Is it unethical to vacation in Hawaiʻi?

Agrusa said he does think tourism has helped fuel housing prices, but pointed to Airbnb and short-term vacation rentals as catalysts. 

He explained that people have been buying homes and apartments, converting them into short-term vacation rentals, which ends up limiting the housing supply. He noted that they’re helped by Hawaiʻi’s property tax, which is the lowest in the country.

“The problem is ‘the haves,’ those who have the money that can invest in this, are pushing out those who are renters,” he said. 

A report from the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice found that short-term vacation rentals in Hawaiʻi rose from 17,000 units to 23,000 units between 2015 and 2017, a 35 percent increase.

This year, the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization said that there are 30,000 short-term vacation rentals.

Experts with UHERO looked at what would happen if short-term vacation rentals were completely barred from Oʻahu, finding that median home prices would be 4 percent to 6 percent lower than they currently are. 

“If these price reductions were realized, Oʻahu would still suffer from extremely high home prices,” the researchers wrote. “However, the roughly 5 percent reduction in housing costs would represent a sizable improvement in the standard of living for renters and first-time home buyers, particularly lower-income residents for whom housing costs represent a large share of overall expenses.”