- Bill 9 became law in December 2025. It ends short-term rental use in apartment-zoned condominiums, the roughly 7,000 units known as the Minatoya List.
- Two deadlines, not one. West Maui sunsets on January 1, 2029. The rest of the county, including South Maui, follows on January 1, 2031.
- It does not touch hotel-zoned property. If your condo already sits in an H district, or you own a single-family home, Bill 9 does not apply to you.
- There is a separate path to keep renting, created by Bill 88, but it is an application, not an exemption. Nothing happens automatically.
- The value question is already live. Buyers are pricing the deadline today, years ahead of it.
What does Maui’s Bill 9 actually do?
Bill 9 removes the right to rent on a short-term basis from condominiums in Maui County’s apartment-zoned districts. It became law in December 2025 under Mayor Richard Bissen. The units affected are the ones long referred to as the Minatoya List: properties that were allowed to keep operating as vacation rentals after a 1989 county ordinance made transient accommodation a non-permitted use in apartment districts.
That grandfathering is what Bill 9 ends. According to Maui Real Estate’s 2026 breakdown of the ordinance, the list covers 7,069 properties, of which 6,823 are on Maui and 246 on Molokai.
When do the deadlines actually hit?
There are two, and the distinction matters enormously depending on where you own.
| Area | Short-term rental use ends |
|---|---|
| West Maui | January 1, 2029 |
| South Maui and the rest of the county | January 1, 2031 |
Source: Maui Real Estate Advisors, 2026.
If you own in Wailea, Kihei or Makena, your horizon is 2031. That is a meaningful difference from West Maui, and it is one reason the two markets are behaving differently right now.
Who is affected, and who is not?
This is the question I field most often, and the answer is narrower than most owners assume.
Bill 9 applies to you if you own a condominium in an apartment-zoned district (A-1 or A-2) that has been operating as a short-term rental under Minatoya grandfathering.
Bill 9 does not apply to you if you own a single-family home, a property already in a hotel-zoned district, or a condominium in a resort district where short-term rental is a permitted use. Long-term rental of thirty days or more is unaffected everywhere.
If you are not certain which category your building falls into, that is the first thing to establish, and it is a matter of public zoning record rather than opinion.
Is a blanket rezoning fix still possible?
It looks unlikely. A measure that would have created like-for-like zoning for roughly 4,500 grandfathered units was voted down by the Maui Planning Commission in March 2026, as reported by Maui Now. The County Council retains final say, but that vote made a single sweeping fix considerably less likely.
What emerged instead is a narrower, building-by-building route. That is Bill 88, and because it is widely misunderstood I have written about it separately in how Bill 88 and Ordinance 6008 actually work. The short version: it is an application process, not an exemption list, and nothing is automatic.
What does this mean for property values?
Markets price deadlines long before they arrive, and this one is already being priced.
For an affected apartment-zoned condo, a buyer today is underwriting an income stream with a known end date. That changes what the property is worth to them, and it changes who the buyer even is: an investor buying for yield and a second-home buyer buying for use will value the same unit very differently once rental income is removed from the equation.
The properties least disturbed by all of this are the ones whose value never depended on rental income in the first place: single-family homes, and estates in districts where short-term rental was never the point. That is a large part of why demand has been shifting toward them.
I would be cautious about anyone quoting you a precise percentage impact. The honest position is that the direction is clear and the magnitude varies enormously by building, by zoning status, and by whether that building has a realistic path through the Bill 88 process.
What should owners do now?
- Confirm your zoning in writing. Not what the listing said, not what the neighbour thinks. The county record.
- Find out where your association stands. Has your board discussed applying for H-3 or H-4 rezoning? Are you in one of the current waves? This is the single highest-value question you can ask right now.
- Model the property without rental income. If the numbers only work with short-term rental, you have a decision to make well before 2029 or 2031, not in the final year.
- Get tax advice early. If selling becomes the answer, the tax picture drives the timing. I have covered the mechanics in capital gains, HARPTA and 1031 exchanges for Maui sellers.
Frequently asked questions
Does Bill 9 ban all vacation rentals on Maui?
No. It removes short-term rental use from condominiums in apartment-zoned districts only. Hotel-zoned and resort-district properties are unaffected, as are single-family homes. Long-term rentals of thirty days or more are not affected anywhere.
How many properties does Bill 9 affect?
The Minatoya List covers 7,069 properties, 6,823 on Maui and 246 on Molokai. Not every one of them is currently operating as a short-term rental, so the number of owners practically affected is somewhat smaller.
Can I still buy a Minatoya-list condo?
Yes, and people are. What has changed is that you are buying an asset with a defined rental horizon, so the underwriting has to reflect that. The critical due diligence is your building’s zoning status and whether its association is pursuing rezoning.
Does Bill 88 cancel out Bill 9?
No. Bill 88 creates a route for individual buildings to apply for hotel zoning, which would let them keep renting short-term. It is not automatic, it is not a list of spared properties, and buildings that do not apply and succeed remain subject to Bill 9’s deadlines.
I own a single-family home in Wailea. Am I affected?
Not by Bill 9. It is aimed at apartment-zoned condominiums. Single-family homes fall outside its scope entirely.
Related guides
- Bill 88 and Ordinance 6008: How Maui Condos Apply to Keep Renting
- Capital Gains, HARPTA and 1031 Exchanges: A Maui Seller’s Tax Guide
- What It Really Costs to Own a Home on Maui
- Selling a Luxury Home on Maui: The Complete Seller’s Guide
Chelsea Dimin is the #1 Compass agent in Hawaii by volume and ranked #13 statewide (WSJ/RealTrends), with more than $300 million in sales and 17 years living and working on Maui. The first woman to sell a $32M+ property on the island, she specializes in luxury homes across Wailea, Mākena, and South Maui. License #RB-22400.
This article explains publicly available county legislation and is general information, not legal or tax advice. Zoning status varies building by building. Confirm your own position with the County of Maui and your attorney before making decisions.
