MALIBU, Calif. — Los Angeles’s luxury housing market is staging a comeback, driven by cash buyers and fire-displaced families, after two years of sluggish sales.

What You Need To Know

  • LA luxury homes are selling again after a slowdown caused by the 2022 mansion tax

  • Buyers include overseas investors, and Palisades fire victims needing new homes

  • Some sellers are listing fire-scorched lots with plans for future luxury builds

  • Realtors said confidence is returning despite concerns over neighborhood changes

The revival follows a steep downturn after the City of Los Angeles introduced a 2022 law adding transfer taxes to properties over $5 million to fund affordable housing.

Dubbed the “mansion tax,” many realtors said high-end buyers have now factored in those costs and are returning to the market.

“There were two sales in LA over the past six months that were over $100 million,” said Estelle Hilton, a real estate agent specializing in luxury properties. “If they like a house, they will still pay whatever it takes.”

While several sales valued at eight figures or more have been recorded in Los Angeles County in 2025, luxury homes under $10 million have been in demand by families displaced by January’s Palisades Fire.

Many initially rented while weighing rebuilding options, but with reconstruction expected to take years, more are purchasing new homes.

Some of those buyers are also selling.

In the Palisades, some lots are hitting the market with million-dollar price tags and even pre-approved building plans. 

 

Realtor Sue Kohl, who has sold four such properties, said buyers remain confident despite the uncertainty.

“You still have the ocean, the mountains, beautiful neighborhoods,” she said. “Values are going to shoot up,” said Kohl.

Not everyone is welcoming the rush of developers.

Some longtime residents worry new construction could alter the character of the Palisades, where multimillion-dollar estates are already common.

“Not everybody is coming back to build a big luxury house,” Kohl said. “Some people just want a nice place to live.”

For now, sales momentum appears to be building across Los Angeles’s wealthiest neighborhoods, from Malibu to Bel Air.

Realtors said foreign investors remain active, betting on the long-term appeal of Southern California real estate despite recent economic and environmental setbacks.