#short term rentals

The Maui County Council gave final approval Thursday to a $1.6 billion fiscal year 2027 budget, sending the spending plan to Mayor Richard Bissen’s desk, but not before adding $50,000 for Maui County campus security.

Yuki Lei Sugimura, a five-term council member, said her decision was spurred by the recent passage of the bill to phase out thousands of vacation rentals, which she says will negatively impact the local economy.

The state water commission is trying to decide who should get permits to use water in West Maui, with 93 existing use permits and 48 new applications under review.

The Maui County Council will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. Nov. 3 — and take public testimony — to establish a process to fill the Kahului residency seat vacancy left Sunday by the death of Council Member Natalie “Tasha” Kama.

County attorneys have been careful not to reveal their legal strategies but say they believe the bill is legally sound.

A novel approach to Maui’s severe housing crisis emerged during a third round of emotional public testimony Monday on the hotly debated vacation rental phase-out bill: leveraging short-term rental profits to finance affordable housing for local families. Jonavan Asato, senior pastor at Grace Bible Church in Kahului, proposed this alternative while testifying on Bill 9 […]

Lahaina Roads, which has only seven units owned by permanent residents, reopens at a pivotal time as the Maui County Council prepares to decide on a bill that would ban short-term rentals in certain apartment districts, including Lahaina Roads.

The median price for Maui condos has dropped almost 25%, from a whopping $962,500 in April 2024 before the proposed short-term rental ban to $727,000 in April of this year.

Some owners are selling, and related businesses like cleaning services are seeing a drop in jobs and income. “We’re just kind of in purgatory,” one property management company said.

Even with the political factions that have split the council in recent years, candidates on both sides of the aisle are cautious when it comes to the mayor’s proposal of completely phasing out short-term rentals.

Hundreds of property owners have been notified recently that they owe back taxes. The county has struggled to collect the tax since it was imposed in 2021.

Demand for constructor workers and contractors is outpacing the need in Lahaina, where a massive rebuild effort is just getting started.

Despite having the most vacation rental units in the state, Maui County’s demand and occupancy were down double-digits compared to last year and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report for July by the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Just as Maui County is seeking to phase out transient vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts, the European city of Barcelona, Spain, has imposed some of the most restrictive vacation rental rules on the planet, according to the World’s Best Cities Report 2024.

Council member Gabe Johnson expressed his support Wednesday for the Lahaina Strong Hui, which is currently calling for action from State and County administrations to address the urgent sheltering crisis in Lahaina caused by the Aug. 8 wildfires. 

The West Maui organizations are demanding long-term housing solutions for people displaced by the Lahaina fire.

A significant action was the council’s move to double the appropriation of real property tax revenue to the Affordable Housing Fund from 2% to 4%.

US Senator Brian Schatz is urging the FTC to study the commercial manner in which individuals/firms are using online services to profit from short-term rentals.