Executive Summary
1601 Camden Avenue is a 7,411 SF corner lot in the [Q]R3-1-O zone in Westwood, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard and east of the 405. It is improved with a 1948 duplex of 3,164 SF, both units registered under the City's Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO).
The value is the land. The site is in a Transit Oriented Incentive Area (Tier 2) under the City's Mixed Income Incentive Program, within half a mile of a major transit stop, in a TCAC/HCD Highest Resource area, and it is one of the City's Lower Income Rezoning Housing Element sites, which allow ministerial approval for qualifying projects. The City's rezoning inventory assumes 19 units here. Five development pathways apply, from keeping the duplex and adding two ADUs to a 100% affordable building of about 40 units. A for-sale small-lot subdivision under SB 684 and SB 1123, which we modeled in full, is not available while the RSO duplex stands. Redevelopment sites nearby sold for a median of $265.52 per land SF from 2025 on. We recommend pricing the property at $2,000,000 ($269.87 per land SF).
Subject Property
Location
The site sits in the apartment district of Westwood south of Wilshire Boulevard, a neighborhood of three- and four-story buildings between Westwood Village and Santa Monica Boulevard. Westwood Village is about 0.7 miles north and UCLA about 1.6 miles north. The Wilshire corridor at Westwood is about 0.65 miles away, Westfield Century City about 1.6 miles east, and the Expo Line's Westwood/Rancho Park station about 1.4 miles south.
Walkable and well served. Walk Score rates the block 88 ("Very Walkable"), with a Transit Score of 72 ("Excellent Transit") and a Bike Score of 80.
A renter's neighborhood with high rents. About 76% of households in ZIP 90025 rent, and the median household income is about $104,000 (2024 American Community Survey). HUD's 2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents in 90025 are $3,550 for a one-bedroom and $4,380 for a two-bedroom, about 48% above the metro-wide figures.
Builders are already active nearby. 0.15 miles away, 1521-1523 S Veteran Ave, an RSO duplex on the same zoning, sold in October 2024 with a 47-unit plan on file from 2022. At 1723 S Corinth, 0.46 miles away, a 42-unit affordable building has its permit.
Development Pathways
R3 zoning, the City's transit incentives, the state density bonus and the site's Housing Element status give a buyer a ladder of options, from keeping the duplex to a 40-unit affordable building. Unit counts are planning-level estimates on 7,411 SF, to be confirmed by the buyer's architect and land-use counsel; the [Q] condition on the zoning still has to be read, and it may lower the base density the bonuses build on.
- State law allows two detached ADUs on a lot with an existing multifamily building, built behind the duplex in the yard.
- The duplex stays, so no Ellis Act withdrawal; the RSO stays with the property. Because the lot is in the fault zone, the ADUs will likely need a fault study.
- Buyers nearby are doing exactly this: 1912 S Barry, 1929 S Butler and 1726 S Granville all filed for two ADUs after their 2025 and 2026 purchases.
- R3 allows one unit per 800 SF of lot, or 9 units on 7,411 SF, before the [Q] condition is applied.
- Built with 20% of the units for Lower Income households, the project qualifies for ministerial approval as a Housing Element site.
- No parking is required within half a mile of a major transit stop (AB 2097).
- The Mixed Income Incentive Program replaced TOC in 2025. In a Higher Opportunity Area, its Tier 2 transit incentives cap density by floor area instead of a unit count, as long as the base zoning allows at least five units.
- Our estimate of 25 to 35 units depends on the floor area the program allows on R3 land; under the old TOC rules the same lot came to about 11 to 16.
- A share of covenanted affordable units, with the rest market rate in a Highest Resource neighborhood.
- The state density bonus, stacked with the added bonus for more affordable units (AB 1287), roughly doubles base density.
- For reference, the City's rezoning inventory assumes 19 units on this site.
- Incentives and waivers for height and setbacks; no parking required.
- The 1723 S Corinth model: 42 units, five stories, 100% affordable, on 7,359 SF of [Q]R3 land 0.46 miles away; permit issued May 2026.
- TCAC/HCD Highest Resource, the area tax-credit and bond buyers look for.
- The Corinth permit shows a site with RSO units can qualify; eligibility, any Ellis look-back and replacement units are confirmed case by case.
Pathways Side by Side
| Pathway | Units | Affordable Set-Aside | Existing Duplex | Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A · Duplex plus two ADUs | 4 | None | Kept | By right |
| B · R3 apartment building | ~6 to 9 | None, or 20% Lower Income for ministerial approval | Removed | By right or ministerial |
| C · MIIP Transit Area 2 | ~25 to 35 | Per MIIP incentive set | Removed | Administrative |
| D · State density bonus | ~18 to 20 | Per bonus tier | Removed | Ministerial or administrative |
| E · 100% affordable (ED 1 / AHIP) | ~38 to 42 | 100% | Removed | Ministerial |
| SB 684 / SB 1123 for-sale homes (modeled below) | 6 homes | None | Removed | Not available: RSO |
SB 684 / SB 1123 Small-Lot Homes
SB 684 (2024) lets a builder on a multifamily-zoned lot like this one subdivide into as many as 10 small lots and sell each home separately, with ministerial approval, homes averaging no more than 1,750 SF, 4 ft side and rear setbacks and no more than one parking space per home; SB 1123 (2025) extended it to vacant single-family lots. Because it turns land into for-sale homes, it is often the highest-value use of a lot this size, so we modeled it in full with our SB 1123 underwriting tool, which covers both laws, to show what it would produce here and what the land would be worth to a home builder.
What It Would Pencil To
| Exit Scenario | Low | Base | High | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exit $/SF of living area | $770 | $1,000 | $1,100 | $1,175 |
| Price per home | $1,154,230 | $1,499,000 | $1,648,900 | $1,761,325 |
| Gross sellout, 6 homes | $6,925,380 | $8,994,000 | $9,893,400 | $10,567,950 |
| Profit at a $2,000,000 land price | ($295,270) | $1,644,062 | $2,487,249 | $3,119,640 |
| Margin on cost | -4.3% | 24.2% | 36.6% | 46.0% |
| Land value at a 15% builder margin | $877,877 | $2,564,252 | $3,297,458 | $3,847,363 |
Exits from LA County sale records, 2025 on: Low is a 2018 condo at 1553 Armacost Ave #202 ($770/SF, February 2025); Base is newer Westwood and West LA condos, 1644 Bentley Ave PH, 0.08 miles away ($1,007/SF, January 2025) and 1839 Pandora Ave C ($1,040/SF, December 2025); High and Best are new detached homes, 2126 Pelham Ave ($1,174/SF, May 2025) and 2255 Camden Ave ($1,182/SF, January 2025). Costs are concept-level: $350/SF all-in hard cost, $390,000 for entitlement, design and engineering, $589,499 in permits and fees, $45,000 for demolition and a 33-month schedule; not bids. Homes are designed at 1,499 SF to stay under the Linkage Fee threshold. A fault investigation and methane mitigation are not separately budgeted.
What it would have been worth. At the base exit, a home builder could pay about $2.56M for this land and still earn a 15% margin. Because the route is closed, that is a reference figure only; the price stands on the multifamily pathways.
Why it stays off the table. Both units are registered under the RSO, and an Ellis Act withdrawal starts a 15-year bar. A home builder cannot use this route, and buyers will not pay for it.
Where the for-sale idea still fits. A buyer who wants for-sale product can build condominiums through Pathway C or D and map them as a condo tract, which SB 684 does not govern.
Land Sales Comparables
Six closed redevelopment sites within about 1.5 miles, recorded from March 2025 to July 2026, plus two older sales that bear directly on this site. In each one the buyer pulled permits to demolish the existing building or to build new on the land. Sales where the buyer kept the building and only added ADUs behind it are shown separately below, because they were bought by a different buyer for a different plan.
| # | Address | Zoning | Lot SF | Sale Price | $/Land SF | Closed | Site and Plans | Dist. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | 1601 Camden Ave (subject) | [Q]R3 | 7,411 | $2,000,000 | $269.87 | Proposed | 1948 RSO duplex, corner lot | |
| B | 1723 S Corinth Ave | [Q]R3 | 7,359 | $2,500,000 | $339.72 | Mar 2025 | 10-unit RSO building; demolition permit Dec 2025; 42-unit 100% affordable permit May 2026 | 0.46 mi |
| C | 2040 S Purdue Ave | R2 | 6,986 | $1,700,000 | $243.34 | Oct 2025 | House demolished; duplex plus 2-unit ADU building | 0.76 mi |
| E | 1836 S Thayer Ave | R3 | 6,753 | $1,825,000 | $270.25 | Jul 2026 | House demolished; four new four-story homes and an ADU permitted Sep 2026 | 1.11 mi |
| F | 11729 W Tennessee Ave | R3 | 4,985 | $1,300,000 | $260.78 | Oct 2025 | House demolished; two new homes | 1.25 mi |
| G | 11739 W Tennessee Ave | R3 | 5,439 | $1,300,000 | $239.01 | Dec 2025 | House demolished; two new homes | 1.26 mi |
| I | 12222-12226 W Exposition Blvd (2 lots) | R3 | 9,415 | $4,100,000 | $435.48 | May 2025 | Two houses, $2,050,000 each on separate deeds; both demolished 2026. High outlier | 1.43 mi |
| Median, 2025 on (six sales) | $265.52 | |||||||
| A | 1521-1523 S Veteran Ave | [Q]R3 | 8,501 | $2,570,000 | $302.32 | Oct 2024 | RSO duplex; a 47-unit, six-story plan was on file from 2022 at the sale; duplex demolition permit Jan 2026 | 0.15 mi |
| 2245 S Amherst Ave | R3 | 6,249 | $1,894,000 | $303.09 | Feb 2024 | House demolished; 38-unit affordable building permitted Feb 2025 | 1.45 mi |
Recorded prices and dates from LA County Assessor transfer records; lot sizes per the Assessor; zoning per ZIMAS and LADBS; plans per LADBS permits issued, plus the 2022 plan filing at 1521-1523 S Veteran, as of November 2026. $/SF is the recorded price over Assessor lot area. The six 2025-on sales: median $265.52, average $298.10; without the Exposition outlier, average $270.62. The two 2024 sales are shown for what they show (the closest same-zone RSO duplex, and a second 100% affordable site) and are left out of the median; the county's verification code on the Veteran deed is blank. Reviewed and left out: 1722 S Westgate (D on the map, a new home with an ADU but no demolition of a house on record) and 11814-11824 W Iowa (H, three lots at $1,167,000 each, where only garages were demolished).
Keep-and-Add Sales: Buyers Who Kept the Building
| Address | Zoning | Lot SF | Units | Sale Price | $/Land SF | Closed | Plan | Dist. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1726 S Granville Ave | [Q]R3 | 5,900 | 5 | $1,250,000 | $211.86 | Sep 2025 | Detached ADUs filed | 0.94 mi |
| 1929 S Butler Ave | R2 | 6,614 | 2 | $1,530,000 | $231.33 | Feb 2026 | Two detached ADUs | 0.71 mi |
| 1938 S Butler Ave | R2 | 6,046 | 1 | $1,525,000 | $252.23 | Feb 2025 | 2-unit ADU building | 0.71 mi |
| 1912 S Barry Ave | R2 | 9,072 | 2 | $1,615,000 | $178.02 | Oct 2025 | Two detached ADUs | 0.84 mi |
| 1936 S Barrington Ave | R2 | 6,048 | 1 | $1,254,500 | $207.42 | Jun 2025 | New home with ADU at the rear | 0.92 mi |
Same sources. Median $211.86 per land SF. These buyers paid for the building plus room for ADUs, which is the Pathway A buyer for this property.
Active Land Listing Nearby
| Address | Lot SF | Asking | $/Land SF | Notes | Dist. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1656 Sawtelle Blvd LAAA Team Listing | 7,005 | $2,995,000 | $427.55 | Cleared, unentitled lot; about 38 units via MIIP, about 52 via AB 1287 | 0.34 mi |
Asking price as advertised on www.laaa.com, November 9, 2026. A cleared lot with more density allowed is priced at a premium to a site that still carries rent-stabilized units.
Key Takeaways
Redevelopment land here trades at $239 to $340 per SF. The six 2025 and 2026 sales median $265.52 per land SF, with the two-lot Exposition sale at $435.48 as a high outlier. The two [Q]R3 sites within half a mile, both carrying rent-stabilized units, sold higher: $302.32 (1521-1523 S Veteran, 2024) and $339.72 (1723 S Corinth).
RSO buildings are selling as sites. Corinth's buyer bought 10 rent-stabilized units, pulled a demolition permit and has a permit for 42 affordable units. Veteran sold with a 47-unit plan on file from 2022, and its duplex now has a demolition permit.
The upside is density. At $2,000,000, a buyer pays about $57,000 to $80,000 per unit on a 25 to 35-unit MIIP building, about $105,000 on the 19 units the City's rezoning assumes, and about $50,000 per unit on a 40-unit affordable building.
The price needs a developer buyer. Buyers who kept their buildings and added ADUs paid $178 to $252 per land SF (median $211.86). $2,000,000 is a land price, and it holds when the site is marketed to builders with answers on the second unit's occupancy, the fault trace and the [Q] condition in hand.
Pricing Recommendation
At $2,000,000 the lot is priced at $269.87 per land SF, right at the median of the six redevelopment sites that sold nearby in 2025 and 2026 ($265.52) and below the two [Q]R3 sites within half a mile, 1521-1523 S Veteran at $302.32 and 1723 S Corinth at $339.72. Both of those carried rent-stabilized units, as this one does, and both had a larger plan on file when they sold; this lot brings a corner location, the City's transit incentives and a Highest Resource address.
The per-unit price on the multifamily pathways supports the same number, and our small-lot home model, though that route is closed here, would support a higher land value at a base exit. Buyers who would keep the duplex have paid less, so the property should be marketed to developers. The sale is well below the City's Measure ULA threshold of $5,400,000, so no ULA tax applies.
Marketing Reach
Every LAAA Team exclusive listing is syndicated across 10 listing platforms, backed by direct outreach to our database of multifamily developers, affordable housing sponsors, tax-credit developers, small-lot home builders and 1031 investors.
Also Marketed by the LAAA Team
The LAAA Team is currently marketing 7 land and development-site listings across Southern California, including 1656 Sawtelle Blvd, about a third of a mile from this site. Each card links to the full offering at www.laaa.com.
Active laaa.com land listings as verified November 9, 2026, excluding properties in escrow.
The LAAA Team
