It was called the mansion tax. They didn't read the 29 pages. Should we tax rich to pay for affordable housing? Yes or no? Well, yes. People are out there lying, saying it's created 10,000 jobs, which is absurd. When Measure ULA took effect, transaction volume in the city of Los Angeles above $5 million where Measure ULA works fell by 50%. Well, they projected would be up to a billion a year.
900,000 is all that's been spent on affordable housing. That has grave impacts to our economy that the people who drafted measure ULA did not fully account for.
So what uh makes you because you are very a an advocate for or against um a lot of things that are pro- housing, right? So is that I'm for pro You're for proh housing, excuse me. Yeah. Against measure ULA and things like that. That's sty housing. Yes. Is that just because you started in that business or what what because you're in the kitchen industrial space?
…lot of money for these social goods like helping low-income people who need housing. And um that that's that's all well and good, but you know what Measure ULA did, which was kind of a a riff on what San Francisco did with their Prop C back in 2018, was they they kind of defined mansion very broadly as any property over $5 million. And so that means that instead of just taxing the rich guy who's buying a $5 million house, they're also taxing the small business person who's trying to build an apartment building…
your thoughts on it well was it was it two years ago that measure Ula passed it was it was the The Mansion tax in the city of La and so I think a lot of people thought oh yeah all those wealthy people they when they sell their mansion they're going to make money anyway so let them pay a tax right most of the people who are voting aren't don't have manages and we never never think that they're ever going to vote so why not vote for that and and and be able to help fund programs for the homeless which is where the…
the problem with measure Ula is obviously is in our industry in the apartment industry it's it's it's a huge huge uh disincentive and we knew it when it passed but now um my friend M Smith just did an analysis and uh it's the the if you compare even apartment buildings that over 5 million which is what's the first um threshold for the tax to kick in versus apartments that were below that threshold uh even within the same industry the uh reduction in number of sales since that past for the threshold over 5 million…
…for affordability and homelessness will come as a partnership with a private Market the private Market is now alienated is alienated now this measure Ula you know is not as noticeable now because development is down but it it's down nationwide but when things pick up it's still going to be down here unless we get rid of that or change change that measure and so the balance is no longer there just at this point after what apartment owners have gone through with covid with multiple years of no
…transfer tax. So, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, no more sales. I used to I used to probably sell 10 buildings a year in LA for many years and now since ULA I don't think I've sold one. Wow. Like I even have a few that I'd love to sell. So like now anything I buy in LA I can't sell. I'm sorry. Yeah. Um and I have I have three seven in LA that close in the next two weeks. Um, so including an office building that you asked me about earlier, a retail building that's going to be big news. It's small, but it's sentimental.
…get these things built. Are you involved in that at all or like how do we fix the actual sheer volume of of buildings that which brings me back to ULA a little bit because obviously ULA is very beneficial for you because it gives you an advantage when you're buying buildings but for everyone else they're like oh like this is you know makes I don't want to build cuz it doesn't Hackler can't buy every new building that that's being built. So, how do we fix the shortage of the housing situation? Are you guys involved…
Yeah, it's it's a little bit complicated because you're right, ULA benefits me or Hackla as a buyer obviously and and I have a responsibility the public to
what you've seen from Ula um the effects to me have been driving away some more of the institutional dollars right so some people are like why why are we going to pay this like so that's one two it's definitely reduced deal volume you just look at the data right there are less deals trading when you ask people it's like I don't want to pay the Ula at this point like why right now some people thought go away I never thought it'll go away cuz he pass a tax and it sticks um I don't know if there will be city council…