Pennsylvania
Buying Land in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is unlike every other county in this project's Pennsylvania coverage: there is no separate county government at all. The 1854 Act of Consolidation merged city and county territory, and a second 1951-52 consolidation merged nearly all remaining city and county institutions under one home-rule charter. This is not a rural or raw-land market in any traditional sense -- what land buying actually means here is the city's own Land Bank process for vacant, city-owned lots.
Why Philadelphia has no county government at all
Every other Pennsylvania county in this project's coverage has a genuine, if sometimes home-rule, county government sitting above a collection of separately incorporated municipalities. Philadelphia does not, and understanding why matters before evaluating any property here. The Act of Consolidation, passed by the Pennsylvania legislature on February 2, 1854, expanded the City of Philadelphia's boundaries to the entirety of Philadelphia County and dissolved the independent townships, districts, and boroughs that had previously existed within the county -- Philadelphia and its county became coterminous, one and the same territory, that year.
That 1854 consolidation merged the territory, but for nearly a century afterward, the city and county still operated many of their institutions separately. A second, distinct consolidation closed that gap: in 1951, an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution authorized cities and counties to fully merge their governmental institutions, and Philadelphia voters that year adopted a new home-rule charter that did exactly that, merging nearly all remaining city and county functions under one unified government effective January 1952. The result, still in place today, is that the City of Philadelphia's Mayor and City Council perform the overwhelming majority of what a county government does anywhere else in Pennsylvania -- there is no Board of County Commissioners, no separate County Council, no county-level legislative body distinct from City Council at all.
What's left of "the county": Philadelphia's row offices
A handful of independently elected offices persist as a vestigial county-government layer even after both consolidations -- Pennsylvania's constitution and statutes still recognize certain offices as county-level functions, so Philadelphia retains a District Attorney, Sheriff, Register of Wills, Clerk of Quarter Sessions, and three City Commissioners, collectively (minus the DA and Sheriff) sometimes called the "Row Offices." The City Commissioners in particular -- who administer elections and voter registration -- are legally still considered county officials, a role created specifically to replace the former Philadelphia County Commissioners after the 1854 consolidation, and notably do not report to the Mayor or City Council despite being subject to the Home Rule Charter.
For a land buyer, this history is more than trivia: it explains why there's no "Philadelphia County Recorder of Deeds" or "Philadelphia County Assessment Office" the way there is in every other county in this project's PA coverage -- those functions are folded into standard city departments (the Department of Records and the Office of Property Assessment, respectively), and "the county" as an independent governing body simply doesn't exist to call.
What buying land in Philadelphia actually means: the Land Bank
Given Philadelphia's fully urbanized, fully incorporated character, there is no conventional raw-acreage market here at any price point -- but there is a real, distinctive, and genuinely actionable land-acquisition mechanism worth understanding on its own terms: the Philadelphia Land Bank. Operated under the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC), the Land Bank serves as the city's central hub for disposing of vacant and tax-delinquent, city-owned property, aiming to return it to productive use. It runs two distinct acquisition tracks: a competitive-bidding process for most market-rate purchases of vacant, city-owned land, and a non-competitive process for transactions at nominal value -- most commonly used for community gardens and similar open-space uses, where a prospective user searches the Land Bank's available-property map and submits an online application detailing intended use, any organizational documents, and a maintenance-funding plan.
One detail worth knowing before applying: a garden or farm use seeking to purchase land outright, or to lease it for longer than one year, needs the support of the property's District City Council member -- a real, political step in the process rather than a purely administrative one. Given how genuinely distinctive and procedurally specific this mechanism is -- and how directly it answers what "buying land in Philadelphia" actually means for most prospective buyers -- this page develops the Land Bank's full acquisition process in a dedicated buying-land standalone rather than only summarizing it here.
Zoning and permitting: one department, citywide
Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) issues zoning permits and use certifications on a single, unified, citywide basis under the Philadelphia Zoning Code -- a genuinely different structure from every other county in this project's Pennsylvania coverage, where zoning is fragmented across dozens of independent boroughs and townships each running a separate ordinance and office. That doesn't make Philadelphia's zoning simple: the zoning code and district map are dense and detailed, covering everything from historic-district overlays to specific commercial-corridor and industrial classifications, and any specific parcel's actual permitted uses still require checking L&I's own zoning-permit and certification process directly. But there is, at least, only one department to check with rather than a municipality-by-municipality patchwork.
Septic is essentially a non-factor in Philadelphia given its universally sewered, fully urbanized infrastructure -- the Act 537 onlot sewage framework covered on our Pennsylvania state page and throughout this project's other PA county coverage is not a realistic consideration for property here.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Philadelphia County
Direct WebFetch to phila.gov was not attempted beyond following search-indexed snippets from the city's own site in this research pass, so department details reflect search-indexed content rather than a full verbatim read -- confirm current staff, hours, and process details directly. There is no separate "Philadelphia County" office to contact for any of these functions; all are administered as city departments given the 1854 and 1951-52 consolidations described above.
Planning & Zoning
Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) -- Zoning Permits
Zoning permits, certifications, and zoning-district lookups, issued citywide.
Building & Permitting
Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I)
Building permits and inspections, issued citywide.
Other
Philadelphia Land Bank (Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation)
Acquiring vacant, city-owned land -- the realistic land-buying process in Philadelphia -- via competitive-bid (market-rate) or non-competitive (nominal-value/community-garden) tracks.
Recorder / Clerk / Land Records
Philadelphia Department of Records
Recorded deeds, easements, and plats for a specific parcel -- the functional equivalent of a county Recorder of Deeds here.
Assessor / Property Tax
Office of Property Assessment (OPA)
Property assessment and tax records -- the functional equivalent of a county Assessment Office here.
Other
Office of the City Commissioners
Elections and voter registration -- legally still a county-level function under Pennsylvania law despite operating as a city office post-1854 consolidation.
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Sources
- Philadelphia County | Pennsylvania GEOID 42101 — Geocodio (accessed 2026-09)
- Act of Consolidation, 1854 — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09)
- Philadelphia City Commissioners — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09)
- Your City Defined: Philadelphia City Commissioners — The Philadelphia Citizen (accessed 2026-09)
- Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09)
- Philadelphia Land Bank: Home — Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (accessed 2026-09)
- As Philadelphia Land Bank sales move, conflicts build — WHYY (accessed 2026-09)
- Get Permission to Use the Land From the City of Philadelphia — Grounded in Philly (accessed 2026-09)
- Zoning permits | Department of Licenses and Inspections — City of Philadelphia (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09