Santa Monica Airport Closing in 2028: What Buyers and Sellers Need to Know About the Real Estate Impact
If you own property near Santa Monica Airport or you're considering buying in the area, one of the most consequential land-use decisions in West Los Angeles history is quietly unfolding right now, and it deserves your full attention.
Santa Monica Airport is set to close on December 31, 2028, ending more than a century of aviation on a 227-acre site in one of Southern California's most expensive coastal cities. When In Your State What replaces it could reshape values, desirability, and the long-term trajectory of the surrounding neighborhoods for decades to come.
The Closure Is Settled: The Future Isn't
Let's start with what's certain: the airport is closing. In 2017, the City and the Federal Aviation Administration reached a formal agreement allowing the City to permanently close the airport after December 31, 2028. The City Council subsequently voted to close it unanimously. Greatparkcoalition
In January 2025, the City Attorney's office issued a memo clearly stating that the decision to close the airport was already made in 2017, and no further Council action is required. Greatparkcoalition For anyone hoping the airport might somehow survive, that door is closed.
What remains very much open is the question of what gets built or planted on the land afterward.
The Great Park Vision: What's Currently Planned
In 2025, the City Council voted 6–1 to move forward with a plan to transform most of the airport into a "Great Park," excluding housing in its initial design. Santa Monica Next Council members outlined a vision that includes flexible spaces for performances, a botanical garden, an improved aviation museum, and potential public-private partnerships to generate revenue. Costar
In March 2026, Santa Monica released a draft framework diagram following nearly two years of outreach, reflecting 87 public meetings, more than 12,100 online survey responses, and over 50,000 project website visits. When In Your State The planning process is now moving from broad strokes to specific decisions about where different uses will go and how the land will connect to surrounding neighborhoods.
The LA County Regional Park and Open Space District recently awarded $499,149 to the City of Santa Monica to design and plan the first 20 acres of the future Great Park. Greatparkcoalition That's real money moving toward a real outcome.
The Housing Debate: Far From Over
Here's where it gets complicated for buyers and sellers trying to plan ahead.
Santa Monica faces a state mandate to plan nearly 8,900 residential units by 2029, but the city has issued permits for only a fraction of that number. A 2024 RAND Corporation report found Santa Monica has one of the region's lowest rates of multifamily housing approvals. Costar
Housing advocates haven't given up on the airport site. Three Santa Monica residents submitted ballot language to the city clerk for a measure that would authorize up to 3,000 units of housing on airport land after closure, limiting new homes to no more than 25 percent of the site, with at least half priced for households at 80 percent of area median income. Santa Monica Next
In short: the park direction is the leading plan, but a ballot measure this fall could put housing back on the table. If you're making a purchase decision based on what this land becomes, it's worth following closely.
What This Means for Buyers
For buyers considering homes near the airport corridor, think Sunset Park, north Venice, and the neighborhoods flanking Bundy and Centinela...the closure and conversion represent a genuine upside scenario.
Right now, proximity to an active general aviation airport comes with tradeoffs: noise, flight patterns, and some perception issues that subtly suppress values in the immediate vicinity. When the airport closes and green space begins to take shape, that dynamic flips. A 227-acre park two miles from Venice Beach, in one of the most land-constrained cities in the country, is a fundamentally different amenity than a small-aircraft facility.
Buyers who purchase in this corridor before the park's transformation is fully priced in by the market may be positioning themselves well. The question of timing and how the political debate resolves matters enormously here, which is exactly why working with an agent who follows this closely is so important.
What This Means for Sellers
If you own in the immediate vicinity of the airport, you're sitting on a property that could tell a very different story in two to three years than it does today. The closure narrative is already established; what's emerging now is the destination narrative and that's what drives premium valuations.
Sellers who wait for the park to be fully built and widely covered may find that the market has already moved. The appreciation tends to happen in anticipation of a major positive change, not just after it. That said, the unresolved housing debate adds uncertainty to the timeline, and it warrants a thoughtful, well-advised approach to timing.
Looking at the broader Santa Monica market, the city is positioned for moderate price growth in 2026, with projected appreciation of 3% to 5% for single-family homes, assuming easing mortgage rates and increased transaction volume. Philippe Properties A finalized park plan, particularly one that preserves open space over dense development, would likely serve as a tailwind on top of those fundamentals.
The Bottom Line
The Santa Monica Airport closure is one of the few remaining land-use events in West LA that has the scale to meaningfully move values in the neighborhoods around it. The site's proximity to the beach, high-value neighborhoods, and major job centers makes it one of the most coveted redevelopment sites in all of Southern California. Costar
Whether you're buying, selling, or simply holding a property nearby, this is not a story to monitor passively. The decisions being made in City Hall right now and potentially at the ballot box this fall, will set the direction for years to come.
If you'd like to talk through how this affects your specific situation, I'm here. Understanding these shifts before they're priced into the market is exactly the kind of edge my clients rely on.
