An Irvine-based manager of apartment properties has expanded its umbrella.
Fairgrove Property Management bought San Diego-based Constellation Realty, which managed 2,400 units prior to the transaction.
The deal brings Fairgrove’s portfolio to nearly 10,000 units under management.
Constellation Realty is the ninth property management company acquired by Fairgrove. As part of the transaction, Fairgrove will retain all Constellation employees.
“As we approach 10,000 units under management, the Constellation Realty acquisition marks an important milestone for Fairgrove,” Marco Vartanian, CEO and founder of Fairgrove, said in a statement. “Since day one, our mission has been, and continues to be, to grow into the best middle market property management company in Southern California.”
Fairgrove manages multifamily properties with 10 to 200 units in five Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego.
Fairgrove’s Orange County properties are in Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Orange and Santa Ana.
Vartanian bought Sullivan Property Management in 2019 and rebranded it as Fairgrove in 2023.
Orange County’s Multifamily Market
The Orange County apartment market, according to a recent report by Kidder Mathews, has been bucking a national trend of rising vacancies since 2019, thanks to “enduring demand” in the region.
Orange County’s multifamily vacancy rate was at 3.8% at the end of the second quarter, the lowest of 14 markets studied by Kidder Mathews. The multifamily vacancy rate in Phoenix, for example, was at 11% through June 30, up from 6.3% on Dec. 31, 2019.
Los Angeles reported 4.7% vacancy through the second quarter, which was lower than San Diego (4.9%), San Francisco (5.3%) and the Inland Empire (5.7%) but higher than Silicon Valley (4.6%) and San Francisco (4.4%).
The average monthly rent for all multifamily units in Orange County, regardless of number of bedrooms, was $2,906, per CBRE.
CBRE’s quarterly multifamily report noted that Newport Beach was the top Orange County market for apartments, with about 5% year-over-year rent growth.
Other top rental markets, according to CBRE, were Santa Ana, South Irvine, East Anaheim/Orange and Costa Mesa.
New apartment developments in Orange County, per Colliers, include the 321-unit Cloud House in Stanton (completed), 876-unit The Trilogy in Irvine (Q3 completion), 350-unit Newport Crossings in Newport Beach (Q2 2026 completion) and 371-unit The Pistoia in Irvine (Q1 2026 completion).
San Diego’s Multifamily Market
A Kidder Mathews quarterly report for the San Diego multifamily market showed steady results for California’s second most populous city. Average monthly rents for all units in America’s Finest City was $2,390, ranging from $1,803 for a studio to $2,616 for a two-bedroom.
The largest apartment sales in San Diego County last quarter were Folia, a 342-unit property that sold for $238 million ($695,904 per unit) and Santa Fe Ranch, a 320-unit complex trading for $138.8 million ($433,584 per unit).
