528, 530 and 532 The Strand, Hermosa Beach: an oceanfront triplex under contract

By Neil Chhabria, Broker and CEO, Chhabria Real Estate Company. Published April 13, 2026.

Under Contract

Updated October 3, 2026.

Volleyball nets going up south of the Hermosa Pier. Bikes stacked against a garage door on 6th Court. The Strand filling with local foot traffic by nine on a Saturday.

528, 530 and 532 The Strand went under contract on September 14, 2026 at $5,299,000, twenty four days after coming back to market. Before that it had been listed for 127 days and did not sell. What changed in between was the asking price and the way the property was presented, and both were a judgment call.

What is the property?

Three units on one parcel, each with its own address and its own front door. The two upper level residences are one bedroom each, both with a remodeled kitchen, a dishwasher and laundry inside the unit. One of the two looks straight down the Strand. The other carries a deck twice the size.

The beach level unit is the larger of the three, two bedrooms and two baths, with updated appliances, a fireplace and a private patio that opens onto the Strand itself. Every unit has outdoor space of its own. Three garage spaces sit on site. The parcel is in the coastal zone, where work above a certain threshold needs a coastal development permit, and in a designated flood zone.

What the first campaign did

The parcel came to market on April 13, 2026 at $5,899,000, listed as residential income with all three units vacant. Vacant was the lead. A buyer could lease the units, remodel them, or hold the parcel and plan a build without waiting for anyone to move out. The price came down to $5,600,000 on May 21. That campaign ran 127 days without a sale.

Nothing in that campaign was wrong. It was aimed at a buyer who wanted an empty oceanfront parcel and the freedom to decide later, and that buyer did not come.

What changed

The parcel went back on the market on August 21, 2026 at $5,299,000, under two listing numbers instead of one, SB26181602 addressed 532 The Strand and SB26181465 addressed 528. It went under contract on September 14.

Against the April price that is $600,000, a little over 10 percent. Against the May price it is $301,000. Twenty four days on the second campaign, against 127 on the first.

Why changing course is the job

A listing that runs 127 days without a sale has told you something. After that the choice is to hold the same price and the same message and wait longer, or to change them. Changing them means saying out loud that the first approach did not reach the buyer.

No version of that conversation is about the agent. The seller has carrying costs and a plan that depends on this closing, and the calendar does not care whose idea the first campaign was.

In our experience, the buyer pool on this sand thins fast above $5 million. Oceanfront reads like the thing everyone wants, and there is little enough of it that it should move on its own. The arithmetic does not work that way. The higher the number, the fewer people can write it, and a million dollars of difference is a million dollars. At the top of this market that difference is what separates a pool of buyers from a pool of one.

So the work at this price is not advertising to a crowd. It is finding the one or two people in Los Angeles who want three doors on the Hermosa sand this year and can fund it, then being willing to move the price and the pitch when the first version does not reach them.

What the buyer is buying

Three legal addresses on one parcel. Los Angeles County classifies it as residential income and not a personal residence, so it can be the replacement property in a 1031 exchange, named for the section of the Internal Revenue Code that allows an owner to sell investment property and roll the proceeds into other investment property without recognizing the gain at the time of sale. A house on this same sand, bought to live in, cannot do that.

The listing carries $187,200 in gross scheduled income. That figure is pro forma and not money coming in. The units are delivered vacant, and $187,200 is what the three doors are projected to carry, $15,600 a month across them. Against $5,299,000 that works out to roughly 3.5 percent gross before expenses.

In our experience, nobody buys Strand frontage for a 3.5 percent gross return. What the income classification does is open the property to exchange money, give a lender a second way to size a loan, and let an owner hold three doors on the sand while deciding what the parcel becomes. Exchange eligibility turns on the buyer’s own facts and intent, so it is a question for a tax advisor and not for a listing.

Where the read came from

Chhabria Real Estate Company has sold homes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and in the Beach Cities since 1984, and has represented more than 130 transactions along The Strand and The Esplanade, on both sides of the Manhattan and Hermosa line and down onto the Redondo bluff. Raju Chhabria was licensed in November 1984. Neil and Anand Chhabria carry that work forward here today.

Knowing what Strand frontage is worth sets the opening price. Knowing how few people are in the market for it in a given year is what tells you when to stop waiting and change the campaign.

Update: under contract

Updated October 3, 2026: 528 and 532 The Strand went under contract on September 14, 2026, twenty four days after returning to market at $5,299,000. Closing figures will be added here once the sale records.

Common questions

Can a property on The Strand be used in a 1031 exchange?

Only if it is held for investment. A beachfront house bought as a personal residence does not qualify as replacement property. A parcel the county classifies as residential income, like 528, 530 and 532 The Strand, can qualify. Eligibility turns on the buyer’s own facts and intent, so it is a question for a tax advisor and not for a listing.

What happens when a listing does not sell in its first campaign?

The seller decides whether to wait or to change the price and the presentation, and a new listing starts the days on market count over while cumulative days stay with the property. On 528 The Strand the first 2026 campaign ran 127 days at $5,899,000 and then $5,600,000 without a sale. The parcel returned at $5,299,000 on August 21 and went under contract on September 14.

If you own something like this

The seller met the market where it stood, and a campaign that had not found the buyer was allowed to end. In our experience that second one is what stalls most listings, because by month three a price has turned into a position and a marketing plan has turned into a habit. The 127 days bought one piece of information, which is that the first version was in front of the wrong buyers. The second version found the right one in 24 days.

If you own income property on the sand, or you are selling an investment property elsewhere in Los Angeles and would like the replacement to be on the water, the classification on the county record is worth checking before anything else happens. Send me the address and we will tell you what the frontage and the rent roll are worth on the current record. The Selling a Home page covers how we take a Strand property to market.

Sources

• California Regional MLS listing records SB26181465 and SB26181602, and prior listing SB26076996, from our own Matrix pull on October 3, 2026
• Los Angeles County Assessor record for 528, 530 and 532 The Strand, Hermosa Beach
• Inman, June 25, 2012, for the REAL Trends and Wall Street Journal individual sales volume ranking

Written April 2026; updated October 3, 2026 with the current listing status and figures from our October 3, 2026 CRMLS Matrix pull. Square footage, unit count and year built are per assessor and listing records and have not been independently verified; buyer to verify. Income figures are pro forma, not warranted, and are not a representation of future income. 1031 exchange eligibility depends on the buyer’s own facts and intent; consult your tax advisor. The property is in a designated flood zone and in the coastal zone, with California Coastal Commission restrictions; see disclosures. Listed by Neil Chhabria, Chhabria Real Estate Company, DRE 01821437. This article is general real estate information about one listing, not tax, legal, lending or investment advice, and not a statement about the value of any other property. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Keep reading

• Hermosa Beach Sand Section
• Hermosa Beach
• The Strand
• 3310 The Strand, Hermosa Beach
• How long will it take to sell
• South Bay Market Insights