If you’re heading to Pepperdine and starting to think about where you’ll actually live, here’s what you need to know before you start touring places.

The lay of the land

Pepperdine students living off campus mostly land in a handful of specific neighborhoods rather than spreading evenly across Malibu. The closer you get to campus, the more you’ll pay — that tradeoff holds everywhere, but how steep it is depends on the school.

Malibu (near campus) — Extremely limited and expensive rental stock — Malibu has very little off-campus housing built for students specifically.

Point Dume / further Malibu — Even pricier and further from campus, mostly single-family rentals.

Santa Monica / West LA (commute) — Some students choose to live further away in cheaper areas and commute up PCH, trading rent for a longer drive.

Who off-campus housing makes sense for

Freshmen are usually better off starting in on-campus or campus-affiliated housing if it’s available — it’s the easiest way to meet people and learn the area before signing anything. Given how limited and expensive Malibu’s rental market is, Pepperdine houses a large share of its undergraduates on campus for most or all of their time there — off-campus living in Malibu itself is genuinely difficult to find and afford. Once you know the campus and have a sense of who you’d want to live with, moving off campus for sophomore year or later tends to work out better than doing it cold as an incoming freshman.

Budgeting the move

Off-campus rent isn’t the only cost — factor in utilities, internet, a security deposit, and often first and last month’s rent up front. California law caps how much a landlord can charge for a security deposit, and recent state legislation has tightened that cap further for most landlords — the exact current figure is worth confirming directly against California Civil Code Section 1950.5 or a tenant-rights resource before you sign, since caps have changed in recent years.

Getting around once you’re off campus

Pepperdine is heavily car-dependent — PCH is the only real route in and out, and public transit along the corridor is sparse. a campus shuttle connects student parking and housing to the main academic areas.

Whichever neighborhood you land in, browse verified off-campus listings near Pepperdine on RentNova rather than relying on a random group chat or flyer — it’s a faster way to see what’s actually available and avoid the fakes mixed into every college housing search.