Long Beach is the largest genuinely separate multifamily market next to my territory, and its regulatory position is worth stating precisely because owners get it wrong in both directions. There is no local rent cap. There is a local just-cause ordinance. And there is no Measure ULA. A Long Beach building's income can grow nearly three times as fast as an equivalent LA City one, and its pricing reflects that.
A city of roughly 450,000 — the seventh largest in California, and an urban market in its own right rather than a suburb. The stock is deep and varied: 1920s Spanish courtyards in Bluff Park and Belmont Heights, mid-century walk-ups along Ocean and Broadway, dense pre-war blocks in Alamitos Beach and Downtown, post-war garden apartments spreading east.
The Port of Long Beach anchors the economy alongside logistics, healthcare and aerospace, and CSU Long Beach plus Long Beach City College sustain a substantial student renter base. Renter households are well over half the city.
No local rent control. Long Beach repealed its Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance in December 2019, on the view that AB 1482's statewide protections were more comprehensive.
AB 1482 governs the cap for covered buildings — 5% plus regional CPI, capped at 10%. Currently 8.7% for increases effective August 2026 through July 2027, up from 8% the prior year.
Against an LA City rent-stabilized building capped at 3%, that is a fundamentally different growth trajectory.
Long Beach does keep its own Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, separate from AB 1482. No-fault terminations can carry relocation assistance equal to one month's rent for qualifying tenants. No local rent cap does not mean no local rules.
Measure ULA does not apply. Long Beach is its own city.
Long Beach specialists, many of them local owner-operators with several buildings.
LA City sellers exchanging out, for whom the AB 1482 ceiling and the absent transfer tax are the entire thesis.
Student-housing operators around the CSULB and LBCC campuses.
Institutional and larger private capital at the downtown and waterfront end, where building sizes support it.
Lead with the growth headroom. The gap between in-place rents and what AB 1482 permits is the story, and on a long-held building it is substantial.
Document turnover and achieved rents. In a market without a local cap, what units actually re-let for is the most persuasive number you have.
Establish the sub-market honestly. Belmont Shore, Alamitos Beach, Downtown, Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach are genuinely different markets with different buyers, and a citywide comp set is close to meaningless.
Get a current insurance quote — the coastal exposure and the county-wide repricing both bear on it.
Do not price a Long Beach building off LA City comparables. The rent cap is looser, the transfer tax does not apply, and the buyer pool is its own. Price the in-place income and, more importantly, the rate at which it can lawfully grow — that is what a Long Beach buyer is actually paying for.
I have closed in Long Beach — a 12-unit building at 4915 E Ocean Blvd for $3,800,000. One transaction is not a comp set and I am not going to present it as one, but it is a real closing at a real price on the Long Beach waterfront, and it sits inside $1.46 billion across 259 Los Angeles multifamily sales in the surrounding market.
Michael Sterman will walk through comparables, buyer pool, and timing specific to your building — no obligation, no pitch.
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