Permitting, the set of licenses, no-objection notices, and approvals required by the State before any construction project can begin, has become one of the most prominent issues in the Dominican construction sector in recent years. In a country where construction represents approximately 10% of GDP and generates more than 300,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to Central Bank figures, developers denounce a fragmented system involving numerous institutions, each with its own requirements and response times.

The figures illustrate the magnitude of the problem. Businessman Manuel Estrella, president of the Estrella Group, revealed at the Madrid Tourism Fair that developing a project in the country could require up to 131 permits issued by 16 different institutions, a number that, after a review, was reduced to 39 by eliminating redundancies and requirements without legal basis. Prominent figures in the real estate sector have pointed out that the number of agencies involved in a single project delays execution and diverts investment to more agile markets, while other businesspeople in the same sector have noted that managing authorizations with multiple institutions involves travel and duplication of documentation, with response times that are not coordinated.

Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Housing, Habitat, and Buildings (MIVHED) implemented a reform aimed at reducing uncertainty in the approval process through greater transparency, digital tracking of files, and standardized technical criteria. MIVHED Intelligence is the data platform that allows users to consult, in one place, the status of building permits registered in the country, as well as all permits and no-objection certificates that depend on other institutions (municipalities, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MIMARENA), the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM), Civil Defense, Fire Department, Public Health, among others). Previously, a property owner or developer had to call each agency separately to find out the status of their project; now, this information is centralized and updated on the 25th of each month.

Knowing how to navigate this tool is important because, according to the platform itself, the age of the project and the number of institutions involved are the main factors that delay licensing. A project with five or more binding dependencies can take hundreds of days to resolve if no one actively monitors it.

By the end of this guide, you will be able to identify the actual status of your project, understand which technical evaluations are pending, locate which institution handles the process, and use the filters and the complete application table to verify progress month by month.

1. What is MIVHED Intelligence and what information does it offer?

Upon entering the platform, the first thing that appears is the Operational Summary: a panel with general indicators for the entire licensing system. There you can see, for example, how many projects have been identified in total, how many require coordination with more than one institution, and the median processing time for a procedure.

Operational Summary: Main panel with general building permit indicators.

What should you do with this? Use this dashboard as a general indicator before searching for your specific project. If the median age is around 600-700 days, as is currently the case, don't be alarmed if your case has been open for several months; you should be concerned, however, if it exceeds that average without any activity.

2. How to read the evolution of issued licenses

Below the summary is the Issued Licenses Evolution chart, which shows how many licenses were granted month by month since 2023. Hovering the cursor over any point on the line displays the exact month and the number of licenses issued for that period.

The chart allows you to see month by month how many licenses were issued and the overall trend.

If your project has been waiting longer than the average monthly number of emissions, it's a sign to formally write to the responsible agency requesting the status of the process.

3. How to identify projects that require monitoring

Further down in the same Operational Summary is the table "Cases Requiring Follow-Up," ordered by age and complexity. Each row shows the project code, its name, the relevant departments, the number of institutions involved, the number of days elapsed, and the territory.

Table of cases requiring follow-up, ordered from oldest to youngest.

To obtain this information, locate your project by name or code. If it appears on this list, you know it's among the most delayed cases and should be prioritized in your efforts.

4. How to view the complete details of your project

Clicking on a project (for example, from the tracking table or the "Search code or project" search bar at the top) opens an individual record with the code, entry date, location, age in days, number of related departments, and status (for example, "In Process"). Below this is the MIVHED Technical Assessments section, which categorizes each required document by discipline—management, architecture, structure, electrical, geotechnical—and indicates whether it is pending correction by the applicant or under review.

Project sheet with MIVHED technical evaluations organized by discipline.

Review each of the boxes marked as "Pending Correction (Citizen)." These are the documents that depend on you—plans, calculation reports, property titles—and that are holding up the process; until they are submitted, the project will not move forward.

5. Dependency History: who has intervened and when

At the end of each project sheet is the Dependency History, a chronological list of the institutions that have registered participation in the case —City Hall, MIMARENA, MICM, Civil Defense, Firefighters— with the municipality, province and date of the last registration.

Dependency History: record of the institutions linked to the project and their latest update.

Now, if an institution does not have a recent date, it is probably because it has not received the complete file; that is where it is advisable to follow up by phone or in person.

6. Location of Departments: which institution carries the most workload

In the side menu, the "Location of Dependencies" section displays a bar graph showing the number of binding records per institution (City Halls, MIMARENA, MITUR, MICM, Civil Defense, Public Health, Firefighters) and, below, a Binding Dependencies Matrix that cross-references each project with the institutions involved in it.

Volume and Coordination: number of binding records per institution.

Matrix of Binding Dependencies: which institutions are involved in each project.

Your project may depend on local councils or MIMARENA, the two institutions with the largest volume of cases. So, if this is the case, expect longer waiting times and prioritize direct contact with those offices.

7. Territorial View: where the projects are concentrated

The "Territorial View" section reorganizes the same information by province and municipality, with bar graphs and a territorial table that cross-references the number of records, median duration, and multi-institutional projects by location. The platform clarifies that this data comes primarily from municipal records and is therefore not available for all institutions.

Geographic Distribution: concentration of projects by province and municipality.

Territorial Table: median number of days and multi-institution projects by location.

Compare the median number of days in your municipality with that of others. If your area shows high medians (some exceeding 500 days), it's a structural pattern across the territory, not a problem unique to your case.

8. Application Registration: search, filter and download

The "Application Registry" section provides access to the complete table of over 7,800 registered projects, with filters by department, municipality, and level of coordination (from "0 departments, only MIVHED" to "4+ external departments"). A button allows you to download the complete information in CSV format.

Application Registry: complete table with more than 7,800 projects and CSV download option.

Coordination Filter: allows projects to be isolated according to how many external institutions are involved.

Use the Coordination filter to quickly locate projects comparable to yours and the "Download CSV" button if you need to take the information to a meeting with the project administrator, a lawyer, or the permissions manager.

9. Methodology: where the data comes from

The last section, "Methodology", explains the source and frequency of updating the information (MIVHED, on the 25th of each month) and clarifies a key point: the same license can have several institutional records, and that a project appears in several departments does not indicate a problem, but rather reflects its inter-institutional traceability.

Sources and Limitations of the Data: methodological note on the origin and frequency of updating.

What should you do about this? Before drawing conclusions about why your project appears in several institutions, review this methodological note; in most cases, it is the normal functioning of the system and not a duplication of procedures.

10. Common mistakes when interpreting the platform

• Confusing "days of service" with unjustified delay. Explanation: the overall median is around 680 days because it includes complex projects. Consequence: unnecessary alarm. How to avoid it: always compare against the median for your municipality and your level of coordination, not against the national average.
• Failing to review technical assessments before complaining about delays. Consequence: wasting time demanding a response from an institution when the real obstacle is a missing document on your end. How to avoid it: first review each "Pending Correction (Citizen)" box.
• Ignoring the Coordination filter. Consequence: comparing your project (with a single dependency) to projects with 4+ dependencies, which naturally take longer. How to avoid this: always filter by coordination level before comparing times.
• Interpreting the absence of a date in a department as a system error. Consequence: reporting a non-existent fault. How to avoid it: remember that territorial data depends primarily on the municipalities, as indicated in the methodological note itself.
• Do not use the search bar at the top by project code. Consequence: wasting time navigating long tables. How to avoid it: write down your license code (in the format VUC####-AAAA) and search for it directly.
• Downloading the CSV without checking the cutoff date. Consequence: working with data from the previous month. How to avoid it: always check the note "Dashboard updated on the 25th of each month" before making decisions with the downloaded information.

11. Case study

A fuel station project in Yamasá, Monte Plata, appears to be 96 days old and involves 5 relevant agencies (City Hall, MIMARENA, MICM, Civil Defense, Fire Department), with a status of "In Process." Upon opening its file, it is observed that the Land Use Certificate, Geotechnical Study Report, and Structural Plans are marked as "Remediation Pending (Citizen).".

What the owner should do: gather and upload those three documents before claiming delay, because the system shows that the immediate responsibility is theirs.

What is the responsibility of the project manager or administrator: to follow up by phone with the Monte Plata City Council, which appears in the Dependency History as the most recent record, to confirm that the physical file matches the digital one.

What mechanism does the platform provide: The Binding Dependencies Matrix allows verification of whether similar projects in the same area show comparable times, which helps to distinguish a one-off delay from an institutional pattern.

When to escalate the case: if after correcting the pending documents the status does not change in the next monthly cut-off (day 25), it is appropriate to request a formal update in writing from the department identified as responsible for the last movement.

12. Frequently Asked Questions

Can I view the status of my project without registering? Yes, the MIVHED Intelligence dashboard is publicly accessible at inteligencia.mivhed.gob.do.

How often is the information updated? On the 25th of each month, as indicated in the Methodology section.

Why does my project appear linked to several institutions? Because different departments are involved depending on the type of work; the platform clarifies that this reflects traceability, not an error.

What does "Pending Correction (Citizen)" mean? It means that the specific document depends on the owner or their representative delivering or correcting it.

Can I download all my project information? Yes, from "Request Registration" using the "Download CSV" button, applying the filters you need.

What should I do if the number of days of seniority seems excessive? First, compare it with the median for your municipality and your coordination level in "Territorial View" before filing a complaint.

13. Final checklist to track your project

• I located my project by code in the top search bar or in the Request Log.
• I checked the detected status (In Process, or other) in the project sheet.
• I identified all the boxes marked as "Pending Correction (Citizen)" and the documents that correspond to me.
• I checked the Dependency History to find out which institution has the most recent record.
• I compared my days of seniority with the median for my municipality in Territorial View.
• I checked the dashboard cut-off date before making decisions (the 25th of each month).
• I downloaded the CSV file if I need to share the information with my manager or lawyer.

  What's new about this platform?

MIVHED Intelligence centralizes, for the first time, in a single public dashboard, the cross-referencing of building permits and notifications from other institutions involved in a project (municipalities, MIMARENA, MICM, Civil Defense, Fire Department, Public Health, MITUR). Its main practical contribution is allowing a property owner to identify, without calls or official correspondence, which of the involved parties—themselves or another agency—is responsible for the next action.

Conclusion

Behind every file that appears in MIVHED Intelligence lies a story that the Dominican construction sector has been telling for years. It's the story of a permitting system fragmented across multiple institutions, with processing times that in some cases exceed two years, ultimately increasing project costs and discouraging investment. Tools like this don't solve the structural problem of permitting on their own, but they do represent a concrete first step: they bring public visibility to a process that until recently was practically opaque and put pressure on each institution to respond within reasonable timeframes.

Sources

• Platform analyzed: MIVHED Intelligence.

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