About the Building
Villa Centinela is a genuine for-sale condominium, and the county record distinguishes it from most of the Santa Monica ownership stock of its era. The Los Angeles County Assessor carries thirty-four separately assessed parcels on recorded condominium Tract 38366, running consecutively from assessment number 4270017073 to 4270017106. Every one is coded 010C, the assessor's classification for a purpose-built condominium, and not 010E, the conversion code that attaches to a great many Santa Monica buildings of similar age. This building was designed, permitted and sold as condominiums from the outset, in 1981.
That matters more here than it would elsewhere. Santa Monica's ownership stock is heavily weighted towards converted rental buildings, mapped in the 1980s and 1990s under the Tenant Ownership Rights Charter Amendment, and a converted building carries a particular diligence burden: what was renewed at conversion, what was left in place, and what the association inherited. A purpose-built condominium carries none of that. The building was constructed to be sold as individual homes, with an association, a budget and a reserve obligation in place from the first day, which is a materially cleaner history.
The layout runs across five levels with an uneven distribution. The assessor's unit numbers are 101 to 106, 201 to 205, 301 to 314, 401 to 404 and 501 to 505, which is six homes on the first level, five on the second, fourteen on the third, four on the fourth and five on the fifth. A count that jumps to fourteen on one level and falls to four on another is not a conventional stacked plate; it points to a building with wings or a stepped section, or to a level that includes homes at a mezzanine or split-level position. Read the recorded plan carefully before assuming anything about your floor.
The homes are large and varied. The assessor records unit 101 at 1,344 square feet with two bedrooms and three bathrooms, unit 301 at 1,583 with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and unit 505 at 1,925 with two bedrooms and three bathrooms. A published directory gives the overall range as 1,169 to 2,000 square feet, which brackets the recorded figures sensibly at both ends. The spread from roughly 1,300 to nearly 2,000 square feet in a thirty-four home building is unusually wide and reinforces the impression of a plan that varies substantially level by level.
The published amenity set is broad for a building of this scale: a pool, a spa, a sauna, a fitness room, a recreation room, controlled access and secure parking. Directories describe interiors with formal entries, fireplaces in the living rooms, vaulted ceilings, loft spaces, formal dining rooms, private patios and open kitchens with breakfast areas. Vaulted ceilings and lofts on upper levels are consistent with the stepped or wing-based section the unit distribution implies. Owners are described as paying electricity, water, sewer, cable and internet. Confirm all of it with management.
Amenities & Services
The Residences
The assessor carries thirty-four consecutive parcels on Tract 38366, from assessment number 4270017073 to 4270017106, every one of them coded 010C. That code is the assessor's classification for a purpose-built condominium as distinct from 010E, the conversion designation. In a city where most ownership stock of this age was converted from rental use during the 1980s and 1990s, a building that was mapped and sold as condominiums from new is a meaningfully different proposition, and the distinction sits in the public record rather than only in the marketing. It is the first thing worth checking on any Santa Monica building of this vintage.
Recorded unit numbers run 101 to 106, 201 to 205, 301 to 314, 401 to 404 and 501 to 505. Six, five, fourteen, four and five homes respectively across the five levels. That is not a stacked plate repeating up the building; fourteen homes on one level against four on another points to wings, a stepped section, or split-level and mezzanine arrangements within the envelope. It also means the experience of living on the third level is materially different from the fourth, in corridor length, neighbour count and daylight. Establish the geometry of your specific floor from the recorded condominium plan before you commit.
Sampled areas are 1,344 square feet at unit 101, 1,583 at unit 301 and 1,925 at unit 505, with two bedrooms recorded throughout and three bathrooms in the largest and smallest of the three. A published directory gives the overall range as 1,169 to 2,000 square feet, which brackets the recorded figures sensibly. A spread that wide across only thirty-four homes means the building holds genuinely different plan types rather than variations on a single one, and it means per-square-foot comparisons between homes inside the building need care rather than arithmetic. Take the plan figure for any specific unit.
Directories describe formal entries, fireplaces in the living rooms, vaulted ceilings, loft spaces, formal dining rooms, private patios and open kitchens with breakfast areas. Vaulted ceilings and lofts only occur where the section allows them, which is normally the top level or beneath a stepped roof, and their presence corroborates the uneven unit distribution that the assessor's numbering reveals. If a loft or a vaulted ceiling is what you are buying for, confirm which specific units carry it rather than assuming it is general to the building, and check whether the loft area is counted in the recorded square footage.
A two-bedroom home of 1,500 to 1,900 square feet built in 1981 is a formal plan: an entry hall, a separate dining room, a large living room with a fireplace, a kitchen conceived as a working room with a breakfast area attached, and generous rather than numerous bedrooms. Buyers wanting an open plan should assume a wall comes out and should ask the board what structural and acoustic review that requires before pricing the work. Buyers wanting a third bedroom should expect it to come out of the dining room, which changes the character of the plan considerably.
The assessor records an effective year of 1996 against unit 101 while recording 1981 for units 301 and 505. Effective year is the assessor's condition-adjusted estimate of age and moves forward when substantial improvement is recorded, so this is most likely evidence of a significant renovation to that individual home rather than to the building as a whole. It is a useful reminder that in a building of this age, condition varies home by home far more than the shared year built figure suggests, and that the assessor's record can sometimes tell you which homes have been worked on.
Due Diligence
This is a true condominium and a purpose-built one. Thirty-four separately assessed parcels sit on recorded condominium Tract 38366, each coded 010C rather than the 010E conversion code. You take fee title to a unit and a share of the common area and finance it conventionally. There is no ground lease and no co-operative structure in the record. Your lender will still require the association's questionnaire, budget, insurance certificate and reserve study, so ask for the package early.
Santa Monica's mandatory retrofit programme, adopted in March 2017 under Chapter 8.72 of the municipal code, reaches wood-frame soft-storey buildings built under codes enacted before 10 November 1980, among four other categories. A building completed in 1981 was almost certainly permitted in 1979 or 1980, which puts it directly on that line. This is the most important single enquiry for this building: ask the city whether an order was issued for this parcel and ask the association for its structural evaluation report.
Under the Santa Monica programme, owners had two years from the order to submit a structural evaluation report, three years to file plans and a permit application and six years to obtain final approval. Orders were distributed between September 2017 and July 2018, so compliance dates for the soft-storey categories fell in 2023 and 2024. If this building was ordered, the work should be complete and the permit signed off. Ask for the permit number and the final inspection record, not a verbal assurance.
Secure resident parking is described but no allocation is published. On a site of 34,251 square feet supporting thirty-four large homes, parking will be structured and at least partly below grade. Some spaces in buildings of this era are conveyed by deed and some assigned as exclusive-use common area, and the two behave differently on transfer and in disputes. Confirm from the title report and the recorded plan how many spaces, of what type, and any storage that transfers with your home.
The association does not publish its dues. Directories state that owners pay electricity, water, sewer, cable and internet, which should be tested because water and sewer are commonly master-metered and carried by the association in buildings of this configuration. Expect the assessment to cover common-area maintenance, lifts, pool and spa plant, the sauna and fitness room, landscaping, refuse and master insurance. Obtain the current budget, two years of financials and the assessment history before you commit.
Civil Code section 5550 requires a reserve study with visual inspection at least every three years, reviewed annually by the board. On a five-storey 1981 building the schedule is dominated by lift modernisation, roof and deck waterproofing, exterior painting and sealants, garage slab and drainage, plumbing risers and pool plant. Buildings of this vintage typically reach the point where original plumbing and lifts fall due in the same decade. Ask for the study, the funding percentage and the board's plan.
No leasing rule is published. California Civil Code section 4741 prevents an association from setting a rental cap below twenty-five per cent of units while permitting a prohibition on tenancies of thirty days or fewer. Santa Monica's home-sharing ordinance is among the strictest in the state, effectively barring whole-unit short-term letting and permitting only licensed hosted home-sharing. Read the city rules and the CC&Rs together, and do not assume holiday letting is available.
Santa Monica Airport lies a short distance south of this address. Under the settlement the city reached with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Justice in January 2017, the airport closes on 31 December 2028, and the city reaffirmed that position publicly in September 2025. What follows on the land is separately constrained by Measure LC, passed by Santa Monica voters in 2014, which requires voter approval before the site is used for anything other than parks, open space or recreational and educational uses.
Everything above is drawn from public records, city permit data and published sources. The association’s statutory disclosure package is the only authoritative answer on dues, rules, reserves, insurance and litigation — Ben will request it and read it with you before you remove contingencies.
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