The law is in our guide to Maui vacation rental rules and Bill 9.

Hotel districts allow vacation rentals by zoning; apartment districts do not

The Maui County Code draws the line in three sections. A transient vacation rental is “occupancy of a dwelling or lodging unit by transients for any period of less than one hundred eighty days” (section 19.04.040). The same section defines a hotel as “a transient vacation rental,” and the hotel districts list hotels among their permitted uses (section 19.14.020). Section 19.37.010 then prohibits transient vacation rentals in every zoning district except the uses it names, among them those permitted in the hotel districts.

Apartment districts work the other way. Their buildings “must be occupied on a long term residential basis, except as otherwise allowed by code” (section 19.12.010), and the Code defines long term as 180 days or more per year. The exception was the Minatoya route: apartment buildings approved before April 20, 1989 that met the County’s criteria could keep vacation rentals as a lawful nonconforming use, and the County kept a list of them. Ordinance 5909 (Bill 9) ends that use on January 1, 2029 in West Maui and January 1, 2031 everywhere else, including Wailea, Makena and Kihei; timeshare units and uses under a variance are exempt. Hotel districts are outside it.

How to check one condo’s zoning in six steps

Check the parcel, not the listing. The tax map key (TMK) leads to every County record.

1. Find the TMK. A condominium unit’s TMK is the project’s parcel number plus a unit number. Wailea Beach Villas sits on parcel (2) 2-1-008:091, written 210080910000 on the County’s lists.
2. Open the County’s real property record at qpublic.net/hi/maui. It shows a zoning line and the unit’s tax class. The tax class records how the unit is taxed, not what the zoning permits.
3. View the parcel on the Planning Department’s Land Use Viewer. A tax record shows one code; the zoning map shows whether the parcel is split.
4. Check the County’s short-term occupancy list (the Minatoya list), whose current apartment-district version is dated June 27, 2024. The County’s non-apartment list “does not include many other properties in zoning districts that permit short-term occupancy,” so absence from it proves nothing.
5. Ask the Planning Department in writing. Its Zoning and Flood Confirmation Form “verifies the County Zoning, Community Plan, State Land Use District designations, Flood Zone and other special districts” for a parcel, and the County’s list says confirmation of short-term occupancy “should be obtained from the Department of Planning.”
6. Read the declaration, bylaws and house rules, and ask about any amendment in progress.

South Maui complexes on each side of the line, from County records

These tables list South Maui complexes whose zoning or list status we confirmed in County records on October 21, 2026, with each row’s source. Hotel-district rows are outside Bill 9. Every row is zoning only: association documents can still restrict rentals.

• County list 2024: the apartment-district short-term occupancy list dated June 27, 2024.
• Planning list 2020: the Planning Department’s non-apartment short-term occupancy list, January 24, 2020; the County’s July 25, 2024 version repeats these entries.
• Zoning map: the Planning Department’s Land Use Viewer, read October 21, 2026.
• Tax record: the zoning shown in the County’s real property tax records for units in the project, tax year 2026, read October 21, 2026.

Wailea and Makena

Kihei

Other South Maui and Maalaea projects on the County’s list are covered in our Bill 9 guide, and this page is updated when the Council decides.

Split parcels: where the building sits on the parcel decides

Some parcels carry more than one district. The Planning Department told the Maui Planning Commission on September 22, 2026 that on the zoning map “most of the property is zoned Apartment while a small portion is zoned Business Resort” at Wailea Ekahi I, and that Wailea Ekahi III has “approximate equal amounts zoned Hotel-1 and Apartment.” The same report warned that the County’s list “was not originally created by the Department” and “may have some inaccuracies.”

On a split parcel, what matters is the district under the building that holds the unit. The tax records do not settle it: the Wailea Ekahi I unit records read A-1, while Wailea Ekahi III’s unit records read A-1 for some units and H-1 for others, and Resolution 26-111 proposes rezoning only part of some parcels. If a unit’s rental value depends on a split parcel, get the Planning Department’s written determination for that building first.

Association documents can forbid what zoning allows

Zoning is permission from the County, not from the building. Hawaii law says a condominium hotel operator “shall operate in condominium projects specifically authorized for transient lodgings by county zoning and regulations and specifically permitted by the condominium project’s declaration and bylaws” (HRS section 467-30). A condominium’s recorded documents set its permitted uses and restrictions, so a hotel-zoned complex can still limit or bar short stays. Before you rely on rental use, read:

• The declaration and bylaws, recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances or filed in Land Court when the condominium is created, per the State’s Real Estate Branch.
• The current house rules, including any minimum stay or rental fee.
• Any amendment the owners are voting on.
• The developer’s public report, which describes “permitted uses, restrictions, warranties, and encumbrances.”
• The managing agent’s written answers, before closing.

Running a hotel-zoned condo as a vacation rental: licenses, taxes and a local contact

Zoning starts the obligations. These State and County rules were read on October 21, 2026.

• State licenses. The Hawaii Department of Taxation says operators of rentals shorter than 180 consecutive days must register for a general excise tax (GET) and transient accommodations tax (TAT) license on Form BB-1, file both returns and pay both taxes. The owner stays responsible even when a property manager files.
• Advertising. Under HRS section 237D-4, every advertisement, online ones included, must show the TAT registration identification number or a link to it, and the local contact’s name, phone number and email, unless those contact details reach the guest before the stay. Citations start at $500 per day.
• A local contact. HRS section 237D-1 defines the local contact as a person living on the same island as the unit, or a business with someone working on that island.
• The County’s tax. Maui County charges its own 3 percent transient accommodations tax in addition to the State TAT and GET, with no separate County registration; the tax ID belongs to the operator, not the property manager.
• Property tax. The County generally taxes units rented for less than six consecutive months in its TVR-STRH class; a property with eight or more units and more than 20 full-time employees can be classed Hotel and Resort. Rates are in our guide to Maui property tax for second homes.

Apartment-zoned owners in South Maui: where rezoning stands on October 21, 2026

The Council’s first rezonings into the new hotel districts are undecided. Resolution 26-111, adopted by the Council on July 24, 2026 and sent to the Maui Planning Commission, proposes H-3 zoning for Wailea Ekahi I, II and III, Wailea Ekolu and Palms at Wailea I. On September 22, 2026 the Commission recommended that the Council deny every property in that group except Hana Kai Maui, citing “insufficient information and lack of objective standards to evaluate what is considered a hotel operation.” The Council decides. On September 29, 2026 the Council also sent Resolution 26-129 to the Commission, covering apartment-district properties in sea level rise, flood hazard or shoreline setback areas, including Kihei Bay Surf, Kihei Bay Vista, Kihei Resort and Shores of Maui. Even after a rezoning, the Planning Department says a property keeps vacation rental use only if it meets the old apartment-district criteria, including vacation rental use before September 24, 2020 shown by its tax class or GET and TAT payments. Deadlines and an owner’s choices are in our Bill 9 guide.

Selling a condo: have the zoning answer ready before the first showing

Zoning and rental status are among the first questions a buyer’s agent asks about a South Maui condo. Have these ready before listing:

• The TMK, the current tax record and the zoning map view of the parcel.
• A Planning Department confirmation if the parcel is split.
• The County list status and any rezoning resolution.
• The GET and TAT license numbers and the rental history.
• The association documents, any rental rule, and the plan for bookings that run past closing.

The rest of the sale, from pricing to closing costs, is in our guide to selling a luxury home or condo in Wailea and Makena.

Our record on both sides of the line

The team’s published sales history includes sales in hotel-zoned Wailea Beach Villas, Polo Beach Club and Wailea Point, and in Wailea Ekahi, which is on the County’s apartment-district list. On the hotel side the open questions are association rules; on the apartment side, the 2031 date and rezoning.

Frequently asked questions