Ben Belack, the director of residential estates at Beverly Hills-based The Agency, had a Brentwood home listing on the market for sale for six months.
After fires broke out throughout Los Angeles County this month, he had a number of inquiries from affected parties interested in long-term leases. Within 12 hours of putting the Brentwood home up for lease instead, he had eight leasing offers and one purchase offer. And less than a week after the start of the fires, he said he had roughly 50 inquiries from people looking to other lease properties.
“There’s a voracious demand for housing, furnished housing especially, on the westside of Los Angeles,” Belack said. “People want to have some semblance of their former life and be close to their kids’ schools, if they are still standing, and their own lives.”
Most people, he has found, want to lease for at least a year, if not more.
Tami Pardee, the founder and chief executive of Pardee Properties in Venice has also been working to put people in homes.
“There’s overwhelming demand…there’s not enough housing,” she said, adding that her team was getting roughly 100 inquiries a day.
To help, she created a task force to connect people who need homes with homes.
She said members of the community who don’t normally rent their homes have agreed to do so.
Pardee added that she had as many as 150 homes on her list. She even brought back some former employees to help and is not charging people to use the service.
Chris Cortazzo, a Compass agent specializing in Malibu, said he is seeing a lot of interest in the area, as well as further away cities like Manhattan Beach and Newport Beach.
He said once the Pacific Coast Highway – parts of which were closed after the Palisades fire ignited – reopens, he expects to see even more interest.
“I have two cells and they are both ringing off the hook,” he said, adding that he has a team working on rental properties.
Fellow Compass agent Megan Spargo-Ferrell, who specializes in the Pasadena/Altadena area, called the devastation from the fires “truly unimaginable.”
“This is a different community than Malibu and the Palisades. It’s a mix of middle-class families who don’t have as many resources to fall back on and don’t have second homes to go to,” she said.
She added that there was already a shortage of housing and the fires “made it so much worse.”
She added that there is very limited inventory, and many people are still trying to figure out if they have a home before they look at lodging options.
Still, for those who are already searching for places to live, she said wants them to be aware that price gouging is illegal and there are scams out there.
“Make sure that in this moment of crisis when you are just trying to get your family into things, that you slow down and read things. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” Spargo-Ferrell said.
What landlords are doing
Sean Burton, chief executive of Century City-based multifamily owner and developer Cityview, said the company “sprag into action” when the fires hit.
The company has about 3,000 units in or around L.A.
For those impacted by the fires and looking for a place to live, the company is waiving application and pet fees, reducing security deposits and offering more flexible lease terms. Cityview is also in contact with furniture rental companies to potentially furnish some units.
Meanwhile Mid-Wilshire-based Decron Properties Corp. is offering $1,000 off the first month’s rent to residents displaced by the fires, as well as waving application fees of leases lasting three months or more.
Spargo-Ferrell also said she has seen more flexibility on lease terms and other flexibility from landlords.
Agemark Senior Living, which manages Sage Mountain Senior Living in Thousand Oaks and Sage Glendale Senior Living in Glendale among other properties, is offering aid for seniors displaced during the wildfires including discounted rent and furnished bedrooms.
Some are buying instead
A recent report from USC found that the number of single-family homes destroyed by the fires is larger than the number of new units permitted in the county annually.
“Of course, part of the reason new housing construction has been limited in the county is the scarcity of available land,” the report said. “In principle, this is not a constraint in the areas affected by the fire, where homes can be rebuilt on the same land, if binding zoning restrictions are lifted.”
The USC report also found that many are temporarily relocating to rentals. From 2020 to 2023, rents for new listings increased by around 15%, meaning temporarily renting a place can be quite costly.
But given how expensive it is to rent a large home, some are opting to buy instead.
“There are a few people out there that have made short purchases in lieu of leasing,” Belack said. “If they feel like they are going to give someone $40,000 a month to live in Brentwood for two years, that’s almost $1 million in rent. They would rather buy the house. Not everyone has the means, but I have seen a few parties doing that.”
Cortazzo said he is still seeing 75% of people looking to lease but other are interested in buying instead.
Pardee added that “people are thinking outside of the box on living situations” and that she has even had a client who was looking to help their son buy a home instead buy one to live in for a few years and later give to their son.
Looking ahead: policy matters
Burton said he hasn’t seen a huge increase in leasing yet, but is expecting to see one soon.
“You’re going to see an increase in demand,” he said. “We already had a housing crisis before this happened.”
Cortazzo added that once “people are done with the initial shock, they will need to settle into residences and establish their new life the best they can,” which will increase demand for homes.
Belack also sees demand for home rentals increasing and thinks as inventory runs out in the areas closest to the fires, people may expand their search radiuses.
He added that the amount of time it takes insurance to pay out premiums could also impact the market.
Experts agree policies meant to speed up the rebuilding process will be key.
Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order that requires city departments to complete project reviews within 30 days and exempts projects submitted for reconstruction from some zoning hearings, among other measures.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, has loosened California Environmental Quality Act and California Coastal Act regulations to speed up rebuilding efforts.
“That’s a really good start,” Burton said. “Our hope is that those reforms continue and are applied more broadly so we can build more of the critical housing we need in the region.”
He added that if the housing shortage that already existed pre-fires is not addressed, housing will become more and more difficult to afford.
Belack added that in order for necessary building to happen, there should not be wildlife ordinances in place that limit building and Measure ULA, sometimes known as the “Mansion Tax,” should not be at play. Measure ULA is a tax levied on properties that sell for more than $5 million in the City of L.A., which Belack said slows down development.
“A moment like this is when we should be looking at things like the Wildlife Ordinance and Measure ULA,” he added.
