For months, real estate lobbyists have warned that Measure ULA, the voter-approved tax on luxury property sales, would grind Los Angeles construction to a halt. But new data released this week paints a very different picture.
According to the coalition United to House LA, which led the campaign for Measure ULA, multiple indicators show the city’s housing market is not only rebounding but thriving. Residential permits, project applications, and property transactions are all up, while ULA revenues continue to grow nearly every quarter.
“As Measure ULA’s collections grow nearly every quarter, and applications flood in to take advantage of L.A.’s new zoning, it’s time for the real estate industry to stop singing its ‘sky is falling’ refrain,” said Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA. “What’s clear is that Measure ULA is building homes, protecting renters, and creating jobs.”
The numbers are hard to ignore. Residential construction permits jumped 60 percent in the third quarter of 2025 compared to a year earlier, according to a recent Hilgard report. The city’s Department of City Planning also reports a 52 percent rise in entitlements between 2022 and 2024, a sign that developers are moving forward with projects rather than pulling back.
ULA collections tell a similar story. After an early 2025 dip attributed to wildfire-related market slowdowns, total revenue has climbed almost every quarter. By the end of October, the city had collected $991 million through the tax.
At the same time, a flood of new development proposals followed the Citywide Housing Incentive Program, a zoning reform passed earlier this year. Within six months, Los Angeles received applications and pre-applications for 115 projects proposing more than 16,600 homes under the new rules.
“It’s always more important to watch what developers do than to listen to what they say,” said Joan Ling, retired urban planning professor at UCLA. “And what they are doing is buying, selling, and building homes.”
Beyond construction activity, ULA is funding tangible results. The measure has already financed 795 new affordable homes, with more than 180 now open near Santa Monica and Vermont and hundreds more breaking ground at new sites like Peak Plaza and Grace Villas. ULA funds also provided rental and income support that helped keep about 10,000 Angelenos housed.
For the coalition that wrote and passed the measure, the takeaway is clear. The luxury real estate market has adjusted to the tax, and the city is finally putting that revenue to work for renters, low-income families, and new housing production.
“The critics said ULA would freeze development,” Donlin said. “But the data shows the opposite. Los Angeles is building again.”