One Concession, a Month of Base Pay
Where a unit carries a concession, the average one gave away 11.1% of a year's rent in September, about 5.8 weeks free on a 12-month lease. That matches the deepest discount in more than 15 years of RealPage's data (RealPage, October 2026). In Los Angeles, the average was 12.6% (RealPage, October 2026). At Zillow's typical asking rent for a Los Angeles apartment, that works out to about $4,070.
Postings for the leasing professional who closes that lease listed base pay of $21.58 to $24.58 an hour in Los Angeles and $22 to $24 in San Diego, at the median. Those figures come from the Signal Desk, Percy's weekly read of public job postings at the apartment operators we track. In the week of November 9, 12 of the 19 front-line leasing postings it read in full in each metro listed an hourly pay range, from 6 operators in Los Angeles and Orange County and 8 in San Diego County. The figures are the medians of the low and high ends of those ranges, base pay only; commissions and bonuses are not included.
One concession is worth about a month of the base pay of the person who closes the lease.
The short version
Where one is offered, the average concession was 12.6% of a year's rent in Los Angeles and 12.1% in San Diego in September. At each metro's typical asking rent, that works out to about $4,070 and $3,940.
Fewer than one unit in ten carried a concession in either metro.
Front-line leasing postings in the week of November 9 listed base pay of $21.58 to $24.58 an hour in Los Angeles and $22 to $24 in San Diego, at the median (Signal Desk, Percy's weekly read of public job postings).
At the middle of those ranges, one concession is about a full-time month of base pay.
Most of those postings mention a commission, bonus, or incentive. None says how much.
What one concession is worth
RealPage measures the average concession on stabilized units that carry one, as a share of asking rent on a 12-month lease. In September it was 11.5% in the West, where 13% of stabilized units carried a concession (RealPage, October 2026). The same post's table of the markets with the deepest discounts puts Los Angeles at 12.6%, on the 9.4% of units that carry a concession, and San Diego at 12.1%, on 8.0%. So fewer than one unit in ten carries one in either metro. RealPage's Los Angeles market is Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale; Zillow's rent and the Signal Desk's postings also take in Orange County.
Zillow put the typical asking rent for an apartment at $2,690 a month in the Los Angeles metro and $2,714 in San Diego in September (Zillow Observed Rent Index, multifamily, October 2026). At RealPage's rates, a concession at that rent works out to about $4,070 in Los Angeles and $3,940 in San Diego. That is its face value, not money lost. The alternative is often a unit that sits empty, and a day of asking rent is about $88 in Los Angeles and $89 in San Diego.
Leasing base pay, as posted
Full time, the middle of the posted ranges comes to about $4,000 a month in Los Angeles and $3,990 in San Diego. One concession at face value is about the same: 102% of that month in Los Angeles and 99% in San Diego. From the top of the posted ranges to the bottom, that is 4.1 to 4.7 weeks of full-time base pay in Los Angeles and 4.1 to 4.5 in San Diego.
One concession is worth about a month of base pay
For comparison, the city minimum wage has been $18.42 an hour in Los Angeles since July 1 (City of Los Angeles) and is $17.75 in San Diego, rising to $18.35 on January 1 (City of San Diego, September 2026). Both apply only inside city limits. Postings elsewhere in those counties fall under the state's rate or another local one.
The rest of the pay is harder to see. Across the two metros, 15 of the 24 postings with a range mention a commission, bonus, or incentive. None gives an amount.
California requires employers with 15 or more employees to put the pay scale in the posting. The Labor Commissioner's guidance says a commission range belongs in it when a position's hourly or salary wage is based on commission, and that pay on top of an hourly wage, such as a bonus, does not have to be posted (Labor Commissioner FAQ, questions 26, 29, and 30). It does not say which answer covers an hourly job with a per-lease commission. The desk counted commission, bonus, and incentive together, so this is not a count of what the law requires. It is a count of what a candidate cannot compare.
What this means for hiring
The leasing seat rarely sets the concession; that call is usually made above the site. What the seat moves is everything around it: how many days a unit sits, how fast a tour turns into an application, and how many residents renew instead of leaving a unit that needs a new concession to fill. A candidate weighing two offers at $22 and $24 an hour cannot tell which one pays more once leases and renewals are counted.
Percy's take
Put the commission in the posting. A range per lease or per renewal tells a candidate what the job pays. California's guidance leaves open whether an hourly job with a commission has to post it. Post it anyway.
Measure the seat on what it moves. Days vacant and renewals, not leases signed. A concession can help sign a lease; it does less to keep a resident for a second year.
Ask about the renewal. In the interview: "Tell me about a resident who planned to move out and renewed. What changed their mind?"
What to watch next
RealPage's October update. On its analytics blog when it posts: whether the average discount falls with the share of units that carry one.
January 1. California's minimum wage rises to $17.40 an hour and San Diego's to $18.35 (City of San Diego).
Notes on the numbers
Concession figures are RealPage Market Analytics' monthly figures for stabilized units; rents are Zillow's typical asking rent for multifamily homes, September 2026; minimum wages are from the cities' own notices. Pay figures are the Signal Desk's, described where they appear: one week, two metros, base pay only. The arithmetic is ours: each metro's concession rate times twelve months of that metro's rent, and a full-time month of 173.3 hours (2,080 a year). This is not legal advice.
Percy recruits leasing professionals, community managers, and regional managers for apartment owners and property management companies across conventional, affordable, student, and manufactured housing. If your leasing postings need a second look, talk to us.
