Los Angeles landlords may be eyeing the exits as new rent rules squeeze returns, but veteran Colliers broker Kitty Wallace is telling them to do the opposite: stay, show up, and fight for their investments at City Hall.
Instead of quietly selling or heading for markets with looser regulations, Wallace is urging apartment owners to get organized. She is pushing clients to attend hearings, join apartment associations, and speak directly to policymakers who are reshaping the economics of owning rental housing in L.A.
Wallace told CoStar that owners face a stark choice: either "pack up and leave" for more landlord-friendly cities or stay and try to influence the rules. She said she has been sending email alerts and making calls to rally attendance, adding that the goal is not to turn every landlord into a political operative, but to make sure that officials hear from the people who actually pay to maintain and create housing. As CoStar explains, that is a key reason Wallace has shifted part of her focus from pure dealmaking to helping owners navigate public policy.
Wallace has worked in commercial real estate since the late 1990s and joined Colliers in 2010, according to Colliers. Industry bios describe her as a long-time multifamily specialist who has handled hundreds of apartment deals, including large institutional transactions across Southern California. That track record gives her unusually broad access to local owners and investors, and a sizable audience when she starts telling people to call their councilmember.
Market data, CoStar reports, show that Los Angeles apartment sales have started to recover but are still running below long-term averages. Vacancies are rising, especially in higher-quality properties, and rent growth has been essentially flat since 2022. With limited pricing power and higher costs, many owners are feeling a margin squeeze. Wallace argues that if landlords sit out the policy debate, new rules could push even more investors to sell or redevelop, which could slow future housing production.
How the new rules change the math
The City Council's overhaul of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance capped annual rent increases at roughly 1% to 4% and covers about 650,000 units in the city, and Mayor Karen Bass signed the ordinance into law late last year, according to NBC Los Angeles. The changes eliminate certain utility surcharges and tie allowable rent hikes to a CPI-based formula, tightening the revenue side for many RSO landlords. Those policy moves are at the center of the fight Wallace is trying to steer toward participation instead of a quiet exit.
Wallace's playbook
Rather than simply telling frustrated owners to sell and move on, Wallace is leaning on her network. She connects clients with apartment associations, sends out alerts about upcoming hearings, and urges small owners to testify or at least support advocacy groups that show up in the room. Her focus is on educating officials and the public about the real costs of repairs, financing, and redevelopment, rather than diving into partisan talking points. She and other brokers argue that when owners are organized and vocal, they can influence the practical details of rules that determine whether owning an apartment building is financially viable.
Deals and the wider market
Wallace has not stepped away from the brokerage business while she pushes landlords to organize. In May she represented the seller of the Sophia Hollywood apartments, a 28-unit, condo-quality building that sold for roughly $16 million, or about $571,000 per unit, a price that Traded flagged as the highest price-per-unit multifamily trade in Hollywood in more than three years. The deal highlights a split-screen market, where select assets can still command top dollar even as many owners rethink whether to hold, sell, or reposition their properties.
What’s next
For now, Wallace is treating hearing attendance and local advocacy work as the most immediate line of defense for owners who want to keep their buildings in Los Angeles. Policymakers and developers will still largely determine how and whether investment returns recover, but the outcome will depend as much on politics and organizing as on spreadsheets and underwriting. For landlords who want a say in that process, Wallace is making it clear that staying put also means speaking up, and her phone is likely to stay busy with owners trying to figure out how to do both.
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