"the grantor, assignor, or transferor described under Subsection (a)(3) was the owner or owners of the residential property described in Subsection (a)(1) on January 7, 2025"
That clause appears in the text of Proposition TE in the City of Los Angeles voter pamphlet. It decides who benefits from the measure that led after the November 3 vote. As written, the exemption from Measure ULA, the city's transfer tax on high-value sales, goes with the person who held title on the day the Palisades Fire started. It does not go with the parcel. Later buyers of burned lots fall outside it. Those buyers include the builders and families who are now filing to rebuild, and a finished house is the kind of Palisades property most likely to sell above the ULA threshold.
In the November 6 count reported by LAist, the measure was passing with 596,335 yes votes, or 61.58%, against 371,986 no votes. Those results are not final. Los Angeles County is scheduled to certify them by Friday, November 27.
Six Conditions, and One of Them Is a Date
The measure would add Section 21.9.17 to the Los Angeles Municipal Code. Under the text, a sale skips the ULA tax only if all six of these conditions are met:
- The property is residential and was damaged or destroyed by the Palisades Fire in January 2025.
- The Department of Building and Safety has verified the damage or destruction.
- The seller owns the property.
- The seller also owned it on January 7, 2025.
- The property has not already received this exemption.
- The property is not already exempt under another part of ULA.
The window runs from January 7, 2025 through January 6, 2030. The fifth condition makes the exemption one-time per property. Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades and sought the exemption, described it to the Daily News as applying "in very narrow circumstances to original owners and first transactions."
What the text leaves out also matters. During the council debate, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez argued that any exemption should be limited to homeowners whose primary residence was destroyed, and she raised concerns about use by companies, investors and owners with portfolios, according to the Daily News. The council did not write either limit into the ordinance. It voted 13 to 1 on July 1 and again on August 4, 2026 to put the measure on the ballot, as shown in Council File 26-1100-S9. The ballot text does not mention residence or entity type. The only line it draws is the date of ownership.
Land Alone Rarely Clears the Threshold
For transactions closing after June 30, 2026, the Los Angeles Office of Finance applies ULA at 4% to sales above $5.4 million and below $10.9 million, and at 5.5% to sales of $10.9 million or more. The rate applies to the whole price, so a sale just above $5.4 million owes about $216,000 in ULA, and a sale at $10.9 million owes $599,500. That is on top of the city's standard 0.45% documentary transfer tax.
Compare those numbers with what burned land is trading for. Market estimates published in October 2026 put recent Palisades lot sales at an average of about $270 per square foot of land, with a median lot price of about $1.8 million. Individual sales ranged from roughly $50 to more than $500 per square foot. At $270 per square foot, a lot would need about 20,000 square feet of land to reach $5.4 million. Even at $500 per square foot, it would need more than 10,000.
The Real Deal reported a broker's count of 566 Palisades transactions closed since the fire, and only eight of them sold above the ULA threshold. The dollar amount at stake depends almost entirely on what happens after a house goes back up. A finished home on one of these lots is far more likely than the land under it to cross $5.4 million.
Who Holds an Eligible Title Today
As of October 2026, about 700 of the roughly 4,200 properties where homes were destroyed had changed hands. Permit applications had been filed for about 1,850 properties, possibly including about 500 by owners who bought after the fire. About 2,200 original owners had neither sold nor filed to rebuild. Another 750 or so standing homes had fire, smoke or water damage. Read against the text of Section 21.9.17, those groups line up like this:
Seller | Owned on January 7, 2025? | What the TE text says |
|---|---|---|
Original owner selling a burned lot | Yes | Meets the ownership condition. LADBS must verify the damage. Most lots sell below the threshold and owe no ULA in the first place. |
Original owner of a damaged standing home | Yes | Meets the ownership condition on the same terms. Matters only for sales above the threshold. |
Original owner who rebuilds, then sells | Yes | Meets the ownership condition if the sale closes by January 6, 2030. This is the sale most likely to clear $5.4 million. |
Post-fire buyer, roughly 500 now filing permits | No | Does not meet the January 7, 2025 ownership condition. |
Anyone selling after a property's first exempt sale | Varies | The text allows the exemption once per property. |
The third and fourth rows can describe homes of the same size, on similar lots, finished in the same year. Under the text, the difference depends only on whose name was on the deed the day the fire started. For a home selling at $8 million, the 4% rate works out to $320,000.
The ordinance uses the phrase "owner or owners" and ties it to January 7, 2025. It does not separately define how a trust, an estate or a successor fits that phrase. Families holding Palisades property in trust or through probate should have counsel answer who counts as the owner on the fire date before a sale is priced.
The 2030 Deadline for Rebuild-and-Sell
The exemption covers sales from January 7, 2025 through January 6, 2030. From mid-November 2026, that leaves a little more than three years. For an original owner, the decision to sell the land now, rebuild and sell, or rebuild and stay comes down to that date. Land sales mostly fall below the threshold, so selling now rarely brings ULA into play. Rebuilding and staying involves no sale at all. Rebuilding and selling is the one path where TE's text can mean a six-figure difference, and only if design, permits, construction and closing are all complete by January 6, 2030.
The City Administrative Officer's fiscal estimate counts rebuilt homes too. It projected that TE would reduce ULA revenue by $35 million to $66 million through January 2030. The estimate is based on the average ULA paid per eligible Palisades transaction, the number of rebuilt homes listed for sale as of July 2026, and post-fire vacant-parcel sales. The higher figure assumes the average number of transactions doubles.
Sellers Who Already Paid
As written, TE applies back to January 7, 2025. The ordinance authorizes the city's Director of Finance to issue refunds on eligible claims for ULA paid before the section takes effect, using the refund procedure in Section 21.9.10 of the Municipal Code. The time limits in that procedure do not start running until the new section is in effect. The refund provision was written for original owners whose verified fire-damaged property sold above the threshold since the fire.
What Else Changed for ULA This Year
Outside this carve-out, ULA works the way it did before the election. On July 1, 2026, the City Council set aside a separate proposed exemption for new multifamily and mixed-use buildings, according to Council File 26-1100-S10. The statewide initiative that would have capped local transfer taxes was withdrawn in June, as CalMatters reported. The measure that replaced it, Proposition 43, deals with the vote required for future voter-initiated local taxes and would not repeal ULA. In the Secretary of State's unofficial November 7 results, it was trailing 56.8% to 43.2%.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does TE cover an undamaged home in the Palisades? The text covers residential property damaged or destroyed by the Palisades Fire, with the damage verified by the Department of Building and Safety. Section 21.9.17 uses the definition of "damaged" in Section 16.03 of the Municipal Code.
Does the exemption carry over to a later owner? The text requires the seller to have owned the property on January 7, 2025, and it allows the exemption once per property.
Does TE change the ULA rates or thresholds? No. It adds an exemption for one group of sellers. The rates stay at 4% and 5.5%, and the thresholds for closings after June 30, 2026 stay at $5.4 million and $10.9 million.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Owners, trustees and buyers should confirm how Section 21.9.17 applies to their own title and sale with their attorney or tax advisor.
For original owners weighing a land sale against a rebuild that has to close by January 6, 2030, and for trustees planning the sale of a fire-damaged estate property, Amir Jawaherian can map the build timeline and pricing alongside your attorney and tax advisor. Schedule a Private (Confidential) Consultation.
