Short-Term Rental Rules on Maui in 2026

MAUI BUYER’S GUIDE · SUMMER 2026

Short-Term Rental Rules on Maui in 2026: What Buyers Need to Know

Breakdown of Bill 9, Bill 88, and the zoning alphabet soup — and how it should shape what you buy.

If you’ve been shopping for a Maui condo lately, you’ve probably noticed that the listings now read like a legal thriller. A-1. A-2. H-3. H-4. The Minatoya List. Somewhere in the middle of all that, a buyer just wants to know whether they can rent the place out for a few weeks a year and enjoy a mai tai on the lanai without receiving a subpoena.

Good news: the rules are knowable. Slightly less good news: they now matter more than the granite countertops. Here’s the straight shooting, jargon-free version of where Maui’s short-term rental (STR) landscape stands in the summer of 2026 — and what it should change about how you buy.

Meet Bill 9, the law that started it all

In December 2025, Mayor Bissen signed Bill 9 (now Ordinance 5909) into law. In one line: it phases out short-term vacation rentals in Maui’s apartment-zoned (A-1 and A-2) districts — the units historically allowed to operate as rentals under the “Minatoya List” grandfather clause dating back to 1989.

The deadlines are staggered by geography:

What Bill 9 does not touch is just as important as what it does:

–    Hotel- and resort-zoned properties keep their STR rights. (This is why I keep calling them the gold standard.)

–    Timeshares are generally excluded from the phase-out.

–    Permitted B&Bs and short-term rental homes (STRHs) — properties with valid, specific county permits — are generally unaffected.

So no, Bill 9 is not “the end of vacation rentals on Maui.” Roughly 6,500 rental parcels, thousands of hotel units, and 2,400-plus timeshares and B&Bs keep right on operating. It’s a zoning correction, not a tourism ban — worth remembering before someone at a dinner party informs you that Maui “banned Airbnb.”

(A side note: the “Minatoya List” sounds like something a spy would risk his life to steal. It is, in fact, a spreadsheet. A very consequential spreadsheet.)

The three tiers of Maui STR property

Before you fall for a view, figure out which of these three tiers you’re actually buying into:

1.    Hotel / resort-zoned (H-1, H-2, and soon H-3/H-4). STRs permitted by right. In South Maui, think Wailea Beach Villas, Hoʻolei, Polo Beach Club, Makena Surf, Wailea Elua. These carry a premium — and after Bill 9, that premium has teeth.

2.   Apartment-zoned on the Minatoya List (A-1/A-2). Currently renting short-term, but on the phase-out clock. South Maui examples include Grand Champions, Ekolu, and the Palms at Wailea. These often trade at a legislative discount that reflects the uncertainty.

3.   Permitted STR homes and B&Bs. Single-family or specific properties with their own county permits — a different animal entirely. These permits do not transfer with title.

It’s a mistake to treat the Minatoya List as a simple “good or bad” checkbox. It isn’t. Two condos in the same building can have very different futures depending on what happens next — which brings us to Bill 88.

Bill 88 — the possible lifeline (and what it is NOT)

If Bill 9 is the phase-out, Bill 88 is the “… but maybe not for everyone” clause. On June 19, 2026, the County Council gave Bill 88 final approval by a 7-2 vote — enough to clear the supermajority threshold it needed, since all three county planning commissions had recommended against it. As of this writing it sits on Mayor Bissen’s desk awaiting signature; he has testified in favor. While it sits, the county HLU committee has already put forth two resolutions, highlighted later in the article.

Here’s what Bill 88 actually does — and it’s somewhat narrower than the headlines suggest:

–    It creates two new hotel zoning districts, H-3 and H-4, that mirror the existing A-1/A-2 apartment standards with one key difference: they permit short-term rentals.

–    It does not rezone a single property automatically. Repeat, because this trips up nearly everyone: passing Bill 88 does not save any specific condo. It just builds the on-ramp.

To actually keep STR rights past the Bill 9 deadlines, an eligible property still has to be rezoned from A-1/A-2 into H-3/H-4 — either through Council-initiated rezoning (the Council moving a batch of properties on its own motion) or a private rezoning application (which owners have testified can run $200,000–$500,000 per property in required studies — not a typo).

Bill 88 attaches a list (Exhibit 1) of 104 properties — roughly 7,167 units — as the eligibility starting point, plus a smaller curated list (Exhibit 2, from the Council’s Temporary Investigative Group) flagging around 4,500 units as the strongest candidates. Being on either list is a starting point, not a guarantee; eligibility has to be confirmed by the Department of Planning.

If you enjoy acronyms, congratulations — Maui real estate just became your favorite hobby.

The July 2026 update: Wave 1 is moving

This is where it gets timely. On July 1, 2026, the Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee took up the first two Council-initiated rezoning resolutions — 26-110 and 26-111 — the opening wave of properties being moved toward H-3/H-4:

–    Resolution 26-110 targets timeshares, leasehold properties, and smaller micro-parcels across Maʻalaea, Kīhei, and Lahaina (names in the mix include Hono Kai, Maui Hill, Kuleana, Paki Maui, Hale Mahina, and Hale Ono Loa).

–    Resolution 26-111 targets higher-density, resort-style complexes in Wailea and West Maui (Wailea Ekahi I/II/III, Wailea Ekolu, The Palms at Wailea, Papakea, and Maui Eldorado).

Crucial caveat: being named in these resolutions starts the rezoning process — it is not a completed rezoning. And these two resolutions cover only a small subset of the 104 eligible properties. If a building isn’t named yet, its transition simply hasn’t been initiated; it may appear in a later wave, or its owners may need to pursue a private application.

Translation for buyers: the map is being redrawn in real time, wave by wave. Where a specific building sits in that sequence is now a material fact about its value.

What this actually means for buyers

–    The market has split. Hotel-zoned inventory is holding value; apartment-zoned Minatoya units carry pricing risk until each building’s path is clear. That divide is one of the defining features of the 2026 market.

–    Risk cuts both ways. A discounted A-1/A-2 condo isn’t automatically a bad buy. For the right buyer — one willing to underwrite the uncertainty, or perfectly happy to own a beautiful place for personal use or as a long-term rental — it can be an opportunity. The key is paying a price that reflects the property’s future use, not its current short-term cap rate.

–    “Runway” is the word of the year. Even an affected unit has years of legal STR income left — through 2028 in West Maui, 2030 in South Maui. What matters is that the price reflects that runway rather than pretending the rules never changed.

–    Litigation is ongoing. Property-owner groups have sued (the Kāʻanapali Royal owners filed first). As of the latest, no court has issued an injunction and the deadlines remain in effect. Buy based on the law as written, not on a hoped-for courtroom reversal.

Questions to ask before you write an offer

Before you fall for the sunset view — and you will, that’s rather the point of the sunset — get clear answers to these:

1.    What is the property’s exact zoning today — A-1, A-2, hotel/resort, or a permitted STR home?

2.   Is it on the Minatoya List? If so, what’s the phase-out deadline for its location?

3.   Is it named in a Council rezoning resolution yet, or on Exhibit 1 / Exhibit 2 of Bill 88?

4.  If it’s an affected unit, does the asking price reflect the phase-out — or is it priced like the rules never changed?

5.   What are the HOA’s plans? Is the association organized to pursue rezoning, and what would that cost per unit?

6.  What’s your Plan B use — personal use, long-term rental, or resale — if short-term income ends on schedule?

If a listing can’t answer #1 through #3 clearly, that’s not a dealbreaker. It’s a reason to bring in someone who tracks this weekly.

The bottom line

Maui’s short-term rental rules in 2026 are neither the catastrophe some feared nor the non-event others hoped for. They’re a repricing of what STR access is worth — with hotel-zoned properties gaining a durable advantage, apartment-zoned units entering a defined phase-out, and a rezoning process (Bill 88, plus the wave-by-wave resolutions) that will decide, building by building, who gets a reprieve.

For a buyer, the takeaway is straightforward enough: the zoning line on the listing sheet is now one of the most important numbers in the deal — arguably more than the price per square foot. Know which tier you’re buying into, price for the future use, and you can still buy beautifully on Maui with your eyes wide open.

I track these bills, resolutions, and the MLS data behind them closely — especially for West and South Maui buyers, including the many of you watching from Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle, and beyond. If you’d like a plain-English read on a specific building — where it sits in the process, what it’s worth today, and what your options are — I’m always happy to walk through it with you.