Surplus Property Assets of the City of Los Angeles 20+ Years

2003 - Controller Chick's audit highlights City of Los Angeles...

• Has no real understanding of the value of the surplus property.
• Has no comprehensive or comprehensible inventory of that property.
• Enters into leases with no over-arching plan that predicts the city's workforce space needs
• Has over 2,000 designated surplus properties
  • Not put to better use
  • Nor selling and using the revenue from those real estate sales to, for instance, help hire more police officers in accordance with mayor Hahn's agenda...." L.A. City Controller's Audit Finds City Mismanaging Its Extensive Real Estate Holdings | The Planning Report
• 30-step process before a piece of surplus property can be sold.
• The city is selling only 11 surplus properties a year. Surplus Property Sits Idle, Audit Finds - Los Angeles Times

2007 - Chick Says City Must Prioritize Affordable Housing 

• The Housing Department does not have an adequate means of measuring its effectiveness
• The program to develop city surplus properties has failed
• Efforts to preserve the existing affordable housing inventory have had limited results
• Its existing technology systems are inadequate, inefficient and do not interface with each other." Chick Says City Must Prioritize Affordable Housing - I

The Chick audit contains 28 recommendations to help achieve the goal of providing more affordable housing in Los Angeles.

2019 - Controller Galperin Maps Publicly- Owned Properties & Creates Oversight of City's Real Estate Portfolio  

• The Property Panel maps publicly owned properties
• The online, interactive tool maps are designed to spur
  • Innovative ideas that create new economic development 
  • Affordable and homeless housing
  • Revenue generation and other opportunities to improve communities.
• The Property Panel is now inactive in 2026
• Galperin is now a Special Advisor to Councilmember Bob Blumenfield
• 14,000 publicly-owned properties located within the City of Los Angeles
• 7,500 of which are owned by the City itself.
• >6,000 others owned by five other public agencies.

• Controller Proposes Creating New Entity to Oversee City’s Real Estate Portfolio | City of Los Angeles
  • L.A. Controller Ron Galperin proposes the creation of a nonprofit organization — the Los Angeles Municipal Development Corporation (LAMDC) — to oversee L.A.’s massive real estate portfolio.
    • Which included "The Exhibition": "The world’s first innovation hub dedicated to incubating, showcasing, and implementing the next generation of housing solutions." Visit The Virtual Online Version:
      • The Rapid Shelter Innovation Showcase
      • The Backyard Home Showcase
      • The Essential Housing Campaign
      • Housing Factory World Tour
      • Virtual Village
      • View and download the User’s Guide to Sale or Development of City Property

2026 - The 7,500 City owned properties declared in 2019 is not a similarly confirmed number in 2026. Nor is there any access of the details. However, there are numerous maps and data compilations at

Published Data Sources Los Angeles City Controller's Office

Real Estate Services – Department of General Services

The division maintains a list of all City owned surplus property organized into two categories. 

• Declared Surplus Property (PDF): Properties declared “surplus” by the Mayor and Council and available for sale.
• Undeclared Surplus Property (PDF): Properties not yet available for sale.

Published Data Sources Los Angeles City Controller's Office

Leasing
The Leasing Unit manages lease transactions in support of elected officials and Council controlled City departments. There are three separate lease portfolios:

• Payable – primarily office space for City employees in privately owned buildings
• Receivable – retail locations in City owned buildings, communication sites
• Non-Profit – decommissioned City owned buildings or space within City owned buildings leased to non-profits providing community services

Sales and Acquisitions

Provides real estate transactional support to elected officials and Council-controlled City departments for the acquisition and sale of property under GSD’s jurisdiction that is required for City purposes. Click here to register for the next real estate surplus property auction.

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