Rental Housing Revival Hits the Central Coast Market

MBK Rental Living is bringing a rare rental housing project to the market in the Central Coast. Located at 710 Experimental Station Road in Paso Robles, Blue Oak will feature 85 apartments and 56 townhomes. The Central Coast has a dearth of rental housing and limited new product has come to market. As a result, there is pent-up demand for rental housing options.

“The Central Coast has historically been a tight rental market, with some of the lowest rates of vacancy in the State of California,” Craig Jones, president of MBK Rental Living, tells GlobeSt.com. “When we first looked at the market, we noticed that most rental communities were fully leased with 6-12 month wait lists. There was pent-up demand for quality housing in a very desirable location. High barriers to entry, including slow growth initiatives and other entitlement hurdles, have historically limited the supply of new housing. Construction costs are also higher due to a limited supply of subcontractors in the area and getting materials to the site.”

While rental supply has been difficult to build in the market, the city leadership has actually been supportive of Blue Oak through entitlements, design and construction. “The City of Paso Robles has been fantastic to work with—very supportive of creating an apartment community that the city can be proud of,” says Jones. “We purchased the land with entitlements in hand, so much of the risk had been previously mitigated. It was a rare opportunity to build a project of this size in a market with such high demand. We were excited by the opportunity and are even more excited today to be a part of the community.”