Every experienced apartment building investor knows that the best returns come from buying in the right neighborhood at the right time. Not the hottest neighborhood. Not the cheapest. The right one. The one where fundamentals are improving faster than pricing reflects.
On the Westside of Los Angeles, that neighborhood is Mar Vista.
I've been tracking Mar Vista's multifamily market closely for the past three years, and the data tells a compelling story. Pricing sits 15% to 20% below adjacent West LA. Cap rates still clear 5% on Class C product. And the demographic and infrastructure trends that drove appreciation in neighborhoods like Culver City and Playa Vista five to ten years ago are now playing out in Mar Vista.
Let's look at the numbers.
The Pricing Gap Is Real
Here's where Westside multifamily pricing stands today on a per unit basis across four key submarkets:
- Santa Monica: approximately $415,000 per unit
- West LA: approximately $360,000 per unit
- Mar Vista: approximately $330,000 per unit
That $30,000 per unit gap between Mar Vista and West LA might not sound dramatic, but on a 16 unit building it represents nearly $500,000 in lower acquisition cost. On a percentage basis, you're getting a 15% to 20% discount to the nearest comparable submarket for properties that are often just a few blocks apart.
The question every investor should ask is: does this discount reflect a fundamental difference in quality, or is it a market inefficiency that will correct over time?
I'd argue it's mostly the latter. And here's why.
Cap Rates Above 5%: Actual Yield on the Westside
Finding a stabilized apartment building on the Westside with a cap rate above 5% has become increasingly difficult. In Santa Monica, you're looking at 4.25% to 4.60%. In Brentwood, 4.3% to 4.7%. In West LA proper, 4.5% to 5.1% depending on location and condition.
Mar Vista is one of the few Westside submarkets where 5% plus cap rates are still achievable on reasonably maintained product. Class C buildings with stable occupancy and some rent upside are trading in the 5.0% to 5.4% range. That incremental yield of 50 to 75 basis points over West LA translates directly into better cash on cash returns for leveraged buyers.
Let's put real numbers to it. A 12 unit building in West LA at $360,000 per unit and a 4.8% cap rate produces $207,360 in NOI on a $4.32 million acquisition. The same size building in Mar Vista at $330,000 per unit and a 5.2% cap rate produces $206,000 in NOI on a $3.96 million acquisition. Nearly identical income, but $360,000 less equity required. Your cash on cash return improves by roughly 80 basis points. Over a five to seven year hold, that compounds meaningfully.
The Neighborhood Is Changing Quickly
Numbers only tell part of the story. The ground level transformation happening in Mar Vista is what gives me conviction that the pricing gap will narrow.
Venice Boulevard Corridor
The stretch of Venice Boulevard running through Mar Vista has quietly become one of the better restaurant and retail corridors on the Westside. Over the past five years, a mix of independent restaurants, specialty coffee shops, wine bars, and boutique retail has filled previously vacant or underutilized storefronts. This isn't the chain driven development you see in other neighborhoods. It's organic, community driven growth that attracts the exact demographic profile that supports strong apartment demand: young professionals, dual income households, and creative industry workers.
Demographic Shifts
Mar Vista is experiencing the same demographic evolution that transformed Culver City from an affordable alternative to a premium Westside address. The neighborhood's housing stock, which skews toward older duplexes, fourplexes, and small apartment buildings, is attracting renters who are priced out of Santa Monica and Venice but want to stay on the Westside.
Median household income in Mar Vista has increased at a faster rate than the broader Westside over the past five years. The percentage of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher has climbed steadily. These demographic indicators correlate strongly with rent growth potential and neighborhood desirability, two factors that ultimately drive multifamily valuations.
Transit and Connectivity
Mar Vista benefits from its central Westside location with strong connectivity to major employment centers. The Expo Line's Palms station sits at the neighborhood's eastern edge, providing direct rail access to downtown LA, USC, and Culver City. The planned Sepulveda Transit Corridor, which will eventually connect the Westside to the San Fernando Valley via rapid transit, includes potential station locations that would further improve Mar Vista's accessibility.
For apartment building investors, transit proximity matters because it supports density, reduces car dependency for tenants, and historically correlates with above average rent growth. Properties within a half mile of rail stations in Los Angeles have consistently outperformed their submarkets on a per unit value basis.
The Silicon Beach Effect
Mar Vista's proximity to the Silicon Beach tech corridor in Playa Vista and Marina del Rey is perhaps its most underappreciated advantage. Major employers including Google, Facebook (Meta), Snap, and numerous startups have established significant presences within a 10 to 15 minute drive of Mar Vista.
This employment base creates sustained demand for rental housing in the immediate area. As rents in Playa Vista and Marina del Rey have climbed to premium levels, Mar Vista has absorbed spillover demand from tech workers who want proximity to work without paying top dollar. This dynamic is structurally supportive of continued rent growth.
What About the Building Stock?
One legitimate concern about Mar Vista's multifamily market is the age and condition of the building stock. The neighborhood's apartments are predominantly 1950s through 1970s vintage, with many buildings showing their age in terms of plumbing, electrical, and cosmetic condition.
For some investors, this is a deterrent. For the right investor, it's the opportunity. Value add strategies that target unit interior renovations, common area improvements, and system upgrades can generate meaningful rent premiums in a neighborhood where tenant expectations are rising but much of the existing stock hasn't kept pace.
The key is underwriting renovation costs accurately and understanding the rent control framework. Most Mar Vista apartment buildings fall under LA RSO, which allows vacancy decontrol. This means you can renovate units on turnover and re lease at market rates without the renovation cost pass through limitations that apply to occupied units. In a market where natural turnover runs 15% to 20% annually for older buildings, a disciplined value add program can significantly improve NOI over a three to five year hold.
The Risk Factors
No investment thesis is complete without acknowledging the risks. In Mar Vista, the primary risks for multifamily investors include:
- Rent control expansion: Any tightening of vacancy decontrol provisions would directly impact the value add thesis that makes older Mar Vista buildings attractive.
- Construction cost inflation: Renovation budgets in Los Angeles have increased 20% to 30% over the past three years. Underwriting needs to account for continued cost pressures.
- Neighborhood gentrification pushback: As Mar Vista evolves, community resistance to development and change could slow the transformation that supports appreciation.
- Interest rate environment: Higher for longer rates compress levered returns across all submarkets, though Mar Vista's higher cap rates provide a larger cushion than premium Westside locations.
The Bottom Line
Mar Vista isn't a speculative bet. It's a neighborhood with strong fundamentals that the market hasn't fully priced in yet. At $330,000 per unit with cap rates above 5%, you're buying at a meaningful discount to adjacent submarkets while capturing the upside from demographic shifts, infrastructure investment, and employment growth that are already in motion.
The Westside multifamily market doesn't offer many pockets of relative value right now. Mar Vista is one of them. The investors who recognized similar dynamics in Culver City in 2014 or Playa Vista in 2016 were rewarded with outsized appreciation over the following five to seven years.
We think Mar Vista is in the early innings of a similar trajectory. The numbers support it. The neighborhood trends confirm it. And the pricing gap to West LA provides a margin of safety that's increasingly rare on the Westside.
