Residential powerhouse Camden Property Trust sold 11 Southern California properties totaling 3,620 units to BlackRock for $1.6 billion, according to JLL, which arranged the deal for the Houston-based real estate investment trust.
It’s the biggest multifamily sale in the U.S. since the summer of 2024 and marks Camden’s exit from California.
Los Angeles landlord and developer Cityview signed on to manage the properties for the private equity giant, according to property records and a spokesperson for Cityview.
BlackRock scored $566.6 million worth of acquisition loans for seven of the properties, with the option to refinance the properties individually. The financing was arranged by JLL’s Kevin Mackenzie, Annie Rice, Brandon Smith, Gyasi Edmondson and Alyssa Malley. It’s unclear who the lender is.
The deal hands over properties in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties to BlackRock, including The Camden Hollywood, a 287-unit apartment at 1540 North Vine Street, which sold for $141 million, according to property records.
Camden Harbor View, a 538-unit apartment complex at 40 Cedar Walk in Long Beach also sold for $233 million and the 307-unit Camden Glendale at 3900 San Fernando Road fetched $136 million, records show.
The sales are proof of the continuing demand for “best-in-class” assets in California’s constrained housing market, according to JLL’s Blake Rogers, who represented Camden along with Alexandra Caniglia, Kip Malo and Dillon Bergum. The portfolio is 96% occupied, according to the broker.
“Institutional interest in well performing and well-located assets is robust,” Rogers said in an emailed statement. “This portfolio sale underscores the liquidity for Southern California multi-housing real estate as a result of the high barriers to entry and enduring demand.”
JLL has seen pricing and bid quality continue to improve in the neighborhood, Rogers said.
“We are very bullish on the near, medium, and long term for the Hollywood multi-housing market,” he said.
Camden leaves Golden State
Improving multi-family housing fundamentals gave Camden, one of the nation’s largest apartment owner-operators with more than 56,000 units across 13 markets, the exit opportunity it was looking for.
The publicly traded real estate investment trust plans to use the sale’s proceeds to acquire $1 billion of new properties in its existing Sunbelt markets, said Alexander Jessett, Camden’s chief executive, at the company’s most recent earnings call. It’ll use the remainder to buy back its shares.
“The newer Sunbelt communities we acquire should grow faster than the older California assets we disposed of,” Jessett said.
Camden has been vocal about its woes with regulatory requirements and costs in California, where it has operated for 28 years.
“We will no longer be subject to high levels of regulatory and advocacy spend in California,” Jessett said. “This spend … would have reduced our California portfolio’s annual (net operating income) by approximately 80 basis points.”
