Updated October 2026
The Malibu Colony is a private, gated enclave of beach houses on Malibu Colony Road, just west of Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach, across Pacific Coast Highway from the Civic Center. Since July 2025, houses in the Colony have sold between $7 million to $22.75 million (Data gathered on the MLS).
It is also where Malibu's history as a place to live begins. The Getty calls the Colony Malibu's first housing enclave, started in 1926, when most of the land that is now Malibu was one private ranch. The owner, May Rindge, rented 30-foot beach lots for $30 a month, movie stars built cottages on them, and for years nobody could buy a lot. Today Colony lots are bought and sold like any other Malibu property, and a few houses from the Colony's early years still stand and sell.
Recent Sales on Malibu Colony Road
Between July 2025 and September 2026, only four houses on Malibu Colony Road sold (according from data captured on the MLS). The Colony has two rows of houses on its private road, an oceanfront row on the sand and an inland row across the road, and three of the four sales were oceanfront.
(This data reflects trends but not current listings. For houses on the market now, see our Malibu Colony listings or reach out to us.)
| Year built | Location | Lot width | Bedrooms | Sale price | Month sold |
| 1957, since redesigned | Oceanfront | 30 feet | 4 | $22,750,000 | July 2025 |
| 1985 | Inland row | 39 feet | 4 | $7,000,000 | February 2026 |
| 1931 | Oceanfront | 35 feet | 3 | $16,900,000 | March 2026 |
| 1928 | Oceanfront | 35 feet | 5 | $19,995,000 | April 2026 |
Sales: Malibu-area single-family sales, MLS Areas 32 and 33, July 2025 through September 2026. TheMLS / CLAW. Lot widths: Los Angeles County Assessor records.
Those four sales point to three things about Malibu Colony real estate:
- On average, the oceanfront houses sold for nearly three times the price of the inland one. The three oceanfront houses sold for $16.9 million to $22.75 million. The inland house, built in 1985 across the road from the sand, sold for $7 million (Data gathered on the MLS).
- The County counts most of the price as land. When the County Assessor reassessed two of the oceanfront houses for property taxes after they sold, it counted 80% of one sale price and 85% of the other as land. The oceanfront lots are only 30 to 35 feet wide, and the three oceanfront sales came to roughly $480,000 to $760,000 for each foot of that width.
- The two oldest houses sold for some of the highest prices per square foot in Malibu. Built in 1928 and 1931, they sold for about $8,000 a square foot, which put both among the six highest prices per square foot of any Malibu single-family sale in the 12 months to July 2026. Both sold at their full asking price, while Malibu single-family homes overall sold for about 94% of theirs (Data gathered on the MLS).
Even the inland house sold for well above the median Malibu house price, which was $4.25 million over the 12 months to July 2026. Agents and appraisers use recent sales like these to estimate what a Malibu beach house is worth.
How the Malibu Colony Began: Beach Lots for $30 a Month
The land under the Colony belonged to May Knight Rindge. According to Pepperdine University Libraries, she inherited the family's Malibu ranch when her husband, Frederick Rindge, died in 1905, and spent years in court trying to keep a public road off it. She lost at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1923 (Rindge Co. v. County of Los Angeles), and by 1926 the new coast road "came as far as Malibu Canyon," local historian Glen Howell told the Los Angeles Times.
"After spending so much in court over the years, May was in need of money-making ventures," Pepperdine's guide says, and in 1926 she began renting out beachfront lots. The lots were 30 feet wide and rented for $30 a month ($1 for each foot of beachfront) on 10-year leases, according to the Malibu Lagoon Museum's history and the Times.
David K. Randall, who wrote a book about the Rindges, says in Lapham's Quarterly that each lease also required anything built on the lot to be torn down after 10 years, so May Rindge could close the Colony once her finances improved. In 1927 Picture-Play Magazine reported that because "some of the land can be retained for only ten years, some of the stars have been thinking of building their homes on wheels." As late as 1930, The New Movie Magazine told readers the land "cannot be purchased."
The Malibu Movie Colony: Anna Q. Nilsson and the First Beach Cottages
Swedish silent film star Anna Q. Nilsson signed the first Malibu Colony lease, according to the Times and the Museum's history. The Museum's history also says actor Ronald Colman built house No. 16 in 1926 and 1927, "one of the first of The Colony beach cottages," and that the average cottage cost $2,600. Gloria Swanson's house there cost $25,000, Picture-Play reported in 1927. The strip soon became known as the Malibu Movie Colony.
Other early stars included Clara Bow, Harold Lloyd, Dolores del Rio, Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, the Museum's history says, and the Getty counts Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford among the Hollywood stars who would live there. Many stars had their cottages built by movie-set carpenters, the Times reported. "Those beach shacks were a little bit flimsy," second-generation Malibu Realtor Louis Busch told the paper. "You could almost push your finger right through the walls." Each house also got a number, like Colman's No. 16, and Colony houses still carry those numbers alongside their street addresses.
The 1928 and 1931 houses that sold in 2026 date from the Colony's early years. Their listing agents described them as "fully restored" and "exquisitely restored."
From Leases to Deeds: How Colony Tenants Bought Their Lots
Malibu Colony tenants were able to buy their lots after May Rindge and her family's land company went bankrupt in the 1930s. Pepperdine's library guide dates the company's bankruptcy to 1936, and the Times dates hers to 1938. "A few years later, the homeowners were free to purchase their leased land," the Times reported. The paper also cites a handwritten ledger, kept by Louis Busch's father, that shows empty lots selling for $6,500 to $15,000 in the early 1940s.
Adjusted for inflation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, those prices compare like this:
| When | What it cost | In today's dollars |
| 1926 | $30 a month to lease a 30-foot beach lot | About $570 a month |
| 1926 and 1927 | About $2,600 for an average cottage | About $49,500 |
| Early 1940s | $6,500 to $15,000 for an empty lot | About $149,000 to $344,000 |
| 2025 and 2026 | $7 million to $22.75 million for a house and its lot | Already in today's dollars |
Sources: Los Angeles Times (lease rent and 1940s lot prices), Malibu Lagoon Museum history (cottage cost), TheMLS / CLAW (2025 and 2026 sales). Today's dollars compare the consumer price index for 1926 and 1941 with September 2026.
Today a Colony buyer purchases the lot as well as the house, according to public records. County Assessor records list each of the four Colony lots that sold in 2025 and 2026 as a "Regular Fee Parcel," the same label the County gives an ordinary house lot.
What to Check Before Buying in the Malibu Colony
Expect a narrow, multi-story house. By 2009 the Colony's houses had been "expanded to two and three stories," the Times reported, and they fill "their 30- and 60-foot lots from edge to edge."
Choose a row first. The oceanfront row costs far more than the inland row, as the sales above show, so decide which one fits before you start looking.
Plan for coastal permits. Like the rest of Malibu, the Colony sits in the California coastal zone, so a rebuild or major remodel needs a coastal development permit. The City of Malibu issues those permits under its Local Coastal Program, which the California Coastal Commission approved in 2002. We cover building permits and timelines in Malibu step by step in a separate article.
Ask about the sewer. The state's regional water board approved a ban on septic systems in the Malibu Civic Center area in 2009, to take effect in phases. The City's Phase Two sewer project would connect parts of the Colony to a central treatment plant, but as of October 2026 its project page says construction is on hold. Before making an offer, ask whether the house is on a septic system today and what connecting to the sewer may cost.
Common Questions About the Malibu Colony
Is the Malibu Colony a gated community?
Yes. The Malibu Colony is a gated community on a private road, and the MLS listings for all four recent sales describe a gate with security. A 2004 Los Angeles Times count found about 115 houses there, roughly half oceanfront and half in the inland row.
Is Malibu Colony beach public?
Malibu Colony beach is public below the mean high tide line (the average reach of high tide), as on every California beach. The Colony's road and houses are private. Our guide to private and public sand shows where that line falls.
Is the Malibu Colony the same as Malibu Cove Colony?
No. Malibu Cove Colony is a separate enclave about 4 miles west, and Malibu Colony Plaza is a shopping center. Some real estate websites, Redfin among them, also draw their "Malibu Colony" area wider than the gate, taking in houses on Malibu Road and condos on Civic Center Way, so their price figures cover more than the Colony itself.
Buying or Selling in the Colony With a Top Malibu Realtor
When a buyer calls us about a house on the sand, we start with the lot width, the permits and the most recent sales on that stretch of beach. Our team has worked Malibu real estate for more than 25 years, with buyers and sellers of beachfront property from Carbon Beach to Broad Beach. Read how buying in Malibu works, or contact us to talk through a specific house.
Sources
- Stacy Suaya, "Postcards from the Pacific," Getty News & Stories, Aug. 4, 2026. getty.edu
- "Malibu Beach" photo feature, The New Movie Magazine, 1930. Media History Digital Library. lantern.mediahist.org
- "Hollywood High Lights: A New Beach Colony," Picture-Play Magazine, December 1927. Media History Digital Library. lantern.mediahist.org
- "Chapter Six: The Malibu Movie Colony," Malibu Lagoon Museum, hosted on the City of Malibu website. malibucity.org
- "Living chic by jowl in the Malibu Colony," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 18, 2009. latimes.com
- "They were the kids of Malibu Colony," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 2004. latimes.com
- "The Rindges, their Ranch, and their Legacy," Pepperdine University Libraries. infoguides.pepperdine.edu
- Rindge Co. v. County of Los Angeles, 262 U.S. 700 (1923), Library of Congress. tile.loc.gov
- David K. Randall, "The Making of Malibu," Lapham's Quarterly. laphamsquarterly.org
- Local Coastal Program, City of Malibu. malibucity.org
- Civic Center Septic Prohibition, City of Malibu. malibucity.org
- Civic Center Water Treatment Facility, Phase Two, City of Malibu. malibucity.org
- CPI Inflation Calculator, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. bls.gov
- Malibu Colony neighborhood page, Redfin. redfin.com
- Malibu-area single-family sales, MLS Areas 32 and 33, July 2025 through September 2026. TheMLS / CLAW.
- Parcel records, Los Angeles County Assessor.