Maui Real Estate News
Hawaii Legislature Addresses Housing Issues
March 23, 2006. Lawmakers in Honolulu, both the state House and Senate, are working on Bills to address Hawaii's affordable housing problem. Median home prices are more than half a million on most of the islands. The current version of an affordable housing bill would more than double the percentage of conveyance taxes from home sales into a Rental Housing Trust Fund. Money from the Rental Housing Trust Fund is used to lobby developers and assist non-profits in building housing affordable to lower income families. The Senate passed the House's version of the bill with additions such as a brand new tax credit for developers who build affordable housing. The most important part is the increase to the Conveyance Tax Charge. The change would mean an estimated $25 million more for fiscal year 2007 starting July 1.
Located in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, The Bureau of Conveyances is the archive of all real ownership records and related documents. The Bureau is a division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. In Hawaii a sale is "recorded" when title is transferred and in order to record a deed, the conveyance tax must be paid first.
This usually a cost to the Seller and depends on how the Buyer takes title.
Currently, if the buyer will not be an owner occupant, in the sale of a
condo or single family home the conveyance tax is $1.50 per $1000 of the
sales price less than $600,000, $2.50 per $1000 of properties between
$600,000 and $999,999 and $3.50 per $1000 on properties of 1 million and
over. If passed these rates will increase.
Current House Bill 1308, H.D. 1, C.D. 1 Act 156
For more information, visit the
Hawaii State Legislature website
Maui County General Plan Update
March 8th 2006. Title Guaranty Escrow hosted a Realtor Update on the Maui County General Plan presented by Mike Foley and Dave Michaelson. They started the meeting with half hours of slides on the community input process.
Community approval to the planning process is the most essential aspect to moving forward. Preservation of what makes Maui special and still maintaining a viable growth plan has always been a challenge on this island.
Other challenges are our increasing visitor demands. The visitor relationship over the past 30 years has changed dramatically from 1:20 in 1970 to 1:3 today. Maui hosts 40,000 visitors a day who use all public facilities except schools.
The goal is to set Policy Foundations that will address human concerns as well as environmental constraints. Development strategies must include affordable housing. Who are we really building homes for? The offshore market owns 50% of South Maui and 50% West Maui.
Distribution of water to resorts vs. residential communities from viable aquifers will have serious political impact. The county is now preparing the first General Plan that will include urban growth boundaries which will affect development on Maui for another 25 years. The last plan was created in 1990.