Maui’s initiative to cut vacation rentals by half places it among global destinations rethinking tourism’s impact. The move reflects a growing trend toward sustainable tourism practices that prioritize long-term community needs.
Leave a Comment
134 thoughts on “Plan Cutting Maui Vacation Rentals Aligns With Global Tourism Shift”
What other countries are doing is irrelevant. Hawaii’s laws are subject to the US Constitution.
Apparently you didn’t read the article.
New York, Durango, Lake Tahoe, Bozeman……
It’s everywhere across the USA.
There are big differences in the Maui situation that you would have thought Bissen would have taken into consideration. The Minatoya list was codified into law. Most if not all of the other jurisdictions started from having nothing in place and then enacted their court approved restrictions.
The proliferation of STRs in Hawaii happened in part because of,
1) Greed
2) Corruption
3) Incompetence
This is what happens when members of county planning commissions are ridiculously overrepresented by real estate agents and developers.
Exactly. Well said.
Actually, if they were overrepresented by developers it wouldn’t be next to impossible to get residential developments approved. The transition to STRs was becwause without sugar and pineapple, Hawaii looked to tourism and started loosening the rules to keep rentals low. Once that stopped working, and Hawaiians became priced out, the Lahaina fire reached housing crisis level. The real villain is the NIMBY/red tape that makes creating low cost housing so difficult. Between fire litigation and suits over the attempted removal of 7000 zSTRs, and reduced taxes, Maui County will be in a world of hurt.
Exactly right.
As has been mentioned hundreds of times, the housing crisis is happening all of the nation. Here is what San Francisco is doing to help solve it, and we should be doing exactly this type of thing in Maui:
sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-stonestown-development-19449048.php
A quote from the article:
– commissioners heaped praise on the plan, lauding it as a model for the type of infill development that will help San Francisco meet its state mandated goal of planning for 82,000 additional housing units by 2031.
So sad for all the elderly, single mom’s, widows, and struggling folks who short term rent not because they like it or are greedy, its just so they can pay their bills, pay property tax, and keep their homes. What will become of these? What will happen to those who give in to long term renters who are disrespectful and destructive to their property?The chances of a bad renter, no matter how careful the property owner is in the selection, is significant. What protection has been offered to property owners who are expected to solve the governments problem of housing shortage, by a blade at their throat?
Correction $21,000,000 award
There are many better ways for Maui to solve their problems. Why don’t they apply for HUD money? HUD just provided their largest grant in history —- in Honolulu —- over $100 million —- to provide low income housing. You don’t need to build from the ground up to acquire HUD money. Maui to could purchase some of the buildings they are targeting at market value to provide housing for people. There are many simpler and creative ways to provide shelter for those who have lost their homes.
As for short term rentals in residential areas, those should be grandfathered in, but why allow further permits? The Big Island in 2019 limited new STR properties to resort areas. The other islands have not so far adopted that strategy.
Bill . We are one of the many that live on the mainland and visit our Ohana several times a year. As a politician you have a vested interest in the government financial gain of closing the small rentals and forcing people into expensive hotels. The rest of us are just trying to survive, not speculate.
“As a politician” Huh??
Just trying to survive and you live out of state and visit several times a year?
If you have or use an STR in resort zoning, go for it. Those should be allowed. If it is in residential or ag zoning, it needs to be banned as those zones are for residents.
Bill,
If your remarks are specific to Maui, then feel free to ignore the following comments.
Your continued assertions about ‘residents in .. residential or ag land’ doesn’t make sense for Oahu, where I live.
The federal court case there that the City and County lost against the home owners that sued explicitly found that the definition of a resident was not dependent on the purpose for residing. That is: since the zoning definition of STR in Honolulu is “a period of renting for at least 30 days’ [see the Land Use Ordinance, LUO for Honolulu], anyone renting for that period is a resident for purposes of zoning. Period. Full stop.
Stop looking at “residential zones.” Go down the list. Many of those are clearly short-term rental resorts. The government needs to conduct this same exercise rather than rely on a list that clearly had no meaning for the past 50 years.
Big difference from what other countries are doing and what Hawaii is doing. Placing a ban on future building of STRs in Florence is completely different than stripping current property owners in Hawaii (some of which are local farmers) of their ability to raise enough in rent to pay for taxes and upkeep, and in the farmer’s case, to be able to keep their farm up and running, or forcing them to convert from short term to long term rentals. Is this a global issue? Yes, but the way the problem is being addressed is completely different. Perhaps Hawaii should take a few lessons from the “mindful” Europeans they so greatly admire.
While fully agreeing there is a need, the horse got out of the barn 50 years ago. What Maui county government does not seem to grasp is the immensity of the process they are embarking on.
They compose a list of virtually every rentable beach property on the west half of the island, but seem to forget they have to pay full market value (which I doubt they can raise the money to do). Then you have to make a deal with or condemn every single deeded interval owner or partial fee interest owner of record. (Let’s say a 200 room building with one ownership per unit (or 200 units times 52 owners of fractional weeks). I’m pretty sure they have in mind low-ball offers in front of a home-town court. But appeals are a different story.
They didn’t mention buying these properties. They ban the ability to short term rent and hope these will convert to long term or sell. Many believe that any declared “eminent domain” will be in Lahaina town. Stall long enough for the underinsured and uninsured owners to sell cheap, establish the new fair market value and than the state and hotel corporations swoop in looking like hero’s when they buy up and rebuild Lahaina with ocean front resorts. They would need a better reason to declare eminent domain on the properties proposed for banning.
For non-resident STR owners – buy a Timeshare!
For Tourists – rent a Timeshare!
We are Hawaii residents and have owned Timeshares in Hawaii and elsewhere since 1990. We also pay property taxes and assume other costs required when units are rented.
Timeshares allow visitors to stay less than a week or as long as they want in areas that are similar to hotels or residential/rural areas.
Timeshares have an added benefit – we have travelled the world by trading our units with other respectful visitors.
This is our suggestion to STR owners and World Travelers.
IMHO, timeshares are not only restrictive, but generally a poor investment and basically nothing more than a prepaid hotel years and years in advance. That’s why anyone with money will buy an actual property which actually makes money and appreciates over time.
…and to continue my comment…
Counties are not going to “build their way out of this”. When they build “affordable housing”, that is actually “low income housing”. Most of these positions would never qualify for low income housing in the first place, they would be buying or renting existing houses in normal neighborhoods in residential zoning.
So we have everyone looking around for workers, hospitals for nurses and doctors, counties for police, literally everything. But the out-migration continues, and in-migration has stalled.
For example, how is the Maui County Planning Department going to begin to plan how to rebuild Lahaina with a highly depleted staff (-20%)?
Article on KGMB today:
“County of Maui accepting applications for nearly 600 positions”
“We have nearly 600 vacancies. We also have an additional close to 500 casual vacancies.”
“…..the departments with the highest vacancy rates include the Police with 200 vacant positions, Parks with 78 vacant positions and Public Works with 64 vacant positions.”
“The Planning Department has a 20% vacancy rate.”
You see this all across Hawaii in all professions, from low income all the way up. The out-migration of the labor force is dramatic, and in-migration has stopped. Why? Absurd housing costs.
High Cost of Living vs lowest pay for similar jobs on the Mainland.
Average hourly pay for Sheriff deputy $32 an hour.
Northern California Bay Area, Sheriff deputy top step about $68 an hour. Similar or lower cost of living.
You increase the pay, you get better candidates and people wanting to stay. Why stay on an island where you can’t afford to live other than paycheck to paycheck and depend on overtime to make ends meet.
Yes, agree.
Most everybody’s highest cost = housing (by far).
With absurd housing costs the workforce at all levels will continue to out-migrate and in-migration will remain dead.
They did a survey on why people are leaving the islands. Very few said housing. Most said insufficient job opportunities. Not everyone wants to work in tourism or for the government.
What survey?? The one you did in your head?
So this explains the huge shortage at hospitals for nurses, doctors? Teachers at schools, and every other profession?
I never make up surveys.
The reasons behind the migration vary from family to family, but economic prospects in Hawaii are heavily at play. A study by Kamehameha Schools cited the high cost of living coupled with a lack of job opportunities and career growth in Hawaii. Hawaii’s cost of housing is 214% higher than the national average and the overall cost of living is 84% higher than the national average, according to Payscale.
Notice there is no mention of lack of housing, just cost of housing. Housing has always been super-expensive in Hawaii.
Why yes, Bill!
Low wages does exactly explain why even highly skilled folks like nurses, software professionals and even doctors won’t entertain Hawaii.
You know, very high-cost housing markets like Manhattan and [pick your own example] are able to attract talent precisely because they can and do raise their offers. Hawaii has the ‘sunshine tax’! Just stick tenaciously to the idea that professionals of all stripes should be glad to live here, cause we got sun!
Tell that to a budding software professional and see how far it gets ya..
How does the short term rental bill effect time share owners?
That is what I want to know too!
You have to take the good and the bad. Less STRs more affordable housing. Also less jobs, less tourists with their fat wallets and the remaining STRs in the hotel zone spike in price meaning only the rich can go. Careful you will get what you wish for. Also how will Maui cover the 30% decrease in tax revenue all those rentals provide?
I see vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods is like building a hotel in a residential neighborhood. The neighborhood should be able to decide if that is appropriate. The people objecting to this law are people who have invested in making money off these neighborhoods; they have no interest in the community. Note that None of their comments talk about how they make the community better. They don’t; they invest the minimum to extract the maximum. Controlling short term rentals is something communities have always had the power to do, and many tourist destinations have controls and safeguards in place that have withstood legal challenges for years.
Don’t compare “neighborhoods” with the Minatoya locations. Those are all in commercial or resort areas.
I wish you could be here to drive down the streets with a map to see the units affected by this. Local residents would neither want nor be able to afford these units, and there aren’t any “neighborhoods” on those streets.
Thank you for your coverage of shuttering seven thousand rental businesses. For any people operating a small business, it is appalling government control to shutter so many without consideration. Reminds me of the saying, and then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak. Also made me question why, if the government was so interested in illegal str’s, that they only went after the legal registered businesses, and decided to leave the many illegal rentals alone? The other islands will likely watch mindfully before taking excessive force to shut down business in order to line the pockets of politicians.
So let me see if I understand this correctly, the legislature passed a tax cut and they’re going to remove tourist dollars from the budget but they’re still going to provide all the services and build new housing, highly unlikely.
Q: What’s the difference between Hawaii and
Barcelona, Amsterdam, Lake Tahoe, Paris, Florence, etc?
A: Hawaii is isolated and undiversified. Depends on expensive transportation (shipping and air) for goods to sustain its population. Extremely limited compared to the other tourism destinations cited.
Hawaii’s dominant economic contributor is Visitors
Barcelona – Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, electronics, and appliance manufacturing
Amsterdam – trade and logistics, manufacturing, services, innovation and technology and sustainable and renewable energy
Paris – commerce and services
Lake Tahoe 60% – outdoor activities
Stop tourism, give up ability to sustain itself? then what?
An informed, fact-based assessment in a sea of passionate yet uninformed opinion. Very well done.
Does the Maui government have a back up plan for affordable housing if this doesn’t stand up to challenges? Affordable housing could have be built in the time this will take to be resolved (years). STR’s provide$300 million in ptax to Maui, which is 1/3 of their $1 billion budget. Half of the $300 will be dramatically reduced. Where will this come from. The amount of money from STRs has gone up from $125M to $300M in the last five years. Where has this gone? Could have gone to affordable housing, yet no meaningful new housing. Maybe instead of banning them, you should tax all the STRs and hotels more and raise money now and build now. Not depend on a roll of the dice legally and trying to scare the market down which will hurt most.
No. They don’t.
It’s never good when your governor talks about “sidestepping constitutional conflicts”. Banning vacation rentals is government overreach, stripping our property rights and devaluing our properties. What the state is really doing is reserving Hawaii for only the rich, visitors who can afford to eat every meal out and spend $1000+/night to house a family of 5 in two tiny hotel rooms. Who benefits? International hotel corporations, who will enjoy a monopoly created once Air BnB’s are gone, resulting in even higher room fees. Instead of reinvesting their profits in Hawaii like Air BnB owners do, those corporations give their profits to their overseas shareholders. And for Hawaii residents, fewer visitors means fewer jobs. Bad plan.
Amen. This move by Green has the stink of hotel lobbyists all over it. It has nothing to do with affordable housing.
And how many of these STR units will enter the long-term market? Not mine – I will use it as a 2nd home instead. All the revenue it now generates for the government and local economy will disappear. Will Green’s next move be to try to ban people from living in their own places, unless he deems them the “right” people?
The Hawaiian government has been kicking the can down the road for decades re housing for workers. To now solve it on the backs of mom and pop STR owners is disgusting.
Another thing I’d like to say is how funny it is that the other articles on STRs being potentially limited drew hundreds of comments, most of which were from speculators and all related parties commenting on how hard it would be for them, how they create jobs, yadda yadda…how STRs area great for the economy and the more the better…
But now we have just one article showing just a tiny fraction of the banning and limits being placed in jurisdictions globally, and guess what, as of my writing this comment – there are only 15 comments and this article has been out all day!
Why does everyone think that STRs are being successfully banned and restricted globally? Because everyone knows they are a huge problem!