What Hawaii Governor Josh Green said today could be a blow to the Maui vacation rental industry.
Leave a Comment
59 thoughts on “Possible Moratorium Looms Over Maui Vacation Rentals”
What Hawaii Governor Josh Green said today could be a blow to the Maui vacation rental industry.
Where is FEMA?
Distribute the burden of long term and short term rentals evenly throughout all of maui’s resorts. Many workers will have to commute to the west side from other side of island’s communities. Many workers already do. Only fair. We shouldn’t expect west side to carry the load/burden of housing by themselves. All island policies mandatory all resorts. Do the math. Can help with commute costs for those assigned to other side housing. Fair for all owners this way too. Thxs martin.
I just got back from Maui 3 weeks ago. I had booked my yearly visit a year ago and up to the past week or two we went back and forth about going. We ended up going and tried to be very respectful to locals and not bring up anything about the fire. Some locals brought it up themselves and we tried to be supportive. Most locals were glad we were shopping, spending money and they were grateful for the work with the influx of visitors. A very complex situation and my heart goes out to all the people that were affected by this fire.
Great information. I keep wondering why we keep thinking that government is the solution. I was reading an article about affordable housing in Sacramento, CA. Private developers can build a unit for $390k, and the affordable housing units wind up costing $600k due to increased regulation and compliance costs. Maybe the government should just back off and let the people figure it out. Just an idea.
So I have experience with surviving a wildfire, Campfire that burned the community of Paradise to the ground, there’s so much tied up in litigation that nothing is getting done.
That’s after 5 years!!!
For simpletons that means any move by the government to force STR property to be converted to long term is going to be met with stiff litigation that will go on for years.
Smart attorneys will organize STR property owners to donate 100.00 a month to fight the government. That’s 1.5 million a month.
The harsh reality is that those who lost homes and had jobs in businesses in Lahaina Town will have to move if they have not been able to find new employment. Looking at the fire that devastated the town of Paradise Ca, far more homes and businesses were destroyed and from the NY Times, “ five years after the fire, the numbers have not returned. The population has fallen to around 9,000 from roughly 26,000. Today, there are fewer than 4,000 houses and 450 businesses in Paradise, compared with 12,000 homes and 1,500 businesses before November 2018.Nov 9, 2023. nytimes.com › paradise” Governor Green needs to understand that it will take a long time for tourism to return and help people move on.
The news coverage also has a role in this. On the mainland, every time somebody sees a news article about reopening journalism expectations say that you have to give a certain amount of space to an opposing viewpoint. Even if that viewpoint is extreme or held by just a small number of people mainlanders don’t know that they just see the news talking about some guy that got interviewed who’s ranting about travelers.
The economy of the island of Maui even more than the rest of the state of Hawaii is so highly integrated with tourism.
The idea of converting short term units to long term is not practical. Most short term rentals units have very little storage for items either inside or outside of the unit. Most rental units do not allow pets or have places for things like kids bikes. Most rental units are on the small side leaving little room for families. Short term rental units provide millions of tax dollars to the economy. Many of the amenities that are used by all will not survive without tourist dollars. The political base is trying to make short term rental owners pay for the lack of supporting low income local housing for many, many years.
Yes, I agree, and I may add, since I am a world tourist. There is a noticable change in the condition of units when rented out to individuals that are doing hard living in a small quarters. I for one, do not want to rent a place that is worn out and shown abuse. I have been searching very hard as for a rental that isnt charging high prices for worn furnishings. I won’t do it, and it is a challenge unless one pays an extremely high rate. the prices being charged now are now worth what one gets. After the long term rentals are done, it will be even worse. i will go elsewhere, sadly!
Who will reimburse the STR owners for lost income? I doubt that they are making 50% profit so that going to long term rentals won’t bankrupt them. Seems that Hawaii needs to reimburse them for the lost income, at least cover the loss for mortgage, tax, insurance, and other similar costs. If it is a societal benefit then society should pony up.
Here’s an idea: since Maui County incompetence and mismanagement created the issue, they deal with the inconvenience. Mayor Biden lives in a 5-bedroom house. Put a couple of families on the four spare bedrooms. Same with all of the MEMA employees who have done nothing for the past 5 years other than collecting paychecks. Same with the guy in charge of water who didn’t release it for five hours. Same with the Fire Chief who mishandled the fires. Go down the line with all government employees. Drug test all before giving them housing.
How about moving some displaced Lahaina residents to other islands? Tourists spend money and keep restaurants, hotels, bars, other service businesses, and yes legal STRs in business. No one has addressed what the State and County will do if a displaced resident moves into an upscale STR and trashes it. Who pays for the remodel? What if they refuse to leave at the end of the rental? Hawaii laws are pro-tenant and an STR owner will have legal cost, loss of income, and remodel costs. Talk to anyone who owns rental properties and they will tell you horror stories! A friend was in one of the hotels used for displaced housing and he told me about vomit in the hallways, and unsupervised teens and tweens stealing from vacationers.
And this does not surprise me. And I am not renting from an abused room. i for one, have been looking at rental photos and really studying them. I Will Not pay the outlandish rental prices for abused properties. Not the owners fault, but if they don’t think about these issues, (Some) will not care for the str, and the owners will lose out anyway with repair bills, or having to lower their prices for a destroyed unit rental. Yes, it will happen.