Stepp Commercial, a leading multifamily brokerage firm in the Los Angeles market, has the completed the $41.85 million sale of an apartment property portfolio in Long Beach, Calif. The deal consisted of 17 properties totaling 155 units and a per-unit price of $270,000.
Stepp Commercial Principal Robert Stepp, Senior Vice President Michael Toveg, and Senior Investment Associate Travis Traweek along with Larry Bustamante of Coldwell Banker Coast Alliance represented the seller, a Southern California-based private investor. The buyer was an institutional investment firm.
The portfolio is comprised of assets in “B” locations across Long Beach and just over half of the units are Section 8 housing. The majority of the units feature updated plumbing and electrical, laminate or linoleum flooring, and ceiling fans.
“We marketed this portfolio and secured a number of offers, with the best offer coming from the institutional buyer,” said Stepp. “The buyer liked that the buildings had ample Section 8 tenants for guaranteed income.”
Toveg added, “The seller will be seeking a less management-intensive apartment property upleg in an out-of-state 1031 exchange. We are currently targeting assets in the tax-friendly and high growth markets of Austin and Tampa.”
Although inventory has been tight, Long Beach has seen a significant amount of apartment transaction activity in 2021. So far this year, there have been a total of 196 sales of apartment assets with five or more units compared to the same time last year with 105 transactions. The average price per unit this year is $265,843 and average cap rate is 4.52 percent, as opposed to the same time period last year which was $254,315 and the average cap rate was 4.56 percent.
