Maui Condos For Rent

Reform bills to spell out short-term rental rules

WAILUKU - The issue of streamlining, and legalizing, the short-term rental process has been a hot-button issue for a long time.

It was an issue in Mayor Charmaine Tavares' 2010 re-election campaign after she cracked down on illegal rental properties in residential areas. She lost, whether the rental issue helped or hurt.

But attitudes about the issue have changed dramatically in the past few years, county officials and tourism industry experts say.

Once she was in office at the start of 2007, Tavares pledged to "maintain the character" of Maui County's neighborhoods by having staff hunt down what were estimated to be about 1,100 unpermitted short-term rentals - or transient vacation rentals as they were called then - that had blossomed on Maui during record years for visitor arrivals, which peaked in 2007.

With a new mayor, administration and a popular and successful bed-and-breakfast ordinance, which resolved many of the old TVR disputes, short-term rental reform is back on the Maui County Council's radar.

The addition of the boarding rooms to the tourism industry also could mean hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the local economy and tax base, experts said.

Still, with the extremely complex Maui Island Plan and the overarching General Plan 2030 soaking up most of the time and energy of county leaders at the moment, it may be six months to a year before the council revises the law with a package of new amendments, said Council Member Mike Victorino, who holds the Waiehu-Wailuku-Waikapu residency seat.

"The TVRs I want to see given out will go to good people, deserving people, who respect their communities and want an opportunity to help keep their homes," Victorino said.

The council and the Planning Department also have formally jettisoned the confusing term TVR for a less complex phrase, short-term rental. And in March, the County Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the reform bills and passed them along to the Maui, Molokai and Lanai planning commissions, as well as the Hana Advisory Board, all of which approved the measures. The package is now back at the council for final alterations and approval.

Council members and the Planning Department worked on the ordinance amendments with the help of the Maui Vacation Rental Association, said board member Thomas Croly.

The bills are virtually identical to the bed-and-breakfast ordinances passed three years ago, according to the amendments. And Croly said his organization estimates that short-term rentals would generate an additional $318 million annually on Maui for the tourism industry.

Huge Differences in Comparably Priced Maui Vacation Rental Condos ...

Variation in overall occupancy, average room rate, and return on investment.

In June 2010, a 639 square foot 1-bedroom condo at the Kihei Bay Vista, a neatly kept little resort in North Kihei, sold for $220,000. About a month later, a 588 square foot 1-bedroom at the Maui Vista in South Kihei, a nicely maintained property across the street from Charlie Young and Kamaole I Beach, sold for $200,000.

I know there are those who love North Kihei, but to the vacation visitor—your future customer—there is just no comparison in these two locations. South Kihei’s beaches are among the best in the world—North Kihei’s water is murky, its shoreline rocky, and wind blows frequently. The Maui Vista is in the heart of dozens of restaurants and shops—North Kihei is a car ride away.

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