We buy apartment buildings in Santa Monica
The Beverly Group buys Santa Monica apartment buildings as they stand, tenants in place, closed on the date you pick. We underwrite under Article XVIII of the city charter and price the Measure GS threshold openly.
What is your building worth?
Get a no-obligation written offer, usually within one day.
Two buildings. Twelve units. Bought as principal.
We have acquired two Santa Monica apartment buildings, eight units and four units, for our own account. Not listed, not marketed, not brokered to a third party. When we talk about the 1979 charter cutoff or a coastal-zone entitlement timeline, we are describing buildings we own here.
Pre-1979, and held a long time.
Two to twenty units, north of Wilshire.
Most Santa Monica rental stock predates 1979. Two to twenty units, north of Wilshire and through Pico and Ocean Park. Families hold these apartment buildings for decades, so rents usually sit well under market and the capital account has been running a deficit for years.
Rent control is in the city charter.
Santa Monica rent control lives in Article XVIII of the City Charter, adopted 10 April 1979 — a charter amendment, not an ordinance, which is why it cannot be repealed by council vote. Units with a certificate of occupancy on or before that date are covered. The 2026 general adjustment is 2.6%, effective 1 September 2026, and the Rent Control Board capped it at $70 a month for any unit with a maximum allowable rent of $2,674 or more. Sellers sometimes treat all of this as a reason nobody will buy here. We buy under it and we price it.
Supply cannot really grow.
Coastal zone, height limits, an entitlement process measured in years. Very little new competing product arrives. That constraint is the whole case for owning Santa Monica multifamily.
Three things that decide a Santa Monica number.
None of these are deal-breakers. All three change the price, and all three are easier to handle before an offer than during escrow.
The transfer tax has a cliff at $8 million.
Measure GS, passed in November 2022 and effective 1 March 2023, taxes transfers of $8,000,000 or more at $56.00 per $1,000 of value — and it applies to the entire consideration, not just the amount above the line. A $7,999,999 sale carries roughly $48,000 of city transfer tax. An $8,000,000 sale carries $448,000. Crossing that threshold by one dollar costs about $400,000, which is why the number matters more than almost anything else in the negotiation.
Source: Santa Monica Municipal Code Ch. 6.96; City of Santa Monica Documentary Transfer Tax schedule.
Unpaid registration fees follow the building, not the seller.
Registration runs $240 per controlled unit per year. Board Regulation 11200(c) makes the current owner jointly and severally liable with every prior owner for unpaid fees and penalties, and penalties compound at 4% of the unpaid balance every month. Until they are cleared, Regulation 11200(g)(2) bars any rent increase at all — general adjustment or individual. A buyer who does not check this is buying a frozen rent roll.
Source: Santa Monica Rent Control Charter Amendment & Regulations, Regs. 11200(c) and 11200(g)(2).
A sale permanently ends the property-tax surcharge.
Owners whose tenancies began before 1 March 2018 can pass through certain property-tax-related surcharges. That right ends the moment the property is reassessed on or after that date because of a sale. It does not transfer, and it does not come back. Any buyer underwriting from a rent roll that still shows those surcharges is overstating income they will never collect — so it belongs in the conversation early, not after an offer.
Source: City of Santa Monica, Maximum Lawful Rent.
Vacancy history is the real diligence item.
Santa Monica has vacancy decontrol under Costa-Hawkins for qualifying tenancies since 1 January 1999, but the vacancy must be registered within 30 days and the stated reason governs whether the increase was lawful at all. Increases taken after an Ellis filing, a no-good-cause termination, or an unregistered vacancy can be void, and Regulation 3301(k) voids any increase obtained by misrepresentation. We read the vacancy registration history before we price, which is why our number tends to hold.
Source: Regs. 3301(a)–(b), 3301(g), 3301(k), 13001(g).
Our criteria, stated plainly.
If your property fits, you will hear from us within one business day. If it does not, we will tell you that just as quickly rather than sitting on it.
Four steps, start to close.
You reach out
An address is enough to begin. Nothing is listed.
We underwrite
Santa Monica underwriting starts from in-place rents, because that is what the charter permits us to plan around.
Written offer
A written offer with the deferred capital position stated plainly.
Escrow and close
Your escrow and title. We take the building and the tenancies as they are.
Rents are far under market.
Standard in Santa Monica, and it is a function of the law rather than of how you managed the place. With the 2026 adjustment capped at 2.6% and $70 a month, a tenancy that began in the 1990s cannot have kept pace. We model what the building collects today, not what it might collect after a repositioning that may never happen.
Do I need to deliver units vacant?
No. We buy occupied. Do not relocate anyone on our account.
How long does a Santa Monica sale take?
Three to six weeks for most closings once terms are agreed. Santa Monica adds one step to plan around: the city requires a Residential Building Report under Municipal Code Chapter 9.29 before a sale can be finalized, and it takes seven to ten business days to issue. We will hold escrow longer if your exchange calendar calls for it.
Is there any obligation in asking?
None. Long-time Santa Monica owners frequently want a current figure for estate planning and stop there.
Do you charge a commission?
No. We are the buyer, not an agent.
Find out what your building is worth.
Complimentary, and with no obligation to sell.