Multifamily and Duplex Properties for Sale in Daly City: Zoning and Rent Rules

What multifamily in Daly City looks like

Daly City’s rental stock is built around its fog-belt neighborhoods: duplexes and two-unit homes on narrow 25- and 33-foot lots, older walk-up apartment buildings near Mission Street and the BART stations, larger mid-century complexes, and condominiums. Unlike most Peninsula cities, Daly City now zones its main corridors for towers, so investors buying older small buildings on Mission Street or Geneva Avenue are also buying redevelopment potential. For financing, see financing 2-4 unit properties and apartment building loans.

Where the zoning allows it

Daly City’s Title 17 has more residential districts than most cities its size.

R-3 after 2024. Ordinance 1476 (November 12, 2024) rewrote the R-3 table. It now lists multifamily as permitted on compliance with objective design standards, refers density to the General Plan’s future land use map, and lets projects on lower-income Priority Housing Sites with at least 20% lower-income units qualify for by-right approval. Heights are capped by the SFO airport plan, and some sites inside the 65 dB noise contour are only conditionally compatible with housing. The online table also shows a 43,560-square-foot minimum lot, which we suggest confirming with Planning for smaller parcels.

C-MU. On Mission Street and Geneva Avenue, new single-family homes are prohibited and new housing must come with ground-floor commercial space. Existing single-family homes are treated as conforming.

ADUs and SB 9. ADUs are allowed in C-MU, and state ADU and SB 9 rules apply on qualifying lots. Read our ADU investment guide and SB 9 lot split guide, and note the short-term rental restriction on ADU properties below.

Rent rules: state law, plus mobile home rent review

Apartments and duplexes. We found no general Daly City rent control or just-cause ordinance. The Attorney General’s rent cap page, updated July 16, 2026, places San Mateo County in the San Francisco Area, with a 6.3% cap for increases from August 1, 2025 and 8.8% from August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027 for covered units. East Palo Alto is the only San Mateo County city on the AG’s chart of local rent ordinances. See our AB 1482 guide and just cause eviction guide.

Mobile home parks. Chapter 2.52, dating from Ordinance 921 in 1980, creates a five-member Mobile Home Rent Review Commission for parks of 25 or more spaces.

• No automatic cap. Review starts when more than half of the affected tenants petition against an increase.
• Hearing. The commission holds a hearing within 10 to 30 days and decides within 10 days after it, weighing costs, capital improvements and a return on investment of no more than 9.5%.
• Outcome. It may hold rents, cut them or allow all or part of an increase, and its findings are final.

Daly City rental property rules

• Short-term rentals. Chapter 5.92, adopted by Ordinance 1440 on November 23, 2020, allows short-term rentals only in a host’s primary residence, occupied at least 265 days a year. Vacation rentals are prohibited. In an owner-occupied multi-unit building, only the owner’s own unit may be hosted. Un-hosted stays are capped at 100 days a year.
• No STRs with ADUs. Short-term rentals are barred in income-restricted units and on properties with an ADU or JADU.
• Permits. Hosts need a business license, a transient occupancy registration and a Planning permit that ends automatically when the property sells. The hotel tax is 13% of rent.
• Condo conversions. Under Section 17.37.100, a subdivider converting apartments must give tenants a relocation assistance report and at least 60 days’ written notice before filing.
• Transfer tax. The County Recorder’s documentary transfer tax is $1.10 per $1,000. We found no added Daly City tax; confirm on the escrow estimate.

Airport noise, fog-belt buildings and older stock

Large parts of Daly City sit within the SFO airport plan area, and the R-3 chapter flags noise compatibility inside the 65 dB contour. Ask for any avigation easement or noise disclosure. Older wood-frame apartment buildings with garages under living space warrant a seismic retrofit review, and the city’s coastal fog and wind are hard on exterior stairs and decks, so for three or more units, budget for SB 721 balcony inspections.

Underwriting a Daly City multifamily purchase

1. Confirm the district. R-2 allows one two-family dwelling; extra units on an R-2 lot may be nonconforming unless permitted as ADUs.
2. Classify units under AB 1482 and model increases at or below 8.8% for covered units.
3. Underwrite long-term rents; vacation rentals are banned and properties with ADUs cannot host short stays.
4. On Mission Street or Geneva Avenue, weigh C-MU redevelopment potential against current rents.
5. Collect leases, the rent roll and estoppel certificates.
6. Rebuild expenses with reassessed taxes, insurance and deck maintenance in our rental property analysis.

Questions people ask

Sources & notes

1. Daly City Title 17, Zoning (GoCodebook)
2. Chapter 17.10, R-2, Chapter 17.12, R-3 and Chapter 17.14, R-4
3. Chapter 17.58, C-MU and Chapter 17.21, Sullivan Corridor
4. Chapter 2.52, Mobile Home Rent Review Commission
5. Chapter 5.92, Short-Term Rentals and Section 3.32.020
6. Section 17.37.100, condominium conversion relocation
7. San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, documentary transfer tax
8. California Attorney General, rent caps

Note: We did not review the R-1/A, R-2/A, BRM, MHP or inclusionary chapters, or the General Plan density map. Several online code tables are partly garbled; confirm figures with Daly City Planning.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.

Related: Daly City real estate guide · Commercial real estate in Daly City · Multifamily investing guide · Investor services