Municipality of Rotterdam

Where is the building file of your house in Rotterdam?

Which archive holds the file depends on the year the permit was granted. Below is where to be for each period, with the date on which I checked it.

This covers Hoek van Holland, Hoogvliet, Pernis, IJsselmonde, Charlois, Delfshaven, Kralingen and Overschie as well.

Period by period

The counters in Rotterdam

Rotterdam is mixed. Part of its files the archive supplies digitally, the rest can only be seen in the reading room. Start with the year, because in this city that is where the biggest caveat sits.

1905 to 1940

Almost everything burned in the bombardment of May 1940. Checking is still worth it, but for a pre-war building in the city centre, count on there being nothing.

I can look this file up and download it for you.

1861 to October 2010

Stadsarchief Rotterdam

Search by street name and house number. Files from 1956 onwards are under copyright, but the scans can still be had: the envelope icon at the top right of the description sends a download link by email. If a file is not online, you reserve it for the reading room with the open book icon, and the archive does not send those digitally. Viewing is free; copies and scans from this period are not, and the scans go onto a USB stick you buy on the spot. For the years 1963 to 1968 the archive asks you to contact them first.

As I noted it in Dutch, with the links and the exact terms you will need on their website:

Zoeken op straatnaam en huisnummer. https://stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/bouwtekeningen

  • Dossiers van 1956 en later zijn auteursrechtelijk beschermd, maar de scans zijn wel te downloaden: het envelop-pictogram rechtsboven in de beschrijving levert een downloadlink per mail.
  • Staat een dossier niet online, dan reserveert u het met het pictogram van het opengeklapte boekje voor inzage in de studiezaal. **Het archief stuurt die dossiers niet digitaal op.** Reserveren kan voor maximaal tien stukken tegelijk; op dezelfde dag opvragen duurt minimaal een half uur. Een afspraak maakt u telefonisch op 010 267 55 55, maandag tot en met vrijdag 09.00 tot 17.00 uur.
  • Inzien is gratis. Voor kopieën en scans uit de periode 1861 tot oktober 2010 betaalt u wel; scans komen op een USB-stick die u ter plaatse koopt.
  • Voor de jaren 1963 tot en met 1968 vraagt het archief om contact op te nemen.

I can look this file up and download it for you.

From November 2010

gemeente Rotterdam

Permits from November 2010 onwards go through the municipality itself, online. I have not yet checked whether they also supply me, so this is the one period here I cannot promise to request for you.

As I noted it in Dutch, with the links and the exact terms you will need on their website:

online op te vragen. https://www.rotterdam.nl/bouwtekeningen-bekijken

For this period I have not yet checked whether the archive also supplies me.

Worth knowing

The surrounding municipalities have counters of their own. The city archive refers Barendrecht, Albrandswaard, Ridderkerk and Lansingerland to the municipality itself.

As I noted it in Dutch, with the links and the exact terms you will need on their website:

De omliggende gemeenten hebben een eigen loket. Het Stadsarchief verwijst voor Barendrecht, Albrandswaard (Rhoon, Poortugaal), Ridderkerk en Lansingerland (Bergschenhoek, Berkel en Rodenrijs, Bleiswijk) naar de gemeente zelf.

Bronnen: https://stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/bouwtekeningen, https://stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/veelgestelde-vragen-over-bouwtekeningen.

I checked these details on 14 September 2026. Counters and period boundaries change; if something no longer holds, please tell me.

In Dutch

The same page in Dutch, where you can also look up your own address: bouwtekeningen opvragen in Rotterdam.

Rather not do this yourself

I put together the file for your address

For € 145 including VAT I collect the building file and everything else known about your address that can matter structurally: the cone penetration tests nearby, the soil profile, the foundation picture of the neighbourhood, the plot details and the aerial photographs year by year. With it you get a reader's guide in English that says what is there and what is missing. For € 295 I also map the load-bearing structure of the house: the walls that carry load on each floor, the roof, the foundation and what keeps it stable. Only after what the public records say, without the archive? Then there is the address report for € 95.

Request the file Look up your address first

Have me do the structural calculation afterwards and this amount comes off it. If the archive holds nothing, you get your money back.