Maui single family home

[Anna Mdivani]

Hi there, 

this is my first post to bigger pockets, appreciate any insight and guidance here. I'm considering buying a single family home in Maui as my primary residence. At some point, I may want to rent it out on a long term basis. I read about the short term regulation and permit on the island and wanted to see if anyone can tell me or point me to the definition of "short term" and if there are additional restriction on long term rentals for example over 30 days.

Thanks,

Anna

[Devin Redmond]

@Anna Mdivani I can second the main points made by @Mike Neubauer.

Minimum contract lease term in Maui County is 6 months unless you have an STR permit, which is only available for a single-family home after you've owned it for 5 years. Even then, your application is subject to tight caps on the number of permits available by neighborhood, higher occupancy taxes, etc. The fines for running an underground STR are astronomical.

Other Hawaii counties have different minimum lease terms. Big Island is only 30 days, for example. Each of the four main Hawaii counties runs its own STR program and the rules differ substantially between counties so detailed research is key before making a purchase. That said, long-term rents remain solid across the state due to restrictive rural/agricultural zoning, a substantial lack of new housing supply, and the added cost of transporting building materials 2,500 miles from the mainland.

Only other thing I will say is that if your plan is to do long-term rentals, expect a lot of tenant churn. A decent number of people seem to move to Maui, Kauai, or the Big Island from the mainland and then find it much harder to make ends meet than expected. Probably less of a factor for Oahu.