Can You Fly a Drone Over a Commercial Property? What Actually Governs It

Can you fly a drone over a commercial property? Yes — a pilot certificated under Part 107 can, and no federal rule requires the property owner's permission to do it. What actually governs the flight is three things that have nothing to do with who holds the deed: the airspace the building sits in, how high the aircraft goes, and who is standing underneath it.

That answer gets the question backwards from how the internet answers it, so it is worth going through properly. If you own, manage or are listing the building and you just want the aerials, that is commercial real estate photography across the Inland Empire — the practical version of this is further down.

The permission myth, and where it comes from

Search this question and you will be told, confidently, that commercial flight requires the property owner's consent. Nothing in Part 107 says so. It is the same shape of error as the one that circulates about residential overflight — I unpicked that one in do you need permission to fly a drone over a house — and it survives because it sounds like it ought to be true.

What a Part 107 operation does require is concrete and checkable:

• A remote pilot certificate under 14 CFR § 107.12, and a registered aircraft under § 107.13.
• A 400-foot ceiling above ground level under § 107.51 — with an exception for structures that matters enormously here.
• No flight over people who are not participating in the operation and are not under cover, under § 107.39.
• Air traffic authorization before flying in controlled airspace, under § 107.41, which a pilot requests through the FAA's LAANC system.

Notice what is absent from that list. Property ownership appears nowhere in it. The FAA regulates the airspace; it does not adjudicate who may photograph whose building from it.

The structure exception is the one that matters for buildings

This is the single most useful provision for anyone shooting commercial property, and not one page in the current search results for this question mentions it.

The 400-foot ceiling in § 107.51(b) is not a flat lid. Within a 400-foot horizontal radius of a structure, the aircraft may fly up to 400 feet above that structure's uppermost limit.

Work it through on a real building. A 200-foot office tower: the ceiling over its roof becomes 600 feet above ground, provided the aircraft stays within 400 feet horizontally of the structure. On a flat 400-foot limit you would be below the top third of the building and unable to frame the roofline, the parapet or the mechanical plant at all. For industrial and office property — the tall stuff, the stuff with a roof worth showing — this exception is the difference between a usable set and a wasted flight.

People and vehicles: the rule that shapes the schedule

§ 107.39 is the constraint that actually dictates when a commercial site gets shot, because commercial sites have staff, customers and trucks on them during the hours you would want to be there.

The regulation allows flight over a person in two straightforward situations: the person is participating in the operation, or the person is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can protect them from a falling aircraft.

Beyond those, Part 107's Subpart D sets out aircraft categories that permit flight over people, and a separate route exists for sites with controlled access — § 107.125(c)(1) and § 107.145(b)(1) describe operations over people and over moving vehicles at a closed or restricted-access site where everyone present has been notified. That route is realistically available on a fenced industrial yard or a secured construction site and essentially unavailable on a public street, which is exactly why commercial property is operationally easier than residential in this one respect.

One more thing worth knowing if you are reading older advice: § 107.39's current form and the whole of Subpart D arrived with Amendment 107-8, published at 86 FR 4382 on 2021-01-15. Two of the pages currently ranking for this question were published in 2016. They are not merely stale — they describe a regime that no longer exists.

Airspace is the check that happens before anything else

A commercial property's address decides more than its postcode. Industrial parks cluster near airports, because that is where the freight is, which means a meaningful share of commercial sites sit in controlled airspace where § 107.41 requires authorization before a flight — usually granted in seconds through LAANC, occasionally not granted at all.

This is checkable in advance and it is the pilot's job, not yours. I built the Inland Empire drone airspace checker to make it a two-second lookup on a local address.

What I actually do on a commercial job

Plainly, because the field is full of pages that tell you to go research the law yourself:

• I look the address up first, every time, to see whether the area requires getting permission first.
• I file an airspace authorization only where the location needs one. Most do not.
• I ask the property owner for permission as a matter of practice — on a commercial site that is the landlord, the property manager or the listing broker. Not because Part 107 demands it, but because showing up unannounced over someone's building is a bad way to work. That is my own standard, and I want to be clear it is a courtesy rather than a legal requirement.
• All I need from you is the address. That is genuinely the whole ask to get the airspace question answered.
• I work discreetly and quickly to stay out of anyone's way, which is why I have not had an issue on a site yet.

The aircraft is a DJI Air 3, and I hold the FAA Part 107 certificate the work requires. If you want the detail on what that certificate covers and how to check that a pilot actually holds one, FAA-certified drone photography for real estate goes through it.

Real commercial work on file includes the cold-formed steel framing project in Altadena for Steel-IQ, and a short-term rental in Long Beach shot flambient, which booked almost immediately after the photos went live.

What aerials cost on a commercial shoot

On the commercial rate card, Part 107 drone aerials start at $175 on sessions from $449. Twilight exteriors start at $225 and a video walkthrough from $450. Aerials are an add-on to a property session rather than a standalone product, because the trip is the expensive part — the same reason a standalone aerial of a house prices differently.

If the property is mid-build rather than mid-lease, construction progress photography is the shape that work usually takes, and the aerials carry most of the story. For the aircraft side of it generally, that is drone photography.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need the owner's permission to fly a drone over a commercial property?

Not under federal aviation rules. Nothing in 14 CFR Part 107 requires a property owner's consent to overfly a building. State and local trespass, privacy and nuisance law sit alongside the federal rules and vary, and asking the owner or property manager is good practice — but it is not an FAA requirement.

How high can a drone fly over a commercial building?

Generally 400 feet above ground level under § 107.51. But within a 400-foot horizontal radius of a structure, the aircraft may fly up to 400 feet above that structure's uppermost limit — so a 200-foot building gives a 600-foot working ceiling over its roof.

Can a drone fly over people at a commercial site?

Only in specific cases. § 107.39 permits it when the person is participating in the operation, or is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle. Part 107's Subpart D adds aircraft-category routes, and §§ 107.125 and 107.145 describe operations over people and moving vehicles at a closed or restricted-access site where everyone present has been notified.

Does a commercial property shoot need FAA airspace authorization?

It depends entirely on the address. Controlled airspace near an airport requires authorization under § 107.41, which a pilot requests through LAANC. Industrial property clusters near airports, so this comes up more often on commercial sites than residential ones — and it is checked before the shoot, not on the day.

What do you need from me to shoot aerials of my building?

The address. That is what the airspace check runs on. Beyond that, knowing whether the site is occupied during business hours shapes when the flight happens.