The short version
Violet on Virgil, a 302-unit apartment complex at 160 S. Virgil Ave. in Rampart Village, has sold for $60 million, or about $198,675 per unit. The seller was LivCor, the apartment arm of investment giant Blackstone, and the buyer was Beverly Hills-based Post Investment Group, according to Multi-Housing News, which first reported the deal early on Oct. 21 using data from Yardi Matrix, a commercial property data service. The Real Deal reported the same price and loan terms later that day. The exact closing date was not disclosed.
The price is about 33% below the $90 million the property fetched in its previous sale. For LA agents, the deal is a clear data point on where older, rent-stabilized apartment buildings near Koreatown are trading in late 2026, and why.
The property and the players
Violet on Virgil sits on nearly 3 acres between Koreatown and Westlake, a few miles west of downtown, inside the City of Los Angeles. It has two low-rise buildings completed in 1971, with studio, one- and two-bedroom units that average 633 square feet, plus two pools, a gym and a recreation room, per Multi-Housing News.
Post Investment Group is part of Post Real Estate Group, which describes itself as an owner and operator of multifamily and affordable housing, with about 40,200 units in 15 states. It has been buying older LA-area complexes this year. In May it paid about $69 million for the 390-unit San Regis apartments in Van Nuys, The Real Deal reported, and it bought the 296-unit Chaparral Apartments in Palmdale the year before.
Post financed Violet on Virgil with a $47.3 million Freddie Mac loan originated by KeyBank, which covers roughly 79% of the price. Freddie Mac is the government-sponsored company that buys apartment and home loans from lenders, which keeps long-term financing available for deals like this one. Post has not announced plans for the property, and no local support or opposition to the sale has been reported.
The backstory: a $90 million sale in a different market
The complex, then called Aspen Apartments, last sold for $90 million. MWest Holdings, which had bought it in 2015 and upgraded it, announced that sale in January 2019, when the property was 94% leased, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. Multi-Housing News, citing Yardi Matrix, dates LivCor's $90 million purchase to 2018. Reports differ slightly on the timing and buyer entity of that earlier deal, but the $90 million figure is consistent.
That works out to about $298,000 per unit then versus about $198,700 now. At the time, interest rates were low and investors were paying up for older buildings they expected to improve and re-rent at higher prices.
Why the price fell by a third
The reports point to three pressures.
The first is new supply. Developers have delivered a wave of new apartments in and around Koreatown. Colliers, a commercial real estate firm, found in its third-quarter report, as summarized by Commercial Observer, that the Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire submarket added 1,869 units in the quarter, more than any other part of LA County, with occupancy around 92%. Countywide, average effective rent (rent after discounts such as free months) was about $2,428 a month, roughly where it was a year earlier. When new buildings nearby offer concessions, older ones struggle to raise rents.
The second is borrowing costs. Multi-Housing News notes that owners who financed with cheap debt now face higher refinancing rates, and some choose to sell rather than refinance.
The third is cap rates. A cap rate is a building's yearly net operating income divided by its price, so a higher cap rate means buyers pay less for each dollar of income. Koreatown and Mid-Wilshire posted a 6.7% average cap rate in the first half of 2026, the highest in the LA market, according to a report by the brokerage Marcus & Millichap's Tuvia Group cited by Multi-Housing News.
The discount is not a one-off. In June, Pacific Urban Investors paid $139 million for Next on Sixth, a 398-unit building at 620 S. Virgil Ave. that Equity Residential bought for $189 million in 2019, The Real Deal reported.
How it compares
- Violet on Virgil: about $198,700 per unit, for buildings from 1971.
- Next on Sixth: about $349,000 per unit, for a building finished in 2017.
- Colliers' average for 2026 sales of LA County properties with 50 or more units: $357,085 per unit, per Commercial Observer.
- The quarter's priciest LA apartment deal, 5550 Wilshire in Miracle Mile: $114 million, or $699,387 per unit, per The Real Deal's summary of a Kidder Mathews report.
Kidder Mathews, a West Coast brokerage, put metro LA apartment vacancy at 5.4% in its third-quarter Los Angeles multifamily report, up from 5.2% a year earlier, based on CoStar data.
The other side: buyers see opportunity
Not everyone reads these sales as distress. Koreatown and Mid-Wilshire logged the most closed deals of any LA submarket through June, according to the Tuvia report, as investors accepted supply risk in exchange for higher starting yields. Colliers also found the construction pipeline shrinking, with 23,426 units under construction countywide at the end of the third quarter, down from 25,421 a year earlier. Fewer new buildings later could help older ones regain pricing power. Whether that happens depends on how fast the current wave of units fills.
Rent control shapes what a buyer can do
Because the buildings date to 1971, they are generally covered by LA's Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), which applies to most rental units in the City of Los Angeles built on or before Oct. 1, 1978, according to the LA Housing Department (LAHD). A sale does not take a building out of the RSO. Anyone can check an address on ZIMAS, the city's online zoning map.
Under the RSO, rents on occupied units can rise once every 12 months by a set percentage, which is 3% through June 30, 2027, per LAHD's renter protections page. The City Council also changed the formula, effective Feb. 2, 2026: increases are now set at 90% of inflation, with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 4%, down from the old 3% floor and 8% ceiling, and landlords can no longer add extra percentages for utilities. The rule exists to slow rent growth for existing tenants while still tracking inflation.
Supporters, including Councilmember Nithya Raman's office, present the change as a stronger renter protection. The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, a major landlord trade group, called it a "severely reduced" formula after the council's 12-2 final vote in December 2025.
The main way an RSO unit's rent resets to market is turnover. When a tenant moves out voluntarily or accepts a buyout agreement, the owner can re-rent at market rate, per LAHD. That makes a buyer's math on buildings like this depend heavily on how many units turn over, and how fast.
Where the mansion tax fits
Because Violet on Virgil is inside the City of Los Angeles, a sale at this price would generally fall in the top bracket of Measure ULA, the city's extra transfer tax on high-value sales. Since July 1, 2026, ULA charges 5.5% on sales of $10.9 million or more, on top of the city's base 0.45% transfer tax, according to the city's Office of Finance. On $60 million, that would be about $3.3 million in ULA plus $270,000 in base tax. Some buyers, such as qualifying nonprofits, affordable housing organizations and public agencies, are exempt, and the deal reports did not say how the tax was handled. For the wider debate, see our explainer on ULA and the RAND study.
What happens next
- Post has not announced renovation, rent or affordability plans for the property. No date set.
- New owners of RSO buildings must register their units with LAHD within 45 days, per the LAHD RSO overview.
- LAHD will publish the next allowable RSO increase under the new formula for the period after June 30, 2027. No date set.
What it means for LA agents
- Price older apartment listings off current per-unit comps, not 2018 to 2021 trades. Age matters: 1970s buildings near Koreatown are trading far below newer product a few blocks away.
- Confirm RSO status on ZIMAS before marketing a small multifamily listing, and show buyers a rent roll that reflects the 3% cap, the new 1% to 4% formula and the end of utility add-ons.
- Check whether an address is in the City of LA before pricing above $5.4 million. ULA's 4% bracket applies to the full price above that line, so a sale just over it can net the seller less than one just under.
- For investor buyers, turnover drives value in rent-stabilized buildings. A vacated unit that is repaired and rent-ready quickly can be re-leased at market sooner.
- Watch concessions in Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire. Free rent at new buildings nearby limits what older buildings can charge, and that shows up in cap rates and sale prices.
Figures are as reported and may change. Check the official LAHD and Office of Finance pages, or a tax professional, before relying on any rent or tax number.