As Twitchy reported earlier Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass continued to beclown herself by claiming that "from cutting red tape, to expediting the rebuild process … Los Angeles is on track for one of the fastest disaster recoveries in state history." Commenters reminded Bass that it's been nearly eight months, only a handful of rebuilding permits have been issued, and zero homes have been rebuilt in any of the areas affected by the wildfires that swept through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
So what progress has been made toward recovery? In July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom let the mask slip when he said that the California Department of Housing and Community Development had allocated $100 million to help rapidly rebuild "affordable, multifamily rental housing for Angelenos displaced by the January wildfires." Excuse us? Multifamily rental housing?
Now we're learning that a foreign investor is buying up oceanfront lots in Malibu.
A foreign investor has quietly gobbled up 9 oceanfront lots in Malibu for $65 million following the January wildfires.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 21, 2025
The investor reportedly assembled a team to track down owners because the "desirable" sites weren't publicly listed.
"He started building a team on his end of… pic.twitter.com/e0sWr6EDVE
The post continues:
"He started building a team on his end of expediters, architects and kind of figured out what the best size lots and frontage would be to build on to eventually resell," said the agent, Weston Littlefield of the Weston James Group, to Realtor.com.
"I’d say probably about 50% had sentimental value to their properties just based on memories, or their parents passed it down to them."
"But a lot of them, ultimately, just didn’t want to go through the rebuilding process because of how long they knew it was going to take to really come back."
Infuriating.
Homeowners who "just didn’t want to go through the rebuilding process because of how long they knew it was going to take." What was that about one of the fastest disaster recoveries in state history?
Jennifer Van Laar of Twitchy sister-site RedState has learned more about the buyers.
🔴 EXCLUSIVE: The foreigners buying the burned-out lots at La Costa Beach in Malibu are New Zealand's Mowbray brothers, founders of Hong Kong-based global toy giant Zuru.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
Here are the incorporation docs for three of their shell corporations, which they used to purchase the lots… pic.twitter.com/dhPIwOKHIh
The post concludes:
… some of which were not on the market.
Zuru recently launched Zuru Tech, which will build concrete, pre-fab homes - manufactured in its 8-acre facility in China, which would then be shipped to the US to place on the burned-out lots, founder Nick Mowbray announced at the China Business Summit in NZ in July.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
(So why… pic.twitter.com/BY3vnZSYWI
… (So why all the secrecy in the US? Trying to keep landowners from knowing what's going on?)
Zuru Tech claims its proprietary walls are earthquake resistant, fire proof (well, yeah), and "compliant with the most stringent seismic design standards." That's all perfect for the Malibu coast but do we trust Chinese manufacturing? pic.twitter.com/WdXnQf368c
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
Zuru also brags that its product and process are environmentally responsible, but... when you have to ship pre-fab concrete homes in tankers from China to the US, how is THAT environmentally responsible??
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
This takes away American jobs in more ways than one. pic.twitter.com/07fUb0v8OY
MORE INFO on burned Malibu lots sold to foreign investors... People have been asking "who sold the lots." FIRE VICTIMS! Holy moly. Who do you think? And I am sure they weren't informed who the TRUE buyers were.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
How much did they sell for? Here's a few of the places.
21314 PCH,… pic.twitter.com/5X0t5hfiAw
… 21314 PCH, was listed for $9.8M in July 2024 and was on the market until it burned, then taken off the market. Mowbray bros bought it for $4.65M in a private sale in May.
21602 PCH, which was a nice home with a 1/3 acre waterfront lot, was purchased for $12.8M in an off-market sale in July. Previous owners purchased (the home, not just the lot) for $12.2M in 2002. pic.twitter.com/B0TNhlcbXz
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
21622 PCH had sold in Feb 2024 for $24.995M. It burned to the ground, and was not listed for sale when the lot sold for $5,000,000 pic.twitter.com/EVQgePhxT3
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 22, 2025
What's going on, California? Why can't people just clear their lots and rebuild?
Between this and the Chinese buying up huge swaths of farmland (near military bases), we're concerned.
This is disgusting and exactly the intended outcome 🤬
— Spitfire (@DogRightGirl) August 21, 2025
Of course it was a land grab.
— ⛤ Mrs. Behind the Scenes ⛤ (@IamEmpressFox) August 22, 2025
If they released this info at a business summit in July I find it impossible to believe they don not already have the permits required to move forward. Incredible
— Mascar.Mad (@MasCar2919) August 22, 2025
As predicated, Gavin Newsom turned the Palisades Fire into a freaking land grab.
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 21, 2025
Just like Gov. Josh Green did in Lahaina.
Absolutely shameful. Conspiracy theorists were right… again.
They'll be forgotten just like the people of Lahaina.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 21, 2025
Newsom is busy being a social media influencer and Bass is busy capitalizing on the raids.
It's true. Newsom is too busy doing his podcast and trolling President Trump on X and Bass is more concerned with the illegal alien population of Los Angeles.
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