The Costs Keep Growing

Between 2020 and 2023, multifamily insurance premiums in California jumped on average 12.5 percent annually, according to a national survey of affordable-housing providers. Many in L.A. — including small property owners — report year-over-year double-digit increases in 2024 and 2025, driven by wildfire risk, rising reconstruction costs, tighter underwriting, and diminishing capacity in the insurance market. 

At the same time, maintenance, repairs, and capital-improvement expenses have soared. A recent analysis of California multifamily properties found that the cost of maintenance now reflects substantial increases in labor, material, and supply-chain pressures. Where once landlords might tile a bathroom or replace a roof, today even routine upkeep comes with sticker shock.

Those aren’t the only pressures. Because of persistent inflation, labor costs across construction, maintenance, and facilities management continue to rise, and financing for upgrades — tied to increasing mortgage rates and more expensive lines of credit — is far less attractive. 

This is the context into which new regulatory caps on rent increases arrive — a context defined not by stability, but by accelerating expenses.