Redondo Beach small apartment buildings traded at a 4.1% cap rate and $406,216 a door

Published July 25, 2026

One brokerage's trailing 12 month read on small Redondo Beach apartment sales: tight cap rates, high per unit pricing, and what it means if you already own here.

A South Bay brokerage's trailing 12 month figures put small Redondo Beach apartment buildings, roughly 4 to 20 units, at an average 4.1% cap rate and about $406,216 per unit, among the tightest cap rates and highest per door prices anywhere in the South Bay.

I want to be straight about where that number comes from before I say anything else about it. It is not a county assessor's report or a neutral data service. It is one brokerage's own read of the deals it tracked over the past year, published on its own site to make the case that Redondo is a strong place to sell. That does not make the number wrong. It just means I am reading it as one firm's market observation, not as gospel, and I would encourage you to do the same.

With that said, the shape of the number matches what I see on the ground here, so it is worth walking through.

What the brokerage is actually reporting

Bluechip Investment Group's guide to selling an apartment building in Redondo Beach lays out a trailing 12 month snapshot: about $80.4 million in total sales volume across 198 units, an average sale price near $4.0 million per building, and buildings closing about 5.1 months after going to market. Sale prices landed roughly 4.2% under original asking on average.

The two headline figures are the 4.1% average cap rate and the $406,216 average price per unit. Both describe the same thing from opposite directions. A cap rate is the building's net operating income divided by its sale price, so a low cap rate means buyers are paying a lot relative to the income the building throws off. A high price per unit is the same story told in dollars instead of a percentage. Redondo posted a low cap rate and a high price per unit at the same time, which is consistent.

For comparison, the same guide places Hermosa Beach even tighter at 4.8% cap and $596,377 per unit, El Segundo at 4.4% and $497,833, Torrance around 4.8%, and Gardena and Lawndale both well looser, in the 5.7% to 5.8% range with per unit pricing under $200,000. Redondo sits in the expensive, low cap rate cluster with the other beach cities, not with the inland ones.

Why a beach city cap rate runs this low

A cap rate this tight usually means buyers are not underwriting the building purely off its current rent roll. They are underwriting the dirt underneath it. Redondo Beach has no local rent control ordinance of its own, so the only state limit that applies is California's statewide AB 1482, which caps most annual increases at 5% plus the local CPI, working out to roughly 8.7% for the 2026 cycle. That absence of a city level cap, combined with a supply constrained coastal footprint that cannot add much new inventory, is a big part of why buyers here will accept a lower current yield. They are betting on appreciation and long run rent growth in a location that cannot get meaningfully bigger, not just on this year's income statement.

That is a real dynamic, and it is also exactly the kind of thing a selling brokerage has an incentive to emphasize. A tight cap rate makes the pitch to a seller stronger: your building is worth more relative to its income than it would be almost anywhere else nearby. I think the underlying logic holds, land and location carrying real weight in a built out beach city, but I would not treat 4.1% as a precise, audited figure the way I would a number from the county assessor or a title company's closed sales database.

What this means if you own here

If you own a small apartment building in Redondo Beach, the practical read is twofold.

First, on the sell side, if this number is close to right, you are sitting on an asset that a buyer would price aggressively relative to its income, more so than almost anywhere else in the South Bay outside Hermosa. That is worth knowing even if you have no plans to sell soon, because it affects how you think about refinancing, 1031 exchange planning, or simply what the building is worth on paper.

Second, on the hold side, a market pricing buildings this tightly is a market that is not leaning on rent growth alone to justify the purchase price. If you are holding for cash flow rather than appreciation, it is worth running your own numbers against a return expectation, not the brokerage's framing, before you decide whether Redondo pricing still makes sense for a new purchase here.

Either way, the state rent cap under AB 1482 is the one lever every owner in a no local rent control city like Redondo should already have dialed in. It is the ceiling on what you can raise a sitting tenant, and it is worth confirming the current cycle's exact figure before you serve any notice.

Common questions

Is the 4.1% cap rate for Redondo Beach an official market statistic? No. It is one brokerage's own trailing 12 month read of deals it tracked, published to support its case for listing buildings in Redondo Beach. It is a reasonable directional signal, not an audited or neutral data source.

Does Redondo Beach have its own rent control ordinance? No. Redondo Beach has no local rent stabilization ordinance. The only cap that applies is California's statewide AB 1482, which limits most annual increases to 5% plus local CPI, roughly 8.7% for the current 2026 cycle.

How does Redondo Beach compare to nearby South Bay cities on cap rate? Per the same brokerage report, Redondo's 4.1% sits near the tight end, close to Hermosa Beach at 4.8% and El Segundo at 4.4%, and well below looser inland markets like Gardena and Lawndale, both in the high 5% range.

Last verified: July 25, 2026. Cap rate and per unit figures are Bluechip Investment Group's own trailing 12 month brokerage estimate, not a neutral data source, and should be read as directional. This is general information for property owners, not investment or legal advice. Confirm current pricing and terms with a broker or licensed professional before acting.

Kellie

Schofield Properties

323 Richmond Street, El Segundo, CA 90245

Topics: investing, redondo-beach, south-bay, cap-rates

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Schofield Properties is a family run property management company at 323 Richmond St, El Segundo, CA 90245. We have managed the South Bay since 1972 and personally oversee about 186 doors today. Book a call to talk about your property.