V
eritas Investments, the West Coast real‑estate conglomerate that once owned the city’s largest housing portfolio, has defaulted on $652 million of debt. A September 18 notice of default, obtained by Mission Local, lists 66 San Francisco properties—collectively called the “Veritas SF Portfolio”—that could be foreclosed and sold within 90 days to satisfy the debt. The portfolio contains 1,566 units, ranging from a 116‑unit, five‑story complex at 57 Taylor St. (the largest building, where tenants sued in 2018 over alleged lead contamination) to six‑unit structures in North Beach and Corona Heights. Most units sit in the Tenderloin, Civic Center and downtown.
The default notice, sent by First American Title Insurance Company to the LLCs that hold the properties, gives Veritas until five days before a sale date to pay the outstanding $551 million principal owed to RBC Real Estate Capital Corp. (the Royal Bank of Canada’s investment arm) and to bring the loan into “good standing.” If no payment or extension is arranged, a sale date may be set no sooner than 90 days after the filing—December 17. Veritas also failed to pay $1.1 million in property taxes.
Veritas has been under financial strain for years. In late 2023 it defaulted on $1 billion of loans and began divesting large portions of its holdings. In January 2024 it sold 2,150 units (about a third of its San Francisco stock) for $464 million; last year it sold 762 rent‑controlled units, and in March it sold 1,770 units for $540.5 million. Earlier this year it defaulted on a separate $450 million loan. After these sales, Veritas lost its status as the city’s largest landlord. CEO Yat‑Pang Au, who founded the company in 2007, noted that he had acquired foreclosed properties after the housing crisis and now faced a similar situation. He said he was “plotting a comeback” when the company was first sold off.
Tenant groups have long criticized Veritas. The Veritas Tenants Association has organized rent strikes and withheld rent to pressure the company into improving conditions. In 2022, Veritas’ property‑management arm warned residents that organizing—by distributing literature or hanging signs—could lead to eviction. Earlier this year, tenants who staged a rent strike were reportedly threatened with eviction. The company has faced multiple lawsuits alleging harassment and neglect.
RBC Real Estate Capital has a history of acquiring San Francisco properties from defaulting borrowers. In June 2024 it took over 1,200 units from Goldman Sachs and Ballast Investments after they defaulted on $687.5 million of loans.
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**Joe Eskenazi – Biography**
Joe was born in Sweden, where half of his family received asylum after fleeing Pinochet, and spent his early childhood in Chile before moving to Oakland at age eight. He earned a degree in political science from Stanford University and began his career as a reporter at Mission Local. He later worked with YIMBY Action and served as a partner at The Worker Agency, a strategic communications firm. In 2023 he returned to Mission Local as an editor. He can be reached on Signal @jrivanob.99.
**Managing Editor/Columnist – Biography**
Joe was born and raised in San Francisco, attended UC Berkeley, and has never left the Bay Area. He wrote for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, was a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine (2015–2017), and has contributed to the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.), San Francisco Public Press, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Dallas Morning News, and other outlets. He lives in the Excelsior with his wife and three children, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 miles from his mother’s. The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named him the 2019 Journalist of the Year.
