Durham County property search by owner

Last verified: October 2026

To search Durham County property by owner name, use the Durham County Tax Administration's Property Search, which is free and needs no account. Pick Owner/Business Name and type a person as "Last Name, First Name" or a company by its business name. It lists the parcels that owner holds in Durham County, and each one opens the tax record: assessed value, sales and the owner's mailing address.

Durham County's free tools and when to use each

Property Search (Durham County Tax Administration). The tax office's real property database. Search by Owner/Business Name, location address, REID or PIN. For an address, the county asks for the street number and street name in separate boxes, without the street type or direction. Best when you have a name.
Durham Maps. The City of Durham and Durham County GIS viewer. Search an address, REID or PIN, or pan the map and click a parcel. Best when you start from a place, not a name.
Online Public Records Search (Durham County Register of Deeds). The recorded documents: deeds, deeds of trust and satisfactions, indexed by grantor and grantee name. Best for confirming a transfer or the recorded financing.

When the Durham owner is an LLC

Owner searches on people work. On commercial property the tax record usually names an entity, something like "Main Street Holdings LLC," with a mailing address that belongs to a registered agent or a management company. The county's tools stop there. The people behind the entity are in the NC Secretary of State business registry, where the company's annual report lists its managers or members. Search the exact entity name there, then open the recorded deed of trust at the Register of Deeds, which often carries the signature of a real person.

Where Durham County's commercial property is

Most of Durham County's commercial parcels are in the City of Durham. The county also holds most of Research Triangle Park, plus small pieces of Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Morrisville, which are otherwise in neighboring counties. The main commercial areas:

Downtown Durham and the American Tobacco Campus, the old tobacco warehouses turned offices, shops and restaurants.
Ninth Street, beside Duke University's East Campus.
US 15-501 toward Chapel Hill, a long run of retail centers and offices.
Southpoint, the retail area around The Streets at Southpoint off I-40.
Research Triangle Park, the office, lab and flex buildings along I-40 and the Durham Freeway (NC 147).

A parcel on the Wake County side of RTP, or in the Wake part of Raleigh or Morrisville, is on Wake County's records, not Durham's. Use the Wake County guide for those.

Key facts

Durham County ownership records are free public record through the Tax Administration's Property Search.
Search by Owner/Business Name, address, REID or PIN. People go in as "Last Name, First Name."
Recorded deeds and deeds of trust are at the Durham County Register of Deeds.
Commercial owners are usually LLCs. The NC Secretary of State registry lists the people who run them.

Durham County commercial parcels by the numbers

Counted from our own map on October 26, 2026: 3,846 live commercial parcels in Durham County, grouped by the plain zoning category the map files each one under.

Commercial: 1,149 parcels
Industrial: 718 parcels
Office: 412 parcels
Mixed use: 341 parcels
Multifamily: 198 parcels

The zoning codes that come up most on those parcels are IL, CN, CG and OI. Each town writes its own codes, so the card always shows the town's code beside the category. Check the official zoning map before relying on any one parcel.

How NC CRE Map does it on one screen

The manual method above is three websites per property. On NC CRE Map you click a Durham parcel and the card has it together:

The county record, free. Parcel, acreage, building, assessed value and last sale. Signed out, the card says what kind of owner holds it (a person, an LLC, a church). The owner's name shows once you sign in.
See who's behind the LLC. The managers and members on the company's state filing, on the card. 10 free LLC owner lookups when you sign in.
Get owner contact. Phone and email when we find them. 5 free when you sign in, 70 a month on Pro. A lookup only counts when it finds a match.
Zoning, in plain words. Durham is one of the five counties where the map fills in zoning (with Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford and Forsyth). Find filters by category, such as Industrial, Commercial, Office or Mixed use, across the zoning codes of every town in the county.
The flood zone and the daily traffic count on the card, next to the county facts.
Businesses listed at the address. From public business listings, so you have a lead on who is in the building before you call. A listing can be out of date.
A one-page flyer for the property, made from the card.
Lease tracking. Log a tenant's lease and the CRM sets a follow-up 14 months before it expires.

The map is North Carolina only and covers commercial parcels, not single-family homes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search Durham County property records by owner name?

Use the Durham County Tax Administration's Property Search and choose Owner/Business Name. Enter a person as "Last Name, First Name" or a company by its business name. It lists every parcel that owner holds in Durham County, free.

How do I find who owns a commercial property in Durham, NC?

Look up the parcel in the Property Search or Durham Maps for the owner of record. It is usually an LLC, so search that exact name in the NC Secretary of State business registry, where the annual report lists the managers or members. On NC CRE Map, click the parcel and sign in free to see the people behind the LLC on the card.

Where do I find a Durham County deed or deed of trust?

The Durham County Register of Deeds runs the Online Public Records Search, indexed by grantor and grantee name. Deeds show ownership transfers, and deeds of trust show the recorded financing.

Is Research Triangle Park in Durham County?

Most of it is. The rest of RTP is in Wake County, and those parcels are on Wake County's tax records. Check which county a parcel sits in before you search.

Can I filter Durham commercial property by zoning?

Yes, on NC CRE Map. Durham is one of the five counties where the map fills in zoning, and Find filters by a plain category such as Industrial, Commercial, Office or Mixed use, across the zoning codes of every town in the county.

Other county guides: Mecklenburg · Wake · Guilford · Forsyth. All county guides.