Updated October 19, 2026
If you want to sell condos in a multifamily building in Los Angeles, you are in one of three positions, and each one is a different sale. You own an apartment building and want to sell the units one by one as condos. You own the unsold remainder of a building where other units already belong to individual owners. Or you own one condo inside a building and want to sell your single unit. The first needs a conversion approval that Los Angeles makes hard to get. The second is an income sale with an owners' association attached. The third is an ordinary home sale, and it is not what this page covers.
This page is about the first two, because those are the ones where owners lose money by guessing.
A building cannot sell as condominiums because you declare it so. Each unit has to become its own legal parcel, and in the City of Los Angeles that runs through a tentative map and the conversion rules in LAMC 12.95.2. Here is what that section requires, read from the code text:
Separately, the California Department of Real Estate requires a subdivision public report before anyone offers five or more interests in a common interest subdivision, which includes condominium projects. That is a second approval, run by a different agency, on a different clock.
The honest read: this is a development project, not a listing. My comparison of selling versus converting walks through the cost of emptying a rent-stabilized building and the carry across the years it takes. Most private owners who start down this road stop partway through and sell as apartments, at a lower price than before the tenants knew.
The part nobody tells you: you can often get paid for the conversion potential without doing the conversion. Developers who run this play price it into their bid. They will not pay you the full spread, because they absorb the tenant cost, the approval risk and the carry. But a marketing process that reaches them can lift an apartment sale above what income buyers alone would pay. See selling to a developer for land value for how that bid is built.
Now the building is a mixed asset. Some units belong to individual owners. You own the rest, and you want to sell what you own. This is the situation behind most searches for this topic, and the answer starts with a question about what exactly you own.
You own a block of units, not a building. The buyer is buying individual condominium units plus an interest in the common areas, and a vote, or a minority of votes, in the association. Lenders and buyers underwrite that differently from a building with one title. The pool that wants 12 condos inside an association is not the pool that wants a 12-unit building.
Who controls the association matters more than any other fact. If you hold a majority of the units, you may control the board, the budget and the reserves. A buyer pays for that control, and checks it closely. If you hold a minority, the buyer inherits other owners' decisions about assessments, special projects and rules, and prices the uncertainty.
The association's paperwork becomes part of your due diligence file. Expect a buyer to ask for governing documents, budgets, reserve information, meeting minutes, assessment history and any pending litigation or special assessment. If these are thin or disorganized, it shows up in the price. Our page on what financial records a buyer will ask for covers the building side of that request.
Your rentals may follow different rent rules than the rest of the building. California's Costa-Hawkins Act lets an owner set rents on a unit that is alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit. For condominiums that were converted from apartments there is a catch: the exemption only applies once the subdivider has sold the unit separately to a bona fide purchaser for value, and the City of Santa Monica's Rent Control Board describes the test as turning on whether the current tenant moved in after January 1, 1996, or the unit is vacant or owner-occupied. A unit you still own and rent may or may not be decontrolled depending on that history. Do not assume either way. A buyer will not.
In a partly sold building, buyers look at four things in order.
Which units are rent-stabilized, which are exempt, and why. The rent roll tells one story. The sale history of the other units, the dates, and the tenancy start dates tell the real one. A unit that looks exempt on paper but cannot prove its history gets valued as controlled.
Whether the units can be sold again. If the remaining units are already separate legal parcels, a buyer may plan to sell them one at a time to owner-occupants. That is a retail exit, and it is valued against condo prices in the neighborhood, not against apartment income pricing. If the units are not separate parcels, there is no such exit, and the buyer prices it as rental housing with a tenant problem.
Association health. Deferred maintenance on shared systems like roofs, plumbing stacks and elevators is shared with owners you do not control. A buyer prices the cost of a conflict with them, not just the cost of the repair.
Financing. Condominium and association lending is its own underwriting, and a buyer who holds many units in one association should expect the lender to ask about it. Confirm financing options with a lender before you price, because a narrow set of lenders means a narrow set of buyers.
If you have not yet converted anything, I would start with the tenants, not the spread: how many units, how long each household has been there, and how long the longest-protected one runs. That produces a cost and a duration, and it ends or confirms the project.
If units are already sold, I would start with a one-page map of the building: unit by unit, status, owner, rent rule and tenancy date. Almost every pricing argument in a partly sold building turns out to be a gap in that map.
Condos inside a multifamily building are not a second way to sell the same asset. They are a second asset. A buyer of 12 apartments buys income. A buyer of 12 condos buys a position in an association, a legal history and an exit through a different market. The owners who get the best price are the ones who can show, unit by unit, exactly which of those they are selling.
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Can I sell the units in my apartment building as condos?
Only after the building is legally subdivided. In the City of Los Angeles that means a tentative map under LAMC 12.95.2, tenant notice at least 60 days before filing, a 90-day exclusive right for tenants to buy their own unit after the public report issues, and a DRE subdivision public report for projects of five or more interests. The Advisory Agency can also refuse if the planning area's vacancy rate is five percent or less and the effect on the rental market is significant.
Can I sell just the units I still own in a building where others have sold as condos?
Yes, and you can sell them as a block to an investor or one at a time. The price depends on whether the units are separate legal parcels, how many votes you hold in the association, the association's finances, and which units are rent-stabilized.
Does selling a condo make a rental unit exempt from rent control?
It can. Costa-Hawkins allows an owner to set rents on a unit that is alienable separately from other dwelling units, but a converted unit only qualifies after the subdivider sells it to a bona fide purchaser for value, and tenancy dates matter. Get the unit's history in writing before you rely on it.
Will a buyer finance a large share of an HOA?
It depends on the lender. Association lending is underwritten separately from a standard apartment loan, so check financing options before you price rather than after you have an offer.
Is a condo conversion better than selling as apartments?
For most owners, no. The tenant cost, the approvals and the years of carry consume the spread. Conversion pays best for buildings that are mostly vacant, non-RSO, or held by a developer.
Michael Sterman is Senior Managing Director Investments at Marcus & Millichap, specializing in Los Angeles multifamily transactions, most of them on rent-controlled inventory.
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