Investors continue to be bullish about Orange County’s multifamily sector, with two projects trading in separate deals in Huntington Beach and Anaheim.
In the larger of the two deals, a private OC investor paid $36.7 million for a 135-unit apartment complex in Huntington Beach, marking the largest rental deal for the city in 2021, according to CoStar Group records.
The buyer, an affiliate of Santa Ana-based VJHB Cove LLC, paid about $272,000 per unit for the project, dubbed the Solteros Apartments.
Newport Beach’s Triqor Group represented the buyer and seller—a private Orange investor—in the deal that closed last month.
The sale includes five buildings along Keelson Lane, west of Beach Boulevard.
Sub: Surf City
Huntington Beach has an average vacancy rate below 2% for its base of apartments, among the lowest for a city in Orange County, according to brokerage data.
Rents have been bolstered by an increase in leasing since the middle of last year, with average monthly rents of about $2,400. That’s higher than pre-COVID levels, data indicates.
Headwinds in the market include the downsizing of Boeing’s industrial and office base along Bolsa Avenue, which could negatively impact residential demand in the near term, brokers note.
For the overall OC market, asking rents for a two-bedroom apartment currently average about $2,475, up 12% from the year prior, and 60% more than national asking rents.
North County
In Anaheim, a 56-unit apartment project traded for $15.6 million to a private buyer based in Newport Beach.
A Hacienda Heights-based investor sold the property, located at 1251 N. Placentia Ave., for $279,000 per unit.
The two-story building, dubbed The OC Apartment Homes, was built in 1973 and sits on 2.4 acres.
CBRE’s Dan Blackwell represented the buyer and seller.
“The Orange County market is very competitive right now, and we are working with many property investors on both on- and off-market opportunities to help execute multifamily trades,” said Blackwell.
The recent Anaheim deal shows sustained investor interest for North Orange County, which has seen a flurry of sales this year, including the blockbuster $108.1 million sale of Joule La Floresta, a 204-unit complex in Brea.
That sale marks the largest reported apartment deal in the city in over a decade.
