Why landscaping business owners use PermitRadius (and how it changes a season)
How BC landscaping companies use building-permit leads to fill next season before it starts: what the weekly list contains, how the builder relationship works, and where the new Homes library fits in.
PermitRadius Research · Published Sep 28, 2026 · Updated Sep 28, 2026
In short
A landscaping company's best customer is a house that doesn't have a yard yet. PermitRadius reads every new-home, laneway, multiplex and major-renovation permit inside your service radius, tells you which builder is behind it, and puts it in front of you the week it's issued — six to eighteen months before the yard goes in. The Library adds every home in your radius that's overdue for work, so the list is never empty.
01 · The problem with waiting for the phone to ring
Most landscaping companies get new-build work one of two ways: a builder they already know calls, or a homeowner searches after moving in and picks from five quotes. The first is great but doesn't scale; the second is a price war. Both happen after the decision about who does the yard has mostly been made. The permit is issued months before either, and in most BC cities it names the company building the house.
02 · What the Wednesday list actually contains
Every Wednesday, PermitRadius emails the new permits inside your radius that match landscaping work: new single-detached houses, laneway houses, duplexes, multiplexes and townhouses, plus additions and renovations over $350,000 (the ones that tear up a yard). Each line shows the site address, the neighbourhood, the declared construction value, the permit type, the builder company and how many permits that builder has pulled this year. A CSV comes attached. The same list is live in the app all week, with a map of your radius.
03 · How the builder relationship works
Repeat builders — companies with five or more permits a year — sub out landscaping on every one of them. The app marks them, ranks them, and on the Crew plan looks up their phone, email and website from public business listings. One good relationship with a builder pulling eight permits a year is eight yards you never have to quote against anyone. The Builders page shows who is building near you, how many jobs they have on, and which ones you've already worked.
7000 blk 135 Pl
Killarney · Vancouver
$4.1M
Townhouse
Brightwater Builders Ltd.
17 permits this year · repeat builder
04 · Pools, suites and the features that matter
Since September 2026 the app reads each permit's description and tags what's being built: a pool, a hot tub, a secondary suite, a laneway, a garage, a deck, a retaining wall. A new house with a pool in the plans is a different landscaping job from one without, and it's flagged before the foundation is poured. You can filter your list by any feature and set a watch so a pool permit emails you the day it lands, even from a builder you've never seen.
05 · The Library: homes that are due, not just permits
Permits are the freshest signal, but they're not the only one. The Library's Homes tab lists every property in your radius from public assessment records — year built, the year of the last major work, land value and zoning — so you can pull a list of homes built in the last five years (first landscaping cycle), or lots over $3 million with no pool permit on file. The Permits tab keeps every pool, elevator and solar permit the cities have published, back to 2017 in Vancouver, grouped by neighbourhood for route planning.
06 · Working the list without a CRM
Every lead has a status — new, contacted, quoted, won, lost — with notes and a follow-up date. Due follow-ups pin to the top of your list. Reports shows what you've quoted, what you've won and the close rate. Nothing is sold to anyone else: the permit is public, the timing is the edge, and the first landscaper to call a builder in week one usually keeps the yard.
See this for your radius
Which builders are pulling permits within 15 km of your yard?