Every rule and status below comes from County, State or court records as of October 21, 2026. We update this page when the County or a court acts.

Bill 9 ends vacation rental use in Maui’s apartment districts on two fixed dates

Ordinance 5909 phases out transient vacation rentals in the A-1 and A-2 apartment districts by date, not by permit or by owner. In West Maui the use may continue through December 31, 2028 and must cease on January 1, 2029; in every other part of the County, including Wailea, Makena and Kihei, it may continue through December 31, 2030 and must cease on January 1, 2031.

The Council passed Bill 9, CD1, FD1 (2025) on final reading on December 15, 2025 by a vote of 5 to 3, and it took effect that day as Ordinance 5909. After the deadline the uses “will no longer be legally permitted or allowed as legally existing nonconforming uses.” It deletes the subsection (19.12.020(G)) that allowed vacation rentals in qualifying apartment buildings, adds the deadlines as section 19.12.070, and repeals the old process (section 19.12.025) by which owners could record a declaration giving up rental use. The County Council also has an unrelated budget bill numbered Bill 9 (2026); the rental law is Bill 9 (2025).

What the ordinance does not phase out

Section 19.12.070(C) exempts “validly existing time share units, uses permitted and operating within the terms of a variance, and uses otherwise permitted by law.” Vacation rentals permitted in the hotel districts, bed and breakfast homes and permitted short-term rental homes are kept. Hotel-zoned condominiums are outside the phase-out.

Three first-reading amendments made it into the final text

A summary circulated during the Council debate listed three first-reading amendments. All three are in the enacted text, one in narrower form:

• Notice: the Director of Finance had to send notice by March 1, 2026 to each affected owner at the address of record for real property tax, and publish it in a news publication of general circulation at least once a week for two successive weeks.
• Prior agreements: the ordinance “shall not terminate any rights accrued pursuant to a pre-existing, binding, lawful agreement between the County and an individual or entity.”
• Annual list: by March 15, 2026, and each March 15 through 2030, the Director of Finance must transmit to the Council, the Planning Director and the Mayor the list of affected parcels with each parcel’s real property tax classification. The text requires that list; it does not require a public report on owner occupancy or rental conversion.

The Minatoya list is the County’s record of apartment buildings that could rent short term

The Minatoya list is the County’s list of apartment-district buildings where vacation rentals were allowed as an exception to long-term occupancy rules dating to 1989. Its current version, dated June 27, 2024, names 104 properties and 7,167 units.

The history is in the ordinance’s own findings. Before April 20, 1989, vacation rentals were a permitted use in the apartment districts. Ordinance 1797 (1989) then required those buildings to be occupied “on a long-term residential basis, or for a continuous period of six months or more per year,” except structures with certain County approvals by April 20, 1989. Ordinance 4167 (2014) wrote those exceptions into the code, and later amendments added conditions: rental use before September 24, 2020, no more rental units than allowed on January 7, 2022, and current tax accounts.

The name comes from Richard K. Minatoya, a former deputy corporation counsel for the County (County Resolution 03-119). UHERO traces the term to a 2001 legal memo of his on which units already renting as of 1989 could continue. Every page of the June 2024 list carries the County’s warning: “This list does not grant any entitlement that is not allowed by zoning or any other provisions of the Maui County Code. This list is subject to error.”

Two County counts matter: “as of May 29, 2024, 6,208 Minatoya-listed units were actively operating as short-term rentals,” according to the Department of Finance, and about 60 percent of Minatoya units are in South Maui.

The State law that allowed the phase-out

Act 17 of 2024 (SB2919), approved May 3, 2024, amended Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-4(a) so that uses “that include the furnishing or offering of transient accommodations shall not be considered residential or agricultural uses and may be phased out or amortized in any zoning district by county zoning regulations.” Ordinance 5909 cites that change as its authority.

Six Wailea complexes are on the County’s list, and none has been rezoned

In Wailea, the County’s June 2024 list names Wailea Ekahi I, II and III, Wailea Ekolu, Palms at Wailea I and Grand Champions Villas. Five are in a pending rezoning proposal, which the Planning Commission recommended against on September 22, 2026; the Council has not voted.

Zoning inside a complex is not always uniform. Planning noted that Wailea Ekahi III has “approximate equal amounts zoned Hotel-1 and Apartment” on the County zoning map. Which building sits on which part is covered in our hotel-zoned versus apartment-zoned condo guide.

Most of the rest of South Maui’s list is in Kihei and Maalaea, from Kamaole Sands (440 units) down to single-unit properties. On the other side of the line, the County’s non-apartment list shows Wailea Elua I and II, Wailea Beach Villas, Hoolei and Wailea Point I, II and III as allowed short-term occupancy by their zoning, which includes hotel districts. Dennis’s MLS record, on our sales history page, includes sales on both sides: at Wailea Ekahi, Wailea Ekolu and Palms at Wailea, and at Wailea Beach Villas and Wailea Point.

The phase-out, date by date

Each action below is from County or State records.

Bill 88 created the H-3 and H-4 hotel districts, but they apply only after a rezoning

Ordinance 6008, Bill 88, took effect June 22, 2026 and created two new hotel districts, H-3 and H-4, as counterparts to A-1 and A-2. It moved no property by itself: outside Bill 9’s exemptions, such as timeshare units and variances, an apartment-district building keeps vacation rental use past the deadline only if the Council rezones it into H-3 or H-4 and it meets four criteria.

Under Ordinance 6008, the districts “are reserved for properties that had been zoned A-1 and A-2,” on every island except Molokai, and vacation rentals are permitted there only in buildings that meet all four of these:

1. A building permit, special management area permit or planned development approval valid on April 20, 1989.
2. Vacation rental use legally conducted before September 24, 2020, shown by real property tax class or by payment of general excise and transient accommodations taxes.
3. No more rental rooms or units than allowed on January 7, 2022, and no added floor area.
4. General excise and transient accommodations tax licenses, with taxes, fines and penalties paid.

A rezoned building keeps the A-1 or A-2 development standards and gains only rental use. The ordinance attaches the County’s list as Exhibit 1 and says the list “is not a confirmation of a zoning determination.” The Council passed it 7 to 2 on June 19, 2026, after the Maui, Lanai and Molokai planning commissions had each recommended disapproval.

The Planning Commission recommended denial for the Wailea complexes

On July 24, 2026 the Council referred Resolutions 26-110, CD1, FD1 and 26-111, CD1, proposed rezonings covering 3,823 units, to the Maui Planning Commission. Resolution 26-110 covers timeshare, leasehold, single-ownership and variance properties. Resolution 26-111 covers properties “that operate like hotels,” including Wailea Ekahi I, II and III, Wailea Ekolu, Palms at Wailea I, Luana Kai and Kamaole Sands; for the Wailea properties it would also change the Kihei-Makena community plan designation to hotel.

According to its minutes, on September 22, 2026 the Commission recommended that the Council approve rezoning for two variance properties (Kuau Plaza and Hale Kaanapali), two all-timeshare properties (Maui Schooner and Hono Koa) and Hana Kai Maui, and deny the rest. For the properties operating like hotels, the reason given was “insufficient information and lack of objective standards to evaluate what is considered a hotel operation.” The motion carried with four commissioners assenting, one abstaining and two dissenting; its attorney noted that an abstention counts as a yes.

What is not settled

The Council makes the final decision, and as of October 21, 2026 no Council vote on these rezonings appears in its published agendas or minutes. At the Commission meeting, its attorney read the County Charter to mean that where the Commission recommends disapproval, the Council needs a two-thirds vote to approve the change. More properties are in the pipeline: on September 29, 2026 the Council referred Resolution 26-129, for apartment-district properties in sea level rise, flood or shoreline setback areas, many in Kihei, by a vote of 5 to 4.

One lawsuit was dismissed, and no County record shows the deadlines stopped

The class action Lynam v. County of Maui (Civil No. 2CCV-25-0003780), filed December 22, 2025 by owners in Kihei and Maalaea complexes on the list, was “dismissed in full on April 14, 2026,” according to the County’s Department of the Corporation Counsel. As of October 21, 2026, we found no court order or County record suspending the Ordinance 5909 deadlines, and the Planning Department’s September 2026 report treats them as in force.

A second suit, Malter v. County of Maui (Civil No. 2CCV-25-0003778), was filed on December 19, 2025 by owners at Kaanapali Royal, a West Maui complex on the County’s list, according to its court-stamped complaint.

What an owner of a Minatoya-list condo can do

An owner of a unit on the list has five paths, and they can be combined.

1. Keep renting short term until the deadline. In South Maui the use may continue through December 31, 2030. The ordinance has no rule that ends the use when a unit sells.
2. Switch to longer rentals. Since 1989 the apartment districts have allowed occupancy on a long-term basis or for a continuous six months or more a year. A unit rented to the same tenant for twelve consecutive months or more, with a long-term rental exemption granted, is taxed in the County’s long-term rental class.
3. Use it yourself or hold it. A unit that becomes the owner’s principal home, with a home exemption granted, is classed owner-occupied. Ask the Real Property Assessment Division how a held unit will be classed; our Maui property tax guide covers each class.
4. Sell. A sale before the deadline can include the remaining rental period; after it, the unit sells without short-term rental use. A seller who is not a Hawaii resident should plan for HARPTA withholding at closing.
5. Pursue or wait for a rezoning. The investigative group’s report says owners not on its recommended list “may still individually apply for land-use-designation changes.” A rezoned building keeps rental use only if it meets Ordinance 6008’s four criteria.

What the phase-out means for condo values

The dated price findings come from UHERO, the University of Hawaii’s economic research organization. Its May 7, 2026 Housing Factbook reports that sale prices of condos on the Minatoya list fell 16 percent from 2023 to 2025, while Maui condo prices fell 11 percent and statewide condo prices 4 percent.

UHERO’s Housing Factbook 2026 says deed transfer data show the declines are already happening, and adds: “If Bill 9 survives legal scrutiny and exemptions remain limited, condo prices will likely fall further.” Its March 31, 2025 economic analysis projected a 20 to 40 percent decline in Maui condo prices from a full phase-out, but it modeled the Mayor’s original schedule, with units leaving the rental market in 2025 and 2026, not the 2029 and 2031 dates enacted, and UHERO wrote that a more gradual phase-in could “stabilize condo prices at a higher level” than it projected. On the County side, the Department of Finance reported a count: 101 sales of affected properties after the ordinance took effect, in a letter of June 22, 2026.

The mechanism is straightforward. A listed unit’s price has carried the value of its short-term rental income. As the deadline approaches, that income shrinks, and the buyer becomes someone who will live in the unit, use it as a second home or rent it long term, and the unit’s tax class can change with its use. Hotel-zoned condominiums are untouched, so Bill 9 draws a legal line between South Maui complexes that used to compete for the same buyer. How far apart they trade depends on rezoning decisions the Council has not made.

Homes are different: short-term rental home permits do not transfer on sale

Bill 9 does not reach houses in residential districts. A house in a residential district can be rented short term only with a Short-Term Rental Home permit or another approval, and that permit does not pass to a buyer.

Under Ordinance 5300, effective November 26, 2021, and now Maui County Code section 19.65.030, “a permit is not transferable,” except on the permit holder’s death to an immediate family member, or within a trust to a successor trustee or beneficiary. A new applicant’s house must have been built at least fifteen years before the application and owned by the applicant for at least fifteen years. So a buyer of a permitted rental home cannot use the seller’s permit and cannot apply for a new one for fifteen years.

Frequently asked questions