Estimate Pegs Palisades Land Listings to Rise as High as 750

A raft of Pacific Palisades land listings has flooded the market, drawing big interest from buyers.

Nineteen land listings are up for sale, with many of those properties hitting the MLS in the past two weeks, according to data provided by Amalfi Estates owner Anthony Marguleas. The past 24 hours alone saw seven properties listed, according to Marguleas.

The Palisades broker said most listings are fielding dozens of inquiries, which he called “encouraging news” signaling buyer confidence in the coming rebuild process.

In all, Marguleas estimated 500 to 750 parcels of land will be brought to the market over the next couple years, which would represent 10 percent of what was burned in the Palisades.

Marguleas offered a real estate update earlier this month during a community meeting for Pacific Palisades residents in which he said current projections hold that Palisades land values will decline 25 percent to 30 percent compared to what they were before the fire.

So far, the community has seen one land sale, which closed this week for $1.2 million.

The nearly 10,000-square-foot parcel at 17126 Avenida De La Herradura sold in about a month for about 19 percent more than its list price.

KW Advisors’ Richard Schulman had the listing, while the buyer was represented by Keller Williams Realty Westside’s Meran Solamany and Niloofar Farzadmehr.

Another parcel, at 14800 Mc Kendree Avenue, went into contract last week after seven days on the market with a $2.9 million asking price.

The roughly 7,700-square-foot property is listed by Simon Beardmore of Sotheby’s International Realty.

Prices of land currently up for sale range from $749,000 for a 3.1-acre lot at 1309 Palisades Drive all the way up to just under $4 million for an 8,200-square-foot parcel at 611 Ocampo Drive.

The current pricing keeps the conversation around the city of Los Angeles’ Measure ULA transfer tax at bay for now.

The tiered assessment applies to all property sales in the city — of which the Palisades community is a part of — and is triggered with transactions of $5.15 million, which are levied a 4 percent tax. Sales of $10.3 million or more are taxed 5.5 percent.

Voters approved what was billed as the “mansion tax,” which went into effect in April 2023, to fund affordable housing and homelessness initiatives. However, it’s drawn the ire of many in the industry, for chilling sales. While many sellers have begrudgingly accepted the tax as simply another cost, ULA came up not long after the January wildfires began.

That’s when a group of high-profile agents, led by Ben Belack and Jason Oppenheim, penned a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass asking, among other things, for the property owners impacted by the fires to be exempt from the tax. The group also asked that the buyers of those properties also be exempt from the tax for a five-year period.

It’s unclear if the city would consider such an exemption. An inquiry to the mayor’s office was not immediately returned Friday.