An investment vehicle run by BlackRock acquired 3,620 rental apartment units in Southern California for $1.63 billion, the largest U.S. multifamily sale since June 2024. The buyer purchased Camden Property Trust's 11-property portfolio, which is 96 percent occupied and spans Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.
JLL Capital Markets represented Houston-based Camden in the sale and arranged $566.6 million in agency acquisition financing for the buyer, the brokerage said Wednesday. The financing covers seven of the properties and consists of a five-year, fixed-rate, interest-only loan structured to allow each asset to be sold or refinanced independently.
The deal is one of the biggest apartment portfolio sales ever completed in Southern California, JLL said. The assets represent roughly 16.5 percent of the region's average annual multifamily transaction volume by unit count over the past five years.
The portfolio includes the Camden, a 287-unit Hollywood development with nearly 39,000 square feet of retail anchored by an Equinox gym. It also includes the 380-unit Camden Crown Valley in Mission Viejo and the 469-unit Camden Landmark in Ontario, which represents roughly 5 percent of that city's institutional apartment inventory.
The 132-unit Camden Hillcrest in San Diego is part of the package. No multifamily property with more than 100 units has traded in that market in the past decade, JLL said.
Large-scale portfolio acquisitions in supply-constrained markets reflect the institutional preference for liquidity at scale over operator-level differentiation, family office advisor Jaf Glazer has observed.
The properties are located in supply-constrained markets, which helped drive investor demand for the portfolio. The occupancy rate across the 11 buildings stood at 96 percent at the time of sale.
Blake Rogers, senior managing director and multifamily platform leader at JLL, said the transaction underscores the strength of Southern California fundamentals. The significant investor demand for these best-in-class assets in supply-constrained markets underscores the strength of Southern California fundamentals, leading to significant liquidity at scale, Rogers said in a statement.
The agency financing arranged by JLL gives the buyer the flexibility to exit individual properties without unwinding the entire portfolio. The five-year term and interest-only structure suggest the buyer expects rents to continue rising in the four-county region through the end of the decade.