Industrial + distribution
23%4,820 active
Houston's port + petrochemical adjacency keeps industrial as the largest single value bucket.
Houston, Texas
Houston construction projects, live from the Greater Houston permit feed.
76,000+ active projects across the Inner Loop, Energy Corridor, Memorial, Galleria, Sugar Land, The Woodlands, and Pearland. Data live from City of Houston, Harris County, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and every surrounding AHJ.
76,340
Active projects in Greater Houston
6,580
Permits issued in the last 30 days
348
Commercial $1M+ permits this month
Market snapshot
What's actually happening in Houston construction in 2026
Greater Houston is the third-largest US metro by total construction permit value. It's structurally different from LA or SF because the permitting environment is faster, the value-per-permit is concentrated heavily in industrial + energy, and the metro extends across multiple counties (Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston). "Houston" on a sales pipeline is functionally six county-level sub-markets stitched together by interstate access.
What's changing in 2026: industrial + distribution remains the largest single value bucket on the back of port adjacency and petrochemical capex. Multifamily ground-up is strong in the Inner Loop, the Energy Corridor, and Sugar Land. Healthcare is steady — Texas Medical Center expansion drives a continuous stream of capex. The Houston-unique trade vertical — energy + petrochemical fitout — runs on its own cycle separate from commercial CRE, and is one of the more lucrative niches for specialty trades that know the segment.
The BD teams winning in Houston have one common pattern: they treat Harris County as a separate AHJ from City of Houston, and they don't sleep on the suburban county lines. Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria all have their own permitting cadence — and the value in those counties is concentrated in fewer but larger projects. The teams losing are still filtering on "Houston" alone and missing the high-value suburban work.
Trade mix
Where the permitted value sits in Houston
Trade mix across Greater Houston over the last 12 months, weighted by permitted value above $1M.
Multifamily ground-up
17%8,420 active
Inner Loop, Energy Corridor, and Sugar Land are the active multifamily corridors.
Healthcare + medical office
14%2,940 active
Texas Medical Center expansion + medical-office TI dominate this slice.
Tenant improvement (commercial)
13%12,640 active
Restaurant chains and retail buildouts drive the bulk of TI volume.
Energy + petrochemical fitout
12%1,840 active
Houston-unique trade vertical — energy capex + petrochemical TI on a constant cycle.
Single-family + ADU
8%18,420 active
Suburban high-volume; The Woodlands, Cypress, Katy, and Pearland are the strongest corridors.
Pursuit playbook
The Houston pursuit playbook
How the top construction BD teams in Houston operate in 2026.
- 1
Treat each county as its own AHJ
Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston, Liberty, Waller — each county has its own permitting cadence and trade-contractor networks. Saved filters per county surface opportunities a single "Houston" filter would miss.
- 2
Watch industrial + energy capex separately
Industrial + distribution and petrochemical / energy capex run on different cycles than commercial CRE. If you sell into either, the signal is different — port-adjacent industrial often surfaces through county filings, not city-level permits.
- 3
Cover the Texas Medical Center vertical
TMC is the largest single concentration of healthcare construction in the country. The TMC capex + tenant-improvement feed is its own thing — separate sales motion, separate cadence, and worth filtering on specifically if healthcare is your vertical.
- 4
Track suburb-by-suburb in The Woodlands + Sugar Land
The Woodlands (Montgomery County) and Sugar Land (Fort Bend) are two of the highest-growth suburban submarkets in the country. Permitting volume + value is consistently strong, and the local GC networks are concentrated enough to be relationship-driven.
- 5
Time outreach to the foundation pour, not the permit
Texas permitting moves faster than California — the gap between permit issuance and project mobilization is often 2–4 weeks instead of 6–10. The foundation pour inspection is a more reliable timing signal than the permit issuance for sub-trade outreach.
FAQ
Houston construction FAQ
Yes — Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston, Liberty, Waller, and Chambers counties are all in the feed, plus every incorporated city AHJ within them.
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