction Permit Information
• Maricopa County: Residential Construction