BBL stands for “Borough Block & Lot.” It is a numbering system used to identify real estate units. BBLs are often used for tax purposes.
There are three sections to a BBL:
Borough
The first number is which of the five NYC boroughs the building is in. Numbers 1-5 correspond to a particular borough.
- Manhattan/New York
- The Bronx
- Brooklyn
- Queens
- Staten Island
Block
A block is an area in the city that is surrounded by streets. It is usually rectangular.
Lot
Which section of land within the block the property is in.
Format
All BBLs are made up of ten digits. BBL may have slashes or nothing separating the numbers, depending on the format.
For Example, A BBL of 1/29293/9394 is in Manhattan, a block 29293 and a lot 9394.
For some purposes, you may need to add 0’s in front of the latter two sections. For instance, a 1-2-13 would be the equivalent of 1000020013.
If you don’t know a BBL, you can look it up here.
