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What Bill 88 Means for Kihei Condo Buyers and Sellers
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If you own a condo in Kihei, or you've been thinking about buying one and have been waiting on the sidelines while the Bill 9 situation played out, here is an update on how things are developing.
On June 19, 2026, the Maui County Council passed Bill 88 on second and final reading by a 7-2 vote. It now heads to Mayor Bissen for his signature, which is widely expected, given that he authored Bill 9 and testified in support of Bill 88 himself earlier this spring.
Once signed, it becomes law. This is a big deal for anyone with a stake in the Kihei condo market, as owners in several complexes are likely to be able to put this stress behind them while others will be looking to either appeal for inclusion or look to move forward with the class action lawsuit.
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A Quick Recap of How We Got Here
In December 2025, Mayor Bissen signed Bill 9 into law. That legislation phases out short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned condo complexes across Maui, specifically the properties on what's known as the Minatoya List. For South Maui, which includes Kihei, the phase-out deadline is January 1, 2031. West Maui faces an earlier deadline of January 1, 2029.
The Minatoya List consists of apartment-zoned complexes that have been legally operating as vacation rentals for decades, dating back to a 2001 legal opinion from then-Deputy Corporation Counsel Richard Minatoya. These properties were effectively grandfathered in, and almost all of them were built with the express purpose of operating as vacation rentals. Bill 9 ended that.
The impact on the Kihei condo market was immediate and significant. Prices softened, inventory dramatically increased while buyers pulled back, and a lot of real uncertainty crept into every transaction involving a Minatoya List property. Very few wanted to commit to buying a vacation rental condo without knowing whether it would still be legal as a vacation rental by the deadline.
Bill 88 is the county's attempt to answer that question, at least in part, by providing a middle ground and a path to maintaining short-term rental status for certain complexes.
What Bill 88 Actually Does
Bill 88 creates two new zoning classifications: H-3 and H-4. These new hotel district zones mirror the existing A-1 and A-2 apartment zones in virtually every way, with one critical difference: they explicitly permit short-term vacation rentals.
The key word is creates. Bill 88 establishes the categories. It does not automatically rezone any property. Every complex that wants to operate under H-3 or H-4 zoning still needs to apply individually and be reviewed on its own merits. Nobody gets a free pass just because the categories now exist.
There's also an important eligibility guardrail the council added before advancing the bill: to qualify, a property must demonstrate that vacation-rental use existed before September 24, 2020. This was added specifically to prevent the roughly 1,700 properties not on the Minatoya List from using the new zoning as a backdoor into the vacation rental market.
Current Kihei Short Term Rental Condos For Sale
The Three Buckets: Where Your Kihei Condo Stands
Not all Kihei condos are in the same position under this legislation. Here's how I break it down for my clients:
Bucket 1: Already Hotel-Zoned (Not Affected by Any of This)
If your condo is already in hotel or resort zoning, none of this applies to you. These properties can continue operating short-term rentals with no change whatsoever. In the broader South Maui area, existing hotel-zoned short-term rentals include Royal Mauian, Mana Kai, and Maui Banyan, none of which were on the Minatoya List to begin with.
If you're shopping for a Kihei condo and want complete certainty around rental rights, hotel-zoned properties are the clearest path.
Search Hotel Zoned Short Term Rentals By Complex
Bucket 2: On the Minatoya List AND the TIG Exhibit 2 List (The Clear Path Forward)
This is where the most encouraging news is. When Bill 9 was under deliberation, the county council appointed a four-member Temporary Investigative Group (TIG) to assess the legislation's economic impact and identify which Minatoya List properties were best suited to remain as short-term rentals.
Their criteria focused on properties that are priced out of reach for local residents, located in areas with higher sea-level rise exposure, or contain a significant number of timeshare units.
The TIG published their findings in what's called Exhibit 2, a list of properties they recommend for H-3/H-4 rezoning. The following Kihei complexes made that list:
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Maui Hill
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Kihei Bay Vista
Being on this list doesn't mean automatic rezoning. Every complex still needs to go through the application process. But it does mean the county has already signaled that it views these properties as appropriate candidates for continued short-term rental use, and their applications are far more likely to move through the process favorably than complexes that weren't included.
For buyers, these are the properties where the investment thesis is most intact right now.
Bucket 3: On the Minatoya List but NOT on TIG Exhibit 2 (A Much Harder Road)
This is where buyers need to be the most careful and do the most homework before committing.
Kihei has several Minatoya List condos that were not included in TIG Exhibit 2.
For these properties, Bill 88 technically creates a path to apply for H-3/H-4 zoning, but they'll need to build their own case without the county's implicit endorsement that the Exhibit 2 designation provides. That means a longer, more uncertain, and potentially more expensive rezoning process with no guarantee of a favorable outcome.
These properties aren't without options. They can still apply. They can participate in the ongoing litigation challenging the constitutionality of Bill 9. And Maui has council and mayoral elections later this year, which could meaningfully shift the political landscape around enforcement.
But buyers entering these properties need to understand the risks clearly. If the rezoning doesn't come through and the legal challenges don't succeed, these units will need to transition to long-term rental only by January 1, 2031. That's a fundamentally different investment than a vacation rental, and it needs to be priced accordingly.
Kihei Real Estate Listings
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What This Means if You're Buying
If vacation rental income is part of why you're looking at Kihei condos, the first question I'll ask you about any property is: which bucket does it fall in?
For TIG Exhibit 2 properties, the near-term uncertainty has meaningfully reduced. That doesn't mean the path to H-3/H-4 zoning is a sure thing or that the timeline is clear yet. But the direction is positive, and prices for many of these complexes are still softer than before Bill 9 passed. For buyers who've been sitting on the sidelines, this window could represent a genuine opportunity to get into a well-positioned Kihei vacation rental at a price you wouldn't have seen two years ago.
For properties not on the TIG list, the uncertainty remains very real and is priced into the market, sometimes significantly. The discount can be tempting, but you need to go in with a clear-eyed understanding of what you're betting on.
For hotel-zoned properties, none of this applies, and you can buy with the same level of confidence you always could.
No matter what you're looking at, I always recommend pulling the current zoning, confirming Minatoya List status, and checking TIG Exhibit 2 inclusion before making any offer on a Kihei condo right now. These details matter more today than they ever have in this market.
What This Means if You're Selling
If you own a Kihei condo on the Minatoya List, Bill 88's passage is a positive development, but it's not a reason to sit back and wait.
For sellers with TIG Exhibit 2 properties, buyer confidence has genuinely improved since the bill was advanced. Serious buyers are re-engaging in ways they weren't six months ago. If you've been holding off on listing while waiting for some clarity, this is the most clarity the market has seen since Bill 9 became law. This is a reasonable time to be having the conversation about selling.
For sellers with non-TIG properties, the calculation is more nuanced and depends on your specific complex, your HOA's efforts to pursue rezoning, and your personal timeline. Waiting for a full reprieve that may never come carries real risk. But pricing correctly for where things actually stand and marketing to the right buyer, one who understands the upside of the current discount, can still produce a strong result.
The one thing I'd caution every seller against right now is overpricing based on what your unit would have been worth in 2022 or 2023. The market has corrected. Buyers today are well-informed and very sensitive to comparable sales. Properties that are priced in line with current market reality are selling. Properties priced as if Bill 9 never happened are sitting, sometimes for months.
The Bottom Line
Bill 88 doesn't eliminate all the uncertainty around approved future short-term rental use, yet there are still rezoning applications to be filed, timelines to be defined, lawsuits working their way through the courts, and an election coming that could shift the political winds. But it does provide a real, county-backed path for a meaningful number of Kihei condos to preserve their short-term rental rights, and that's a significant shift from where things stood six months ago.
The Kihei condo market is now effectively split into three categories, each with a very different outlook. Knowing which one applies to the property you own or are considering is the most important piece of due diligence in this market right now.
If you want to talk through where a specific condo stands, give me a call. I'll walk you through the Minatoya List status, TIG Exhibit 2 inclusion, current zoning, and what comparable units are actually selling for, so you can make a decision based on the full picture.
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Posted by Evan Harlow R(S) on
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