Maui’s proposed vacation rental ban has triggered a high-stakes standoff, exposing deep divisions between residents and rental owners. What happens next could reshape the island—and how visitors experience it—for years to come.
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I’ve owned a condominium on Maui since the late 1970’s and my current condominium was build and opened for sale in 1979. The By-Laws required by the County, approved by the county and recorded with the deed at the County. The By-laws clearly state that we can rent monthly, weekly or daily. The intended use of the property was as a vacation rental and it has been a vacation rental for all 46 years.
Every lot in Maui has it’s own zoning and legal use.
We do not have huge districts.
There are Zoned A-2 or A-1, R-2 residentially zoned condos within Kaanapali and within Kapalua area.
The zoning of every address is published on the Maui County Real Property Tax search by address, or by owners name.
So visitors should do the research before reserving any property zoned , Apartment – which is residential use. H – Hotel is the zoning of properties built on short term rental use.
The Mayors of the other islands have already complied with the Governors order to create long term housing.
Imagine pillaging and stealing an entire nation which had plenty of housing for it’s residents and then complaining about it a few hundred years later. Conversely, imagine the scenario where you are both upholding the idea of personal property rights by allowing the benefactors of this theft to keep their spoils but also enforcing what you can do with your personal property.
Maui has lost its appeal. So much bickering shows no one is in control. They have ruined a good thing. Too bad, their loss.
Banning short term rental, is a short term plan. Maui needs it’s tourism to survive economically. They need to be realistic in terms of housing, pricing , groceries etc., Time for new leadership in Hawaii that has everyone in mind not just their political agenda.
Maui does not have designated Hotel Use areas.
Zoning is based on a lot by lot basis.
There are Apartment zoned ( residential use) condos mixed in with hotels in Kapalua and Kaanapali’s resort development. . They need to return to being residential or long term rentals.
The Apartment zoned properties are needed to return back to long term residential / long term rental use.
Farm zoned land have built multiplex vacation rental accommodations that are producing over $100,000 income Per Month.
The hotels are under 40% occupancy
Over 1000 residents have left maui since the Lahaina fire .
The Govenor has ordered Maui to create long term housing.
I just looked up occupancy rate for Maui in April 2025, it was just over 71% per HTA. Of course the hotels would love 90% and above and Bissen will help them out, just as Green has.
If the county or state wanted these condominium projects to for long term rentals or only owner occupied why did they promote and approve the recorded by-laws clearly providing for daily rentals. Local’s have been leaving Hawaii for decades looking for careers on the main land. My two adult children’s grand parents moved from Oahu at 16 for a better life in California, since their parents worked the fields and brothers and sisters either worked retail or tended bar at the Pearl City Tavern.
They came to California at 16 and got jobs and eventually started their own very successful business in San Leandro, California. The other family members would come to visit but preferred the slower pace of life on Oahu.
So people leave Hawaii for employment or business opportunities, to own a home, first in California now Las Vegas and we welcome them. There just isn’t a lot of job opportunities in Hawaii like there is on the mainland, especially California.
The state and county own 1,000’s of acres of land all over Maui county. The way housing works is a developer buys a plot of land based on what can be developed on the property which the county has control, the county could rezone existing vacant land to provide small lot communities and require either owner occupied or long term rentals. The county could wave all the fee’s associated with the subdivision of the property and pay for the roads and other improvement with the existing taxes they charge vacation rentals (19%) which is were the money was suppose to go but just disappears. These subdivisions would be affordable which would set the rate of appreciation so that the first owners couldn’t just sell the units a market price down the road. They would be tied to a housing inflation rate instead of current market value, keeping it affordable.
Vacation rentals should return to regular rentals for say 5 years. The Vacation rental owners should receive a tax break $ for doing so. VA rentals are completely stocked. Too many people over-run all the beaches roads etc. Neighborhoods should be Restored.
Bissen is in over his head.
Land issue.. County has land, 9.61 thousand acres
Water. Lots of it. A matter of unmaintained infrastructure.
A dysfunctional planning department.
Medial maui lot price $600,000.00
Medial home price $1.15 million.
Cost to create a building lot on maui. $61,000.00 impact fees waved.*
* corrupt. County doesn’t spend all this $ on infrastructure.
Planning department. Disband. Replace with an ai system loaded with maui permitting laws. Would take one work week by one expert. 5 temp staff to scan.
Permit manufactured homes, and yes. Condominiums.
I used ai to determine more than 60 makes that exceed maui building code.
An ’roundabout’ or overpass fee.$20,000.00 a lot. $5000.00 a condo.
The county leases land for $100.00 a month/ home. $25 a month per condo.
A 1,500 sq foot detached home, $259,000.00. A 1,000 sq foot condo, $192,000.00
[pool].
Planning permit wait time.
About 45 minutes.
This is the 21st century. Bissen still is in 1975..
Agree Bissen’s interest are cultural.
The water is still 75% owned by the old agricultural companies and their developments.
The County needs to drill wells and find water, implement desalinization .
If you somehow get a building permit and build a house, your water meter costs $12,000.
Of the 2,000 Lahaina homes that burnt down, only 8 have rebuilt and are occupied. Most houses had 2 to 5 families living in them.
The water use in vacation rentals is double the residential use. Which Maui does not have .
Much of the old agricultural water is used to serve thousands of housing units of all types. The owners and occupants of those units are no less entitled to consume water than you.
Yes, the County needs to develop water supply instead of fighting over the water that has been developed. The County needs to bring in water development experts familiar with water development in the arid Western US. First and foremost, the County needs to create storage reservoirs to hold the abundant existing raw water supply. Most of our water is wasted and flows into the sea.
$12,000 is cheap for a water tap in Western US markets. It takes money to play in the development process. In Maui, nothing happens, because the County is stuck with paralysis and ignorance.
I find the statement vacation rentals use twice, or four times, the amount of water compared to others not credible, all other things equal. Please back your statement with proof.
Have you ever looked at satellite pics of Maui? There’s plenty of land, but apparently it’s not open for development. This whole thing comes off as an excuse to reduce competition for hotels.
The sense of entitlement by locals is astounding. Being Hawaiian born and bred doesn’t entitle you to anything. Homeownership is a privilege, not a right, and you get there by getting an education, a job and hard work and planning. Anywhere, not just Hawaii. Certainly not by taking away something that legally belongs to someone else! This is a problem that has been decades in the making , and if taking short term rentals off the market is the answer, why haven’t the hundreds of condos currently for sale been snapped up? Do you really expect them to be given away? Streamlining the permit process and fixing the water rights issue are two things that Are in Bissens’s control, but he’s ignored that. His incompetence is very obvious in the lack of rebuilding in Lahaina, where homeowners who are trying to rebuild have had endless obstacles put in their path by Bissen’s administration. Many homeowners lacked insurance, and now can’t afford to rebuild.
Responsibility of homeowners having insurance! It baffles my mind why anyone does not have coverage for something as dear as a home they work hard for. I had renters insurance the first day I got my apt. Now as a homeowner, it is quite expensive, but it is so important that I have given up luxeries and eating less junk food to pay for it. I dont own dogs or pets that I can not afford. And do not have children that I can not afford. Take some responsibility folks.
Well if this post doesn’t kill tourism, I don’t know what will. This is really offensive and wondering why you and Rob and Jeff would even post this comment. Anyway, yeah, thanks for the heads up.
Hi Debra.
Thank you. That comment has been removed.
Aloha.
I would have loved to have read that comment. Just wasn’t able to get to it in time.
Until the people of Hawaii can band together as one entity the issues of rentals, tourists, housing, heritage etc will never be resolved. The government has an impossible task due to a lack of community agreement. From the many articles I have read and people I’ve spoken with much of the population is divided on what they think is right. Rather than fight each other for one resolution, identify the issues of everyone and begin the task of melding those ideas / concerns into a workable solution for everyone. Change the tax structure to have rentals fund housing projects. Hold hotels accountable for keeping money on the island. If the government is corrupt vote in another. Where is the money going that is given to the island? Movie stars paying hundreds of millions of dollars for sacred land, Who’s selling it and where is the money? Until people can accept a common solution where everyone wins a little everyone will continue to lose a lot.
These sort term rentals already pay about 10x more than regular residences. Maybe the question should be – What is the government doing with all of these incremental funds they are bringing in?
Although there may be a statute or law “allowing” the County to do what it is trying to do, that can’t overcome the fact that what they are trying to do is against the takings clause of the US Constitution, the supreme law of the land.
Don’t forget the Minatoya properties were absolutely legal for decades before the Mayor started his shenanigans. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t away around it. The County could follow the Constitution by paying each owner “just compensation “, often using fair market value as the measure.
100%. Is the county willing to lose millions in paying back residents with legal rentals for their economic loss under this takings clause? I didn’t think so. Its an uncreative and short sided solution. BTW I don’t have a dog in the Maui issue myself.
Not millions, billions. As in a few billion.
There is No law currently the mayor is trying to create one. However he’s ignoring the fact that it is unconstitutional and when faced with the lawsuits that will follow it will cost Maui County billions of dollars.
It’s been mentioned before, probably often, but Maui for sure and Hawaii statewide need to seriously look at the future. What seems to be the intent to reduce the number of visitors but increase spending by those that come works to maintain statewide income but reduce individual jobs. Fewer accommodations will reduce the number of people needed to clean and maintain them, fewer diners will reduce the number of cooks and servers. Less guides/boat operators, tour bus drivers, and so on to show folks around. They need to do a bottom-up analysis of how the state will run and how many will be employed. Just reducing the number of visitors will not recover a functional economy.
It’s time to follow the money. No local has any interest in a condo with a mortgage And Association Fees! The only thing this bill does besides making people loose their jobs related to the tourism business is hand a big payday to the hotel lobby. This bill is ill thought and will create more harm than good. Kind a like Trumpinsky thinking tariffs will bring manufacturing back to this country. Nothing more than a fools dream!
Your thinking is why the island is in the shape it is. Just keep voting the same people in who will never do the right thing.
Does anybody really care about the people who work in the tourist industry, what happens to their jobs what happens to the small business owner who no longer has tourist to survive? Granted people need a place to live but without a job how do the residents of Maui survive?
With all due respect to the locals, I here a lot about the the evil mainlanders that bought property and caused the price of housing to go up I have 1 question it might hurt but here we go
Who sold the property in the first place and why? It wasn’t a mainlander it all started with people that inhabited Maui in the first place. Kind of like people that buy new home next to a pig farm and than start blaming the farmer for the smell