Brea
Property Management
Owning a rental in Brea means balancing the charm of a historic town with the demands of modern luxury communities. Whether you own a newer estate in Blackstone, a family home in Olinda Ranch, or a vintage bungalow near Birch Street, each neighborhood requires a different strategy. Good Life Property Management bridges the gap. We navigate the strict brush clearance requirements of the Carbon Canyon fire zones and manage the complex HOA compliance in Brea’s master-planned developments. Let us handle the specialized maintenance and tenant relations so your Brea investment remains a high-performing asset, not a source of stress.
Our Brea Property Management Services
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- 3D Tour
- Market research
- Quality photography
- Tenant screening
- Rent collection
- Direct deposits
- Lease management
- 24/7 maintenance
- Eviction coverage
- Monthly statements
- Property inspections
Brea Property Management
If you are considering renting out a home in Brea, the first thing we’ll show you is the employment data. According to Jamboree Housing, twice as many people work in Brea as live there. A lot of the employees that work in Brea live in other cities, and that is one of the reasons Brea rentals are in high demand.
It is easy to see the same data trends when looking at rental stats. The annual Zillow rental index showed a final average rent for Brea at $2,871 in August of 2026.
While most cities in the same area as Brea have a majority of the housing stock built prior to 2010, a lot of Brea’s newer housing was built in the neighborhoods of La Floresta and Blackstone. Because of that, the first 15 years of a new rental housing unit is exempt from California’s rental cap.
Brea Rental Market Insights
Brea's Largest Employers
The City’s 2025 report ranked Beckman Coulter, with 1,200 employees, Albertsons, with 1,186 employees, Brea Olinda School District, 964 employees, Nordstrom, 410 employees, Bristol, 405 employees, and Nationwide Pet Insurance, 400 employees, as Brea’s largest employers.
We can not assume this order will be permanent. In 2026, Beckman Coulter sold their 34 acre campus and announced that they will be moving their Brea teams in 2028 when their lease is up. The site is proposed to have a Costco and single family homes. Across the mall, Sears was replaced with a Life Time Fitness facility, and 380 housing units have also been proposed. As these changes impact Brea Mall, other employers, especially in the Brea Mall area, are changing too. As the area moves toward more residential use, other changes may be expected.
Rents and Vacancy in Brea
According to Zillow’s data, the average rent in Brea was $2,871 in August 2026.
About 40.3% of the total households in Brea are renter households. The median income of all the households in Brea was $131,129. The data also showed that, if a house is priced correctly, it doesn’t take long for a renter to move into the house.
Highlighting Good Life's Statisitics
Good Life Property Management maintained a 95.8% occupancy rate this past quarter. This means 4 out of every 100 homes we manage were vacant.
Our property management team handled over 500 inspections. We value preventative maintenance because it helps owners maintain the value of their homes while also saving tenants from dealing with maintenance issues while they are living there.
In a place like Brea, where you can achieve rents of $2,500-$3,500 depending on your home, we ensure your property is being maintained, even when it’s rented for the foreseeable future.
Brea Neighborhoods
La Floresta
Building on the old Chevron and Unocal properties, La Floresta’s roughly 1,350 homes (with a Whole Foods-anchored shopping center) are some of Brea’s latest. New homes, like La Floresta, have many advantages for their homeowner associations (HOAs) and owners. Among those advantages is that homes remain outside of the state rent cap for the first 15 years after they receive their certificate of occupancy. With construction of La Floresta ongoing, HOAs of older communities in Brea may want to consider changes to their regulations in response.
Blackstone
Blackstone (including the 94-unit affordable apartments Bonterra) is a community of single-family homes located on the east side of Brea. It will take homes beyond 2025 to be outside of the 15-year window. Blackstone’s homes that were built the earliest are losing their rent-cap exemption and the homes built more recently still have their caps until approximately 2030. Homeowners should check their COE to see when their rent-cap exemption ends. The city considers Blackstone to have Very High Fire Hazard and requires homeowners to clear brush on their property.
Downtown Brea
The area of downtown formerly encompassing about 60 acres is now the Birch Street district. The area is home to roughly 350,000 square feet of commercial space, as well as a variety of housing. In June 2026, the City approved a plan to govern development of the district. The plan will allow up to 3,335 additional units of housing in the area, in addition to the approximately 1,417 housing units in the Civic Center and Mall. Construction of 653-unit Avalon Brea Place apartment began in 2021. Some of the first condos and apartments in and around downtown are feeling the competition of newer development. Conditions in the older units as well as sale and rental prices will have to be lower to compete with new facilities.
Olinda Village
Olinda Village consists of single-family homes, all of which are located in Brea’s Carbon Canyon. Olinda is the only area within the City of Brea where the equestrian overlay is in effect. Horsekeepers can keep horses on larger lots, which, under the equestrian overlay, must be at least 1 acre, and can keep 1 additional horse for each additional 15,000 square feet of the lot. Areas within Blackstone are rated Very High for fire hazards, as are other areas within Olinda.
Carbon Canyon
Carbon Canyon Road, which provides the only access to the neighborhoods in the canyon, is part of state highway 142. Carbon Canyon is also the location of the Carbon Canyon Regional Park. The park, which is 124 acres, includes the three-acre grove of coastal redwoods which are the only coastal redwoods in Orange County. The coastal redwoods are located at the end of the 1.1-mile trail in the park.
Brea Rental Regulations
Rent Increases in Brea
Brea’s rules for rent control, just cause, and rental registrations do not apply to their city, so these will be governed by the laws of the State of California, Tenant Protection Act of 2019. For rent increases between August 1, 2026, and July 31, 2027, the state will limit increases to 8.7% per year for rents charged for covered properties.
Which Brea Homes Are Exempt
There are two groups of property owners in Brea who are usually outside of the state rental cap. The first includes owners of newer property, as a newly constructed property is exempt from the cap for 15 years, and in Brea this excludes the older half of La Floresta and Avalon Brea Place, and the other half of Blackstone. The second includes property owners of single family homes and condos, but this excludes corporations, REITs, and LLCs where the property is rented out and owned by a corporation or LLC with a corporate member.
The state rent control law expires on January 1, 2030. Therefore, in the absence of the renewal or amendment of this law by the state legislature, property owners will be able to charge the market rate for their rental units.
Overnight Street Parking
A Brea rule about parking is easy to overlook. Between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., no one is allowed to park on the streets of Brea with no permit. Annually, permits cost $22 online or $34 in person. A single family home is allowed up to two permits, and a condo, townhome, or apartment is only allowed one. The vehicle also has to be registered to someone living in Brea. The garage and driveway of that home also cannot be used. For example, if a rental home has a one car garage and three tenants who all drive, that is in violation of the parking permit rules. That is a situation that we want to find and rectify prior to a lease being signed.
Short-Term Rentals
In 2018, short-term rentals were prohibited by Brea City Council. In January 2026, the City Council voted to allow a restricted short-term rental program. The program will run until December 31, 2029, and allows the City to issue a total of 100 permits through a random selection process. The permits cost $1,000 per year and allow the City to inspect the residences at any time. There are a number of restrictions on rentals, including limiting rentals to only guests 25 years of age or older and banning rentals of Accessory Dwelling Units. Also, if the home is owned by an HOA, the HOA board must agree to allow short-term rentals. As a result of the restrictions and the relatively short time period for the program, many property owners are choosing to rent their properties out on a long-term basis.
Business License
Owners of a single rental unit in Brea are exempt from the city business license tax. The business license tax is based on rental receipts of owners of two or more rental units located in Brea.
Marketing and Pricing Your Brea Rental
Pricing Strategy
Knowing your average rent can depend on a couple of expensive listings in your area. That’s why we usually don’t price to the average. We look at similar rentals in the same or neighboring areas. For example, we would take zip code 92823 and look at a handful of listings in the area.
Listing Strategy
We use professional photographers to take pictures of the homes we are listing, and we create 3D walkthroughs. Our descriptions focus on the factors of a home in Brea that help renters make decisions. We address the factors that help renters decide where to park, like how long their commute will be, and what the community will be like. We include information about whether the community is a newly constructed community like La Floresta, or if it is a community in a more established neighborhood that is near downtown.
Tenant Screening in Brea
All prospective tenants go through the same screening process for any rental property we manage. We require pay verification by providing physical documents, call the current landlord, review credit history, and perform a criminal and eviction background check. We also screen for pets.
In addition to the above for our Brea rental properties, we verify how many vehicles are in the household and where they are registered. Overnight parking permits are issued to only two vehicles per household and only to vehicles registered to the household at the address in Brea. A property is only provided so much parking for tenants to use, and if a tenant is found to have more vehicles parked on the property than the designated parking, they may be ticketed. This happens frequently and creates a negative association with our tenants. If the property has an HOA, we ensure tenants receive and understand the HOA Rules as well.
Property Maintenance in Brea
Homes in Brea span different time periods. Older homes require upgrades to electrical and plumbing systems, and roofs. Homes in more recent developments often have HOAs. In these cases, owners must obtain permission from the HOA to perform work.
Additionally, topography must also be considered. Homes in Blackstone and Olinda Village must also have brush clearance. Leases must also state who is responsible for this clearance. Each year we also perform an onsite inspection to evaluate the clearance around the home. Repair and maintenance requests are made online. We also have vendors perform repairs and maintenance.
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Megan Swartzentruber
DRE #02246430
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Brea Investment Snapshot
Brea at a Glance
Home Values & Income
Sources: Zillow Home Value Index (Aug 2026); U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020–2024.
$1,118,000
Typical home value in Brea (Aug 2026)
$131,129
Median household income in Brea
Rents & Renters
Sources: Zillow Observed Rent Index (Aug 2026); U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020–2024.
$2,871/month
Typical rent in Brea (Aug 2026)
40.3%
Households renting in Brea
Pros of Investing in Brea
In our opinion, Brea’s largest advantage is its job base. Also, the home rent cap exemption has not yet been reached for many homes in the city, and new housing construction has not kept pace. Between 2021 and 2024, the City issued just 37 home building permits, and the state has called for 2,365 homes by 2029.
Cons of Investing in Brea
Rental prices are low given the cost of owning a house here, so the cost-rent ratio is low at 3.1%. The largest employer Beckman Coulter, who employs about 1,200 people, is expected to leave in 2028 when their lease expires. A lot of new housing projects are currently being developed in Brea, and on top of that there are thousands of housing units already being constructed. And in a few years, the price controls in La Floresta and Blackstone will expire, giving the housing developers the freedom to charge whatever they want for the houses.
Brea Property Management FAQ
How big a rent increase is allowed in Brea this year?
If the state rent cap applies to your property, you will be unable to increase the rent on your tenants more than 8.7% for rent increases between August 1, 2026 and July 31, 2027. There is no additional ordinance passed by the City of Brea. Homes built less than 15 years ago are excluded from the state rent cap. Condos and houses that include the rent cap exemption in the lease are also excluded.
Does Brea charge landlords a business license fee?
Only owners with multiple units pay this tax. According to the City Code, owners of single-unit rental properties are exempt from the tax. Owners of multiple units pay a tax based on the total rent that they collect.
Can my tenants park on the street overnight?
They can, but only if they have a permit. All of the city limits of Brea do not allow for any street parking overnight. Permits cost $22 a year online, or $34 in person. Each house can have up to two permits and each apartment or condo can have up to one permit. The permit is only valid if the car is registered with an address in Brea.
Can I use my Brea home as a short-term rental?
Only if you get one of the 100 licenses in the City’s pilot program. They are awarded by lottery and cost $1,000 a year, and ADUs don’t qualify.
Is my La Floresta or Blackstone home under the rent cap?
Depends on when it was built, permitted and occupied. Homes are exempt for 15 years from that date. Most of La Floresta is still exempt. The earliest homes of Blackstone are nearing the end of that 15 year period.
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