From left: The Miro Apartments, 9229 Sepulveda Boulevard, and 11905 Ferris Road

Major multifamily deals stretched across Los Angeles County last month, with Blackstone’s purchase of a 100-unit apartment complex in Santa Fe Springs topping the Top 5 list.

Still, the February total of $121 million was less than a third of January’s $391 million in L.A. County. January’s total was propelled by Mack Real Estate Group’s $180.1-million purchase of a mixed-use building in Downtown L.A.

1. Miro Apartments | $56.7M

Blackstone Group has been busy expanding around Southern California. In February, its REIT paid $56.7 million to Praedium Group for the 100-unit complex called Miro Apartments in Santa Fe Springs. The purchase is the second time the property at 12257 Heritage Springs has traded hands since 2015. Praedium paid Fairfield $47 million for the property in 2016. Blackstone entities also recently purchased the former Forever 21 headquarters in Lincoln Heights for $166 million, and sold a three-building apartment complex in Echo Park for $25.5 million.

2. Apple Tree Village | $23.5M

ABS Properties purchased the 125-unit Apple Tree Village apartments from American Housing for $23.5 million. The 143,200-square-foot building is located in the North Hills of the San Fernando Valley. The 1.52-acre property at 9229 Sepulveda Boulevard last sold for $3.1 million in 1998, according to the listing on Realtor.com.

3. Villa Rain Tree | $16M

Ritz Housing LLC sold the Villa Rain Tree property in El Monte to Thomas Safran & Associates for $16 million. The property has 70 low-income apartments and is 41,700 square feet. The 2.33-acre property is located at 11905 Ferris Road. It was built in 1978 and last sold for $6.1 million in 2006. The building is about 15 miles east of Downtown L.A.

4. 130 S. Alexandra Avenue | $12.4M

SAFCO Capital and Acacia Capital purchased the 30-unit apartment building at 130 South Alexandria Avenue, near Koreatown and Rampart Village. Owner Ghazar Zehnaly sold the property for $12.4 million, records show. The building was built in 1990 and includes 41,200 square feet. It previously sold for $8.4 million in 2013, and $1.5 million in 1999, according to the listing on Redfin.

5. 1522 N. Formosa Avenue | $12.3M

Owner Daniel Sands sold his 36-unit apartment complex at 1522 N. Formosa Avenue for $12.34 million. The buyer was listed as 1522 N Formosa, LLC, which is registered by Brian Dror, according to property records. The LLC shares an address with an insurance technology firm named Drop In, Inc., where Dror is an executive director. The three-story building was built in 1985 on a .35-acre lot, and includes 24,800 square feet.

An affordable housing project

Investors are hoping to raise billions of dollars for Opportunity Zones projects across the country, but critics worry little of that money will go to the troubled neighborhoods the federal tax incentive initiative was meant to help.

Now, the philanthropic Kresge Foundation is partnering with two investment firms that are launching Opportunity Zone funds, in an effort to ensure development projects go to communities most in need.

The Michigan-based foundation is partnering with Fort Lauderdale-based Community Capital Management and Boston-based Arctaris Impact. Community Capital and Arctaris are launching Opportunity Zone funds, seeking to raise a combined $800 million for projects and businesses in low-income areas throughout the country.

The Kresge Foundation has provided a combined $22 million investment in the two funds, in exchange for an agreement the funds will adhere to its guidelines. The foundation will create

a standardization of reporting for Opportunity Zone projects, in order to show that the funds deployed are creating jobs and helping the community.

The Opportunity Zones program gives investors and developers the ability to forgo and defer paying some capital gains taxes if they invest in any of the designated zones.

Investors are raising massive funds but most are waiting to deploy capital until more regulations are released from the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS. David Sand of Community Capital said the company will start deploying capital after the next regulations come out. They are expected in the coming weeks.

This month, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said the agency will give preference to developers and investors who build affordable housing in federal Opportunity Zones when it comes to certain grants. Carson acknowledged the agency could not mandate the construction of affordable housing in the 8,700 designated Opportunity Zones nationwide.

The Kresge Foundation’s voluntary standards include showing how many jobs have been created, along with how much affordable housing will be built at each project.

Socially responsible investment groups like Kresge also want the government to include permanent legislation to mandate reporting requirements for each project.

Aaron Seybert of Kresge said the Opportunity Zones reporting standards will look similar to the requirements set forth in the New Markets Tax Credit, a tax incentive for developers looking to build in low-income areas.

Michael Shabani and 8840 Beverly Boulevard (Credit: Getty Images)

Real estate investment firm Crown Equity is marketing a fully-leased retail property in West Hollywood, The Real Deal has learned.

The property at 8840 Beverly Boulevard is being listed in the range of $40 million or higher, broker Bob Safai of Madison Partners said. That would work out to at least $1,880 per square foot.

The 21,260-square-foot building was recently renovated building.

Design store Luminaire inked a 10-year lease for the entire space last August. It marked the first location on the West Coast for the Miami-based company, which also has a location in Chicago.

Michael Shabani runs Crown. Shabani, acting through an LLC, paid $20.8 million to acquire the site in March 2016, property records show.

The listing comes nearly six months after Crown spent $96 million, or roughly $8,240 per square foot, to acquire two storefronts on Rodeo Drive. The deal — which included an 11,625-square-foot property leased to fashion houses Brioni and Alexander McQueen — ranks among the highest trades on a per square foot basis in the Beverly Hills area.

Retail investment in West Hollywood has been on the upswing. Last week, Safco Capital Corp. closed a deal to acquire a 1.3-acre site, occupied by a Gelson’s Market, for $25 million. As part of the deal, Safco agreed to lease back to Gelson’s the 17,830-square-foot store at 8330 Santa Monica Boulevard.

Opendoor CEO Eric Wu revealed that the iBuying company had removed the “Buy It Now” button from its website and app.

Over the last decade, agents have been squeezed by the proliferation of online listings portals and automated valuation models. Now, with well-funded “iBuyers” poised to tighten the screws and reduce the agents’ role in the homebuying process, some brokers are fighting back against automation.

Speaking at a Silicon Valley conference called Startup Grind, Opendoor CEO Eric Wu revealed that the iBuying company had removed the “Buy It Now” button from its website and app, following complaints from realtors outside the firm, Inman reported.

The button was originally introduced in 2017 to allow customers to purchase homes Opendoor was selling.

“The reality was that there were a lot of Realtors still in the system, and they kind of view their role as negotiations, so even though we had this ‘buy now’ button, people still wanted to negotiate the price,” Wu said during an on-stage interview at the conference, according to Inman.

Opendoor’s “See Buying Options” button still allows customers choose from two other options: “Get introduced to a top local agent,” or “Buy with your own agent.”

Nonetheless, Wu said that agents would need to accept that their role in transactions will change as the process becomes increasingly automated.

“[It]’s going to take a little bit of time for agents to realize that actually the automation will happen, and their role is to be an adviser to the customer,” Wu said.

In September, Opendoor landed $400 million in funding from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. The company also acquired Open Listings, a discount brokerage that offers homebuyers a 50 percent rebate on a buyer’s agent commission. The move allowed Opendoor to employ buyer’s agents and work with agents from other brokerages.

Opendoor is competing with established real estate tech giants like Redfin and Zillow, and franchise brokerage Keller Williams is also making a push into the home buying and flipping space. [Inman] – Decca Muldowney

The apartments at 5727 La Mirada Avenue under construction last May (Credit: Google Maps)

A South Los Angeles-based firm is expanding its reach into Hollywood’s multifamily market.

DavHan Inc. purchased a 28-unit building that was completed last year, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

DavHan paid $17.7 million for the 41,200 square feet at 5727 La Mirada Avenue. Miller & Desatnik Realty Corp. represented both DavHan and the seller. It was listed as Frame 5727 LLC, which is connected to Robert Green of R.D. Green Construction.

5727 La Mirada Avenue

Major multifamily projects are set to join the La Mirada apartment complex. GPI Companies’ plan to replace the Amoeba Music store on Sunset Boulevard with a 26-story apartment tower that the city approved last week. CIM Group is also restarting its plan to build a 63-unit complex at 6007 Sunset Boulevard.

DavHan’s apartment building is also located a half-mile from the Target super-store still under construction. The store was just given the go-ahead to complete construction, after a years-long court battle with the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association. [LABJ] — Gregory Cornfield

Glenn Sanford (Credit: Twitter)

After more than doubling its agent count, virtual brokerage eXp Realty’s revenue soared 220 percent in 2018 — hitting a “record” $500.1 million, the company reported Monday.

But its net loss — $22.4 million — remained relatively steady compared to 2017’s net loss of $22.1 million.

“In the past year, eXp has grown in extraordinary ways in both financials and size,” CEO Glenn Sanford said in a statement.

EXp went public last year, trading at a $1 billion market capitalization. Founded by Sanford in 2009, eXp offers agents a virtual world where they can network and take classes. Agents can also earn company stock.

In its earnings report, eXp said it closed out 2018 with 15,570 agents, up from 6,511 a year prior. In recent months, the cloud-based brokerage has attracted several top agents and their teams, including David Devoe in Hoboken, who moved 32 agents and 10 staffers from Keller Williams.

The firm said it closed 74,678 transactions, up 195 percent year over year. It sold $19.8 billion worth of property, a 226 percent year-over-year spike. [Inman] — E.B. Solomont

From top left clockwise: 11848 W. Vanowen Street, 14629 W. Erwin Street, and 132 N. Rosemont Avenue (Credit: Google Maps)

Developers have filed three projects for under 50-unit apartment project in Los Angeles.

If approved, they would add a total of 69 apartments to the city’s housing stock.

All the projects were filed under the Transit Oriented Communities program. The L.A. initiative is meant to boost affordable housing near transportation hubs by providing incentives to developers of market-rate residential construction. Two of the projects are also in Opportunity Zones: Van Nuys and North Hollywood.

The data was compiled from property records on Property Shark.

11848 W. Vanowen Street | North Hollywood | 35 units

A five-story building is headed to North Hollywood. The project, which fits to code and does not require further entitlements, would include 35 units. As part of the TOC guidelines, three of the 35 units would be set aside for extremely low-income residents. Alan Kleinman, a real estate investor, owns the property, located in an federal Opportunity Zone. He paid $855,000 to acquire the vacant site last July, property records show.

14629 W. Erwin Street | Van Nuys | 20 units

An LLC tied to an individual named Michael Welter proposed building a new multifamily complex in Van Nuys. Located at 14629 West Irwin Street, the project would rise four stories and include 16 market-rate and four affordable units. The Tier 2 TOC project is also located in an Opportunity Zone. Welter paid $630,000 for the property in October 2017, records show. He’s seeking density and parking incentives in exchange for the affordable units.

132 N. Rosemont Avenue | Westlake | 14 units

In Westlake, Kamram Samooha proposed building a four-story complex with 14 units. The nearly 13,000-square-foot building would feature two affordable units, one for very low-income residents and the other for extremely low-income residents. Acting behind an LLC named Rosemont Villas, Samooha also requested a reduction in the open space requirement as part of the TOC guidelines. He’s owned the site since 2014, when he paid $826,000 for it.

President Donald Trump and Deutsche Bank’s Rosemary Vrablic with Deutsche Bank headquarters at 60 Wall Street (Credit: Getty Images, Facebook, and Google Maps)

Amid investigations by two congressional committees and the New York attorney general, Deutsche Bank officials have sought to downplay the bank’s ties to President Donald Trump.

But a new report from the New York Times, based on interviews with more than 20 current and former Deutsche Bank executives and board members, argues that the bank’s eagerness to make a name for itself on Wall Street led it to ignore repeated red flags over almost two decades.

The first Deutsche employee to arrange loans to Trump, Mike Offit, was fired in 1999 after executives discovered that he had forged a credit officer’s signature, the report said. Offit had provided Trump with a $125 million loan for renovations of 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan.

In 2003, another Deutsche team was hired to sell bonds for Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. “If you get this done, you’ll all be my guests at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump told salesmen. He defaulted on the bonds a year later.

Then in 2005, the bank lent Trump more than $500 million for the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. Trump later sued the bank to avoid payment, arguing that the 2008 financial crisis was “an act of god.”

In later years, Trump developed deep ties with the bank’s private-banking division, headed by Rosemary Vrablic, who was first introduced to Trump by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The increased scrutiny of its activities comes at a sensitive time for Deutsche Bank, which recently began merger talks with another struggling Frankfurt-based bank, Commerzbank.

In the weeks before the president’s inauguration, Deutsche Bank told its Wall Street employees not to even utter “Trump” in public. [NYT] — Kevin Sun

Paragon’s Co-Founder Jim Dillavou and a photo of one of their retail plazas

As mall operators and retailers across the country struggle with sales, one local firm is going all in.

El Segundo-based Paragon Commercial Group will invest $500 million over the next 18 months in retail property acquisitions, the company announced in a release Tuesday.

Jim Dillavou, Paragon co-founder and principal, said the firm will focus on “neighborhood shopping centers” that typically have a grocery market. Each acquisition will range from $20 million to $80 million.

The retail development firm will invest alongside some of its existing partners, both institutional and private.

Out of the $500 million, about $200 million will be invested in Southern California properties while the remainder will go to Northern California properties. Dillavou said the firm has been looking to grow its portfolio in the northern half of the state.

Paragon’s portfolio includes a 79,400-square-foot retail property in Orange County, purchased through the Canyon Catalyst Fund, and Gelson’s Shopping Plaza in Manhattan Beach. The firm completed construction at the South Bay retail center last November, landing the high-end grocery chain Gelson’s to anchor the project.

In the Bay Area, the firm recently made headlines for selling the ground lease to an In-N-Out Burger located in San Jose. A private investor bought that property for $6.9 million.

While Paragon will invest in smaller shopping centers, landlords of large malls nationwide have dealt with big-box spaces going vacant after retail chain bankruptcies. In response, some mall owners have been redeveloping those empty spaces into residential developments, sprawling “country club”-like fitness centers, medical facilities and co-working spaces.

Walter P. Schmidt Senior Managing Partner of Rockwood and 225 Santa Monica Boulevard

The historic Santa Monica Clock Tower Building is changing hands.

Rockwood Capital acquired the 12-story Art Deco office building for $31.3 million, records show. The purchase was made through its High Noon Office LLC.

The seller was Sorgente Group of America, the U.S. arm of Sorgente Group of Rome. Sorgente acquired the 90-year-old building in 2013 for about $34 million.

The property at 221-225 Santa Monica Boulevard is 53,500 square feet and includes the four-story clock tower. Its tenants include the investment firm Bold Capital Partners, H Code media and Hylink, which is a China-based digital media firm.

Considered Santa Monica’s first skyscraper, it was the tallest building in the city for 40 years. Because of the city’s building height restrictions, it remains one of the tallest properties in the area today.

The Clock Tower adds to a list of Rockwood’s projects in Southern California. The firm is in a joint venture with Lowe Enterprises and AECOM to develop the $350-million Ivy Station complex in Culver City. HBO is slated to take 200,000 square feet of office space when it opens later this year.

Rockwood is also building a 190,000-square-foot building at the Water’s Edge creative campus in Playa Vista, which it purchased for $190.5 million from DivcoWest last year.

Sorgente’s portfolio has included prized historic properties, such as the 183,450 square-foot Flatiron Building in New York City and the 120,000 square-foot Fine Arts Building in Downtown L.A. Sorgente Group had purchased the Clock Tower building for $34.3 million six years ago from an entity led by Los Angeles accountant Harvey Bookstein.

Boston and L.A. skylines (Credit: Wikipedia)

As the U.S. economy slows, cities with more diversified economic bases stand to gain as investors move away from riskier bets.

Such cities include Los Angeles, which is seeing a tech and media boom, and Boston, where a strong biotechnology sector is supporting the city’s traditional financial-services base, Bloomberg reported.

“The focus should be on quality of market and quality of real estate,” JPMorgan Asset Management co-portfolio manager of real estate Ann Cole told Bloomberg. “As you get later in the cycle, that’s not the time to be taking additional risk.”

Secondary cities like Austin, Texas may offer higher yields, but they are often more susceptible in a downturn due to reliance on one industry or one company.

Economic growth in the U.S. is expected to slow down over the next few years, hitting a low of 1.8 percent in 2021 according to Bloomberg data, and this will correlate strongly with office-building performance.

“In every recessionary environment, there’s always a flight to quality,” Cole said. [Bloomberg] — Kevin Sun

Woodridge CEO Michael Rosenfeld and a rendering of the Century Plaza project at 2025 Avenue of the Stars (Credit: Getty, Next Century Partners)

One of the biggest and most delayed construction projects in Los Angeles is nearing the finish line, and the developer is casting a wide net.

Woodridge Capital Partners filed for approvals to market the twin condominium buildings at its Century Plaza Hotel redevelopment project to prospective buyers in New York, The Real Deal has learned. The filings, published by the Real Estate Finance Bureau, are mandated by law, and filed with the New York state Attorney General.

Woodridge has been redeveloping the Century City site, which is a $2.5 billion project. Now, the firm is trying to lure buyers to its 143-unit North Tower and 125-unit South Tower, records show.

Both towers, designed by Pei Cobb Freed, are part of the larger redevelopment plan at the Century Plaza Hotel at 2025 Avenue of the Stars. The 394-room hotel, operated by Fairmont Hotel & Resorts, is also scheduled to open later this year, delayed from a 2018 opening.

Once completed, the massive project will add 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant uses to the area. Amenities include multiple swimming pools, a spa, game room and private walkway to the recently renovated Westfield Century City mall.

Rising 46 stories each, the condo towers will have six, 11,000-square-foot penthouses with private rooftop access. Each penthouse will list for more than $50 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Last year, Michael Rosenfeld, Woodridge CEO, told THR the firm has already collected $50 million in reservations.

Since the project gained city approvals in 2013, it’s been beset by delays.

Construction was pushed back a few months, starting in late 2016, just as Woodridge locked down $1 billion in construction financing from J.P. Morgan Chase, Colony Capital, and in EB-5 investments.

Last March, the firm secured a permit, valued at nearly $90 million, to wrap up construction on the South Tower.

RE/MAX CEO Adam Contos and Redfin CEO Glen Glenn Kelman

RE/MAX agents can now boost their business through Redfin’s referral program.

The two brokerages announced a partnership that will give RE/MAX agents exclusive access to Redfin’s agent referral program across 5,000 U.S. ZIP codes and Canada, Inman reported. Agents will get a discounted rate — and the initial partnership will last two years, with the two firms re-evaluating whether to continue beyond 2021.

“We just looked at it an opportunity to provide another value add for our network in terms of marketing and referral opportunities,” Karri Callahan, RE/MAX’s chief financial officer, told Inman. “Redfin is a good compliment to the REMAX model given their online presence and our offline presence.”

The move teams up a massive franchise brokerage with a newer discount brokerage. Redfin’s Partner Agent program allows agents from any brokerage to advertise listings in areas underserved by Redfin’s agents. The Partner Agent is displayed prominently on the listing.

If a RE/MAX agent closes a deal from a referral, Redfin gets 25 percent of the commission, the report said. That fee is otherwise 30 percent. Each referral is sent to one agent — who has an hour to accept it. To stay in the program, the report said the RE/MAX agent has to accept an undisclosed percentage of referrals.

In areas outside of the RE/MAX partnership, Redfin’s program will continue on a brokerage-by-brokerage basis. Chelsea Goyer, Redfin’s vice president of recruiting, partners and multiple listing service relations, said the partnership will help expand Redfin’s consumer-facing presence and RE/MAX will serve areas where Redfin isn’t growing right now.

Redfin currently has no plans to hire local agents in those 5,000 exclusive ZIP codes, where the company has access to MLS data, the report said. But there’s nothing in the agreement that prevents Redfin expanding into one of those areas. The company said more than 30,000 customers have started their home search on Redfin with a Partner Agent since 2009.

Earlier this year, Redfin announced it was expanding to Toronto and later Vancouver. The company also launched a national listing website. In every area outside of Toronto and Vancouver, RE/MAX agents have the exclusive chance to advertise on those listings. [Inman] — Meenal Vamburkar

Justin Bieber, Hailey Baldwin and 1710 Tropical Avenue (Credit: Redfin)

One could say Justin Bieber has grown up from his “Baby” days.

The pop star, who turned 25 this month, paid $8.5 million for a home in Beverly Hills, according to Yolanda’s Little Black Book.

The purchase comes after Bieber recently married model Hailey Baldwin, and follows years of his shacking up in pricey rentals and developing a reputation as a bad neighbor.

Less than two years ago, homeowners in the wealthy 90210 ZIP code tried to ban the singer from renting a home in the area after he earned a reputation as a mansion-trasher. In one instance, a raucous Bieber had to pay $80,000 to his neighbors after throwing eggs from his Calabasas home.

His new street in the area has just four other homes nearby.

Located off Benedict Canyon Drive, the 6,130-square-foot home has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Amenities include a screening room, an Art Deco bar and infinity swimming pool.

Greg Hebner, managing director of Arixa Capital, was the seller. He bought the property in March 2017 for $4.5 million, records show. Hebner then tapped Hollywood production designer Charles Infante to remodel it.

David Kramer and Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland had the listing. Property records show the deal, purchased through Bieber’s money managers, closed March 11. [YBB] — Natalie Hoberman

From top left, clockwise: The Atrium, 1900 W. Garvey Avenue, 6435 Wilshire Boulevard, Bristol 61, and 6350 W. Fountain Avenue (Credit: Google Maps)

Los Angeles County office investment sales were on a hot streak. In December, the top five office sales topped $375 million and January, that figure stood at about $250 million. In both months, one big purchase accounted for more than two-thirds of the total.

So it was no surprise that in February, without a big trade, the total would be down. And it was.

The top five office sales for the county totaled just $92.3 million last month. The largest trade was a $40 million office campus in Culver City, while a two-building office complex in Hollywood, for about half as much, was No. 2.

1. Bristol 61, Culver City | $39.2M

The Swig Company and Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation sold a 4.9-acre office campus at 6100-6160 Bristol Parkway to Alexandria Real Estate Equities for $39.2 million.

The Bristol 61 campus last traded hands for $20.2 million in 2014, and the two firms spent the past four years renovating the property. Its tenants include Siemens Medical Solutions, Momentum Biosciences, Sofie Biosciences, and PETNET Solutions.

2. 6350 W. Fountain Avenue, Hollywood | $18.6M

Andell Holdings purchased the two-building office complex, which encompasses 45,350 square feet. The tenant is post-production company Encore VFX. The seller was an LLC that shares an address with Beverly Hills-based Maxxam Enterprises, which also owns properties like the Beverly Hills Gateway Tower and the Promenade Gateway in Santa Monica.

3. The Atrium, La Mirada | $13.6M

Saunders Property Company sold The Atrium in La Mirada through a 1031 exchange. The buyer of the 84,000-square-foot property at 16700 Valley View Avenue was Anaheim-based investment firm Milan Capital Management.

It is 90-percent leased to 24 tenants.

4. 1900 W. Garvey Avenue, West Covina | $11M

The Wongjin Group sold its office at 1900 W. Garvey Avenue to Covina Office Building, LLC. The 39-year-old building is around 89,000 square feet, according to Reonomy. The office is down the road from Roger Penske Jr.’s former car dealerships at 1829 E. Garvey Avenue and 2010 E. Garvey Avenue, which also recently sold for $48.7 million.

5. 6435 Wilshire Boulevard, L.A. | $10M

Black Equities Group purchased the Joyce and Stanley Black building for $10 million. The seller was ORT Technical Institute. Nonprofit group Baby2Baby is also a tenant. The nearly 70-year-old building is 41,000 square feet.

Euros with an outline of Paris (Credit: Pixabay)

Singapore is getting some competition in a new ranking of the world’s priciest cities.

The Asian city is tied with Paris and Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported, citing the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. Singapore topped the list for five years.

Zurich and Geneva came in third and fourth place, the report said. New York and Los Angeles — which previously fell to 13th and 14th place, respectively — made it back into the top 10.

Outside the top 10, the survey said the cost of living in Chinese cities has stayed relatively stable as Southeast Asian cities move up the list. The survey aims to help companies calculate the cost of living and compensation packages for business travelers and expatriates.

“Weaker local currencies have pushed all five Australian and two New Zealand cities surveyed down in the ranking,” the EIU said.

But even the priciest cities haven’t been immune to a slowdown in the housing market. A previous report noted that cities like London, Hong Kong and New York are grappling with a more tepid market. According to a Knight Frank index of high-end properties in 43 cities, luxury residential prices are growing at the slowest rate since 2012.

As some Asian cities rise up the ranks, other parts of the region have remained relatively affordable.

“Within Asia, the best value for money has traditionally been offered by South Asian cities, particularly those in India and Pakistan,” the EIU said. “To an extent this remains true, and Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi and Karachi feature among the 10 cheapest locations surveyed.” [Bloomberg] — Meenal Vamburkar

What works in San Francisco may not work in Los Angeles

State lawmakers from the San Francisco Bay Area have proposed a sweeping package of bills to address California’s housing crisis, but not everyone is convinced it’s the right solution.

Elected officials and activist groups from other parts of California say they are concerned the proposed bills don’t weigh the unique housing challenges their regions face, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The package of bills include one that would allow apartments built as recently as a decade ago to be covered under new rent regulations. Another bill would require landlords to prove a “specific and valid reason” to evict a tenant. Another would make it easier to build accessory dwelling units or so-called “granny flats.”

Those are in line with measures local governments around Los Angeles have taken up in the last several months, but the proposed legislation could interfere with local efforts.

“In Southern California, it’s as much of an income problem as it is a housing problem,” University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate Director Richard Green told the Times.

One of the reasons that San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener’s sweeping transit housing development bill died so quickly last year was because of opposition from L.A. groups that worried it would torpedo local efforts to fight displacement.

Rural areas that bear almost no socioeconomic resemblance to the Bay Area could also be subject to the same rules, which could do more harm than good. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch 

Zillow’s new “Tour It Now” feature gives homebuyers the ability to tour a property without an appointment or agent.

Zillow is testing the waters of self-guided home tours with its new program, Tour it Now.

The company is piloting the “iBuyer” program through its app for a “handful of homes in the Phoenix metro,” Zillow told Inman. The app allows potential homebuyers to access homes for sale without an appointment or agent. The app, which is only available for properties Zillow owns, gives users directions to the home and unlocks the door when they arrive.

There are some built-in safeguards: The homes have sensors that capture still images and detect movement when there shouldn’t be any, according to Zillow. In cases where such movement is detected, Tour it Now is disabled and the property is “flagged for investigation by the local Zillow team.”

“We realize that buyers are looking for the ability to visit and tour homes on their own timeline,” a spokesperson for Zillow said. “And ‘Tour it Now’ will allow them to do just that.” [Inman] — Kathryn Brenzel

One of three Mercedes-Benz dealerships that traded in West Covina in February and Eddie Lampert with his new department store in Long Beach

Los Angeles saw some interesting retail investment sales in February.

Among the top trades of the month were the sale of a defunct Sears store in Long Beach to Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments and a deal for three auto dealerships in West Covina. The auto dealer was the top sale of the month, at $61.2 million.

Overall, the top five sales tallied a combined $134.6 million, a big jump from January’s $80 million. December was even lower at $46.4 million.

On Venice Boulevard, LaTerra Development also picked up an aging shopping center its likely to redevelop into a multifamily asset.

Garvey Avenue car dealerships, West Covina — Roger Penske, Jr. | $61.2M

In two sales, auto empire scion Roger Penske Jr. offloaded three Mercedes-Benz auto dealerships in West Covina totaling 390,000 square feet. The buyer was Ayman Sarriedine, the owner of a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Escondido, who could be looking to expand into the L.A. area. Penske Jr. purchased the three properties — 1829, 2010, and 1016 E. Garvey Avenue — in 1997 for $3 million each. Penske Jr. is the son of auto racing legend Roger Penske and brother of Jay Penske, who’s been in real estate headlines lately for his struggle to redevelop a church property in Venice.

5800 Firestone Boulevard, South Gate — Catellus | $29.5M

Catellus sold this retail center in South Gate to Acacia Capital, a private investment firm based out of San Mateo. Tenants include an ALDI supermarket, AT&T Store and a number of restaurants, including Panera Bread and Tacos Gavilan. The park is part of a larger retail hub off Interstate 710, running from Long Beach to near Alhambra. Neighbors include a Sam’s Club, a Target, and a McDonald’s.

12121 W. Pico Boulevard, L.A. — Merlone Geir Partners | $22.6M

This shopping center at the corner of Bundy Drive in Sawtelle totals 31,500 square feet. Tenants include a Marukai grocery store and a Party City party supply store. Merlone Geir is an active L.A. retail investor based in San Diego. The firm purchased the property from the Jerry and Nancy Goldman Family Trust. Merlone Geir is redeveloping the 25-acre Laurel Plaza Shopping Center in North Hollywood and in January inked a lease with Trader Joe’s for a 15,900-square-foot space at what will become NoHo West.

12444 Venice Boulevard, L.A. — LaTerra Development | $12.5M

Not far from Merlone Geir’s new property on Pico Boulevard, LaTerra Development picked up a 16,400-square-foot retail plaza. Tenants at the two-story center include a pizza shop, a bicycle repair shop, and a beauty salon. The seller was Crimson Holdings, a private investment firm with offices in L.A. and San Francisco.

The property is an unusual choice for LaTerra, which almost exclusively develops multifamily properties. The firm is developing a pair of mixed-use projects in East Hollywood, as well as a 71-unit development to replace a car wash in Santa Monica.

2100 North Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach — ESL Investments | $8.8M

This sale is part of the wider shuffle of properties and assets between what remains Sears Holding Corporation and ESL Investments, the hedge fund of former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert. In January, ESL successfully bid $5.2 billion for the former retail giant’s remaining assets, which included around 425 stores nationwide.

Lampert said ESL will sell or sublease some of those properties, so the fate of this Long Beach location remains unknown. It’s part of a large retail center. Next door there is a T.J. Maxx, L.A. Fitness gym, and a Lazy Acres grocery store.