Two Venice Listings, Two Cap Rate Stories: What 4.76% and a Value-Add Bet Tell Owners

Published July 25, 2026

A 3-unit Venice building priced at a 4.76% cap rate and an 8-unit corner property marketed on rent upside show the real spread investors are pricing today.

Two apartment buildings on the market in Venice right now tell the same story from opposite ends. One, a 3 unit at 1034 Pleasantview Ave, is priced on its current income at a 4.76% cap rate. The other, an 8 unit at 51 Thornton Ave, is priced on what the rents could become. Both fall inside the 4.0% to 5.0% range a local brokerage puts on Venice apartment buildings this year.

What a cap rate actually tells a Venice owner

A cap rate is just net operating income divided by price. It is a snapshot, not a forecast, and it only means what it claims to mean if the income behind it is real and current. In a market like Venice, where land value and beach proximity carry a lot of the price, cap rate alone will not tell you whether a deal is good. It tells you what a buyer is willing to accept in current yield to own a piece of the neighborhood. That is a meaningfully different question than "is this a good investment," and the two listings below show why.

The income case: 1034 Pleasantview Ave at a 4.76% cap rate

1034 Pleasantview Ave is a 3 unit building, three 3-bedroom, 2-bath units on a small lot, built in 1987. It is asking $1,900,000 and marketed at a 4.76% cap rate, meaning the seller is pointing directly at the rent roll as it exists today. There is no upside story being sold here. A buyer paying this price is underwriting the income that is already in place and betting on appreciation and rent growth over time, the way most stabilized Venice multifamily deals get priced.

That is the more conservative of the two postures a Venice listing can take, and it is also the easier one to evaluate. If the rent roll and expenses check out, the cap rate is the cap rate. The risk is smaller but so is the immediate upside.

The upside case: 51 Thornton Ave and the value add pitch

51 Thornton Ave is a different animal. It is a fully occupied 8 unit building on a 5,749 square foot corner lot, built in 1956, currently asking $2,495,000. The listing does not lead with a stabilized cap rate. It leads with below market rents and ADU conversion potential, the classic value add pitch: buy the in place income, then create additional value by pushing rents toward market and adding units where the lot allows it.

Worth noting for anyone tracking this specific property: public records show this building last sold in May 2026, and it is now back on the market at a higher ask. That kind of quick reposition is common in Venice when a buyer sees rent or development upside that was not being captured, and wants to sell the story rather than hold and execute it themselves. It is a reminder to underwrite what you are actually buying, not what the previous owner hoped to sell.

Why the range runs 4.0% to 5.0% in Venice

A Venice focused brokerage puts the neighborhood's apartment cap rate range at roughly 4.0% to 5.0%, with the exact number moving based on rent roll strength, unit size, and proximity to Abbot Kinney, the beach, and the Venice canals. That is a tight range by national standards, and it reflects a simple reality: Venice land is scarce and in demand regardless of what the current income looks like. Buyers are willing to accept a lower yield today because they believe the location does the rest of the work over a holding period.

Where a specific deal lands inside that range usually comes down to whether it is priced like Pleasantview, on today's income, or like Thornton, on tomorrow's potential. Both are legitimate ways to buy in this neighborhood. They are just different bets.

What this means if you own or are buying in Venice

If you already own a Venice building, these two listings are a useful gut check on your own numbers. A 3 unit priced conservatively at 4.76% and an 8 unit priced aggressively on upside both sit inside the range a broker considers normal for the neighborhood right now. If your own building's income would price meaningfully outside 4.0% to 5.0% either direction, that is worth understanding before you assume a refinance or sale would go smoothly.

If you are looking to buy, the honest question is which posture you actually want. A stabilized deal near 4.76% asks less of you as an operator. A value add deal near 5% or better asks more, in permitting time, construction risk, and the patience to actually capture the rent upside instead of just paying for the idea of it.

Common questions

Is a 4.76% cap rate good for a Venice apartment building?

It sits inside the range a Venice focused brokerage considers typical for the neighborhood, which runs roughly 4.0% to 5.0%. Whether it is good for you depends on your cost of capital, your holding period, and whether the underlying rent roll and expenses check out.

Why would a value add listing like 51 Thornton Ave not lead with a cap rate?

Because the current in place cap rate would understate what the seller believes the property is worth. Marketing on below market rents and conversion potential is a way to sell the story of future income rather than get judged on today's numbers alone. A buyer still has to underwrite whether that upside is realistic and how long it takes to capture.

Do small differences in cap rate matter much on a Venice sized purchase?

Yes. On a $1.9 million to $2.5 million property, even half a point of cap rate moves the effective price by tens of thousands of dollars once you translate it back through the income. It is worth the extra diligence to confirm the income a cap rate is built on before treating the number as settled.

Last verified: July 25, 2026. Listing prices, cap rates, and availability change frequently in this market and may have moved since this was written. 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, venice, westside, cap-rates

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