Report: one in 24 homes in Hawaiʻi is now a vacation rental

The report, released Wednesday by the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice found that the number of short-term vacation rental units in Hawaiʻi rose 35 percent over the last two years—from 17,000 units in 2015 to 23,000 in 2017.

Victor Geminiani, the center's co-executive director, said that means one in 24 homes in Hawaiʻi is a vacation rental.

“That rate of expansion of vacation rentals, taking that critical affordable housing away from our residents, really shocked me, to be frank,“ said Geminiani.

Geminiani added that the proliferation of vacation rentals in Hawaiʻi is making the state's housing crisis much worse.

He said of the state's 23,000 vacation rentals, 53 percent of them are owned by non-residents.

The report shows on Kauaʻi, one in eight homes is a vacation rental. And on Maui, where non-residents dominate the housing market, it's one in seven. (It’s a staggering one in three in Lahaina.)