Apartment developers in Los Angeles and Orange counties started 2026 with a splash, filing the second-highest number of building plans in the past 36 years.
My trusty spreadsheet discovered this construction surge by reviewing building permit data from the Census Bureau. These stats estimate plans for new multifamily housing, a segment of construction that primarily consists of apartment complexes.
Permits don’t immediately translate into more choices for tenants, as the construction process is lengthy. And not every permitted project gets built. But it’s hard to complain about more planning for more housing, unless you don’t like more housing.
In the first eight months of 2026, permits were filed to construct 16,643 multifamily units in the two-county metropolitan area. Is that a building boom?
—It’s 82% higher than the same period a year earlier.
—It’s the best start to a year since 2015 – and the second best since 1990.
—It’s 32% above L.A.-Orange County’s pace over the past 10 years, when California began its homebuilding push to address its housing affordability challenges.
With a longer-term lens, the pace has increased, too. L.A.-Orange County’s 192,101 multifamily permits during the last 10 years marked a 32% increase from the previous decade, an era scarred by the Great Recession.
We will note that L.A.-Orange County’s single-family developers had 108,439 permits over the past decade, up 72% from the previous 10 years.
One active builder
Real estate giant Irvine Co. is an example of who’s building rentals.
The Newport Beach developer is constructing what will eventually be approximately 8,500 apartment units across eight Orange County projects, primarily in Irvine, as well as in Tustin and Newport Beach.
Company officials say construction of roughly 1,000 units was permitted and started last year – with a similar amount set for 2026. The same building pace is anticipated to continue for seven years.
A key trend in Irvine Co.’s apartment push is the use of old retail space and land previously designated for office buildings. The idea is to create more housing closer to where residents shop and work.
“There’s quite a group, particularly younger people, looking for that kind of living environment,” Rob Elliott, the company’s senior vice president for planning and design, said last year.
No surge elsewhere
Curiously, multifamily construction plans were slowing elsewhere in Southern California.
The Inland Empire’s 2,384 multifamily permits through August were the slowest start to a year in 2022, down 33% year over year and 8% below the 10-year average. In the longer term, the two-county region’s 39,764 permits over the past decade were 72% higher than in the previous 10 years.
San Diego County’s 4,359 multifamily permits through August were the worst start since 2020, down 17% year over year, and 1% below its 10-year average. Over the past decade, 67,365 permits represented a 74% increase over the previous 10 years.
Outside of California, 310,400 permits were filed to start in 2026 – up only 2% from the previous year. And this year’s pace is 4% slower than the 10-year average.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
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