Last year, there were fewer than a dozen rental properties with six-figure leases in the L.A. area, mostly clustered in the predictable seasonal hotspots: Malibu, Beverly Hills and Newport Coast. That was then. Today, more than 250 homes have flooded the market with monthly price tags north of $100,000 in L.A. and Orange counties. Vanessa Alexander and her husband, former ICM talent manager turned developer Steve Alexander, have listed their rustic-minimalist 7,000-square-foot home located in Malibu Canyon less than two miles from Point Dume for $125,000 a month. Financiers and Sugarfina board directors Paul Kessler and Diana Derycz-Kessler are leasing their salmon-pink, hill-hugging Bel-Air estate: Complete with four courtyards, nine fireplaces, one library and endless Bel-Air Country Club golf course views, the 15,000-square-foot Villa Del Amor can be all yours for $230,000 a month.
Call it a perfect storm: Stubbornly high interest rates, the devastating January fires and the mansion tax have converged to create a runaway rental market, despite legislation aimed at preventing this exact situation.
“There is an immense amount of demand for rentals right now,” says Tomer Fridman of The Fridman Group, whose rental listings include a palatial Beverly Park French Chateau–style estate. Now listed for $165,000 a month, the nine-bedroom home includes a grand ballroom and a hotel-worthy list of amenities and parklike grounds. Adds Fridman: “The Palisades is one of the most affluent exclusive enclaves in L.A. with immense wealth. The fires pushed all those families needing a place to move into, and that has spurred a frenzy in the market of luxury rentals. We have never seen anything like it.”
Pre-fire, the upper echelon on the L.A. rental market focused on two types of properties: summer rentals smack on the Malibu sands and party-prepped hilltop spreads with DJ booths, peek-a-boo pools and parking for dozens. Today, the luxury rental market is a more family-friendly affair: “You’re seeing more kid and pet amenities — dog spas, gyms, saunas and cold plunges,” says Rochelle Atlas Maize, who represents Dr. Phil’s home in Beverly Hills. At $100,000 a month, she says the home is perfectly positioned to attract a family: “It has a huge backyard and pool as well as a jungle gym for kids and a large private guest house.”
Atlas Maize believes people who lost their homes in the fires aren’t the ones primarily fueling the ultra-premium rental market. “Investment bankers and crypto traders have been leasing these properties,” she notes. “They don’t know where they want to be longer term — they want to be safe, and they’re taking the higher-end leases. People love leasing in Beverly Hills because the police is second to none in the world. You can have a $100 million home in Bel-Air with a break-in, and you can be waiting 45 minutes [for the police to arrive]. In Beverly Hills, it’s going to be two minutes.”
The rental market also gives homebuyers a chance to test-drive a new neighborhood before committing. Case in point: Before purchasing Mark Wahlberg’s home for $63 million this summer, Paris Hilton quietly rented in Beverly Park for months.
The foyer of a French Chateau–style estate in Beverly Park, listed at $165,000 a month.
Ryan Lahiff
For a certain set of luxury home-seeker (those not paying cash, that is), the math behind renting makes sense: “A lot of clients think, ‘If I buy a house for $15 million to $20 million, my payment is $75,000 month; I can rent for $35,000 a month instead while I wait for interest rates to go down,” says agent Paul Daftarian.
And while some are committed to the interest rate waiting game, Nicole Plaxen, estates director for The Beverly Hills Estates, says the mega-lease cooldown could ultimately come from a different source: “We’re in a particularly unique time because of fires and interest rates, but the No. 1 needle-mover in the market is going to be once people who lost their homes get the full insurance payout. That is when things will get back on their feet again.”
This story appeared in the Sept. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
