As Filipinos grapple with high rent, what is the state planning this legislative session?

According to the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, there are about 23,000 short-term vacation rentals statewide. That includes 9,000 short-term vacation rentals on Maui and at least 3,000 STRs on Oʻahu.

Before the City and County of Honolulu started cracking down on illegal vacation rentals in 2019, estimates on the number of short-term rentals on Oʻahu ranged between 10,000 and 14,000.

Gov. Green said, “I will sign into law any bill the Legislature sends me that will help move short-term rentals and vacant investment properties owned by nonresidents into our local housing market—to increase supply and bring down prices for our families.” 

He adds, “I’m humbly calling on my colleagues here at the Legislature to help us by implementing new policies and reforms which will return our housing units to the long-term rental market for our people.”

A 2023 UHERO report found, “Fewer than one-third of households in Hawaiʻi can afford the typical local home. A household earning the state median income can no longer afford the state’s median priced condominium, let alone a single-family home. High prices and high mortgage interest rates mean that homeownership has become out of reach for a larger share of residents. Over the past two years, the share of households in the state who can afford mortgage payments on the median single-family home has fallen from 44 percent to 30 percent, meaning fewer than one in three households can afford the typical single-family home. Fewer than half of households can afford the median condominium.”

The same report found that Hawaii residents suffered from having the highest housing costs in the nation and that housing is also the single biggest household expense for local families.