Two condos on the same street in Kaanapali can be aging on almost identical timelines, similar square footage, similar view corridor, similar rental history. And right now, one of them might be worth close to half of what it was worth two years ago while the other has barely moved. The difference usually has nothing to do with the unit itself. It comes down to a zoning line drawn decades ago that most buyers never think to check until an agent points it out.
That line is the reason a Kaanapali condo shopping trip in 2026 needs a different question than the one buyers asked in 2022. Back then the question was location, view, and rental income. Now the first question has to be: is this building hotel-zoned, or is it sitting on the Minatoya List, waiting to find out if it survives Bill 9?
Why a 2004 Legal Opinion Is Still Setting Prices in 2026
The Minatoya List is not a mystery to anyone who has spent time researching Kaanapali real estate, but its consequences changed dramatically in the past year. The list is named for a county attorney opinion, issued in 2004, that let a large group of apartment-zoned buildings across West and South Maui operate as vacation rentals even though their zoning was never meant to allow transient stays. For two decades that workaround was a quiet value driver. A Minatoya-listed unit could command a real premium over an otherwise identical apartment-zoned condo simply because it carried legal rental rights the other one lacked.
Bill 9, signed into law by Mayor Richard Bissen on December 15, 2025, closes that workaround. West Maui buildings on the Minatoya List, which includes a meaningful share of Kaanapali's condo inventory, have to stop short-term rental operations by January 1, 2029. From today's date, that gives owners a little more than two years of runway, not the comfortable decade some assumed they had when the debate started.
Hotel-zoned and resort-zoned buildings were never part of that conversation. They were built and approved for transient guests from the start, so Bill 9 does not touch them at all. That single distinction, hotel zoning versus apartment zoning with a Minatoya designation, is now the clearest predictor of which way a Kaanapali condo's price is heading.
The Buildings Carrying the Deadline
Several well-known Kaanapali complexes sit on the Minatoya List and are now working through the county's rezoning pipeline, a process created by Bill 88, signed into law on June 19, 2026. Bill 88 opened a narrow, building-by-building path to H-3 or H-4 hotel zoning, but it is not automatic. Each building has to be named in a council resolution and survive a Planning Commission review, and after that commission voted in late February 2026 to recommend against a broader rezoning framework, any building without an adopted resolution now needs a two-thirds supermajority from the nine-member County Council to get rezoned. That is a high bar, and it is why the difference between "on the eligibility list" and "named in an adopted resolution" matters enormously for anyone comparing two listings.
Here is where several familiar Kaanapali names currently stand:
| Building | Zoning status | Where it sits in the pipeline |
|---|---|---|
| Kaanapali Royal | Apartment (Minatoya) | Named in Resolution 26-110; owners are also plaintiffs in the pending lawsuit against the county |
| Hale Kaanapali | Apartment (Minatoya) | Named in Resolution 26-110, proposed for H-4 zoning |
| Papakea Resort | Apartment (Minatoya) | Named in Resolution 26-111, proposed rezoning for 364 units |
| Maui Eldorado | Apartment (Minatoya) | Named in Resolution 26-111, its leasehold and fee-simple mix fits the county's hotel-district criteria |
| Kaanapali Alii | Hotel/resort | Never affected by Bill 9 |
| Honua Kai | Hotel/resort | Never affected by Bill 9 |
| Kaanapali Shores | Hotel/resort | Never affected by Bill 9 |
| Maui Kaanapali Villas | Apartment, but county-confirmed exempt | Operates under a 1960s Planning Commission variance for apartment-hotel use, a separate legal path from the resolution process |
That last row is worth sitting with. Maui Kaanapali Villas is not hotel-zoned. It is apartment-zoned, the same category as Kaanapali Royal. But Maui County confirmed the property is exempt from Bill 9 because it was granted a variance for "apartment-hotel" use going back to Planning Commission approvals in the 1960s, and that variance predates and sits outside the phase-out. It is proof that the zoning label on a listing sheet does not tell the whole story. A building's operating history and any variances attached to it matter just as much as the zoning district it sits in.
Countywide, the resolution pipeline is still filling in. As of a July 31, 2026 update to the county's master rezoning list, roughly 4,519 units out of the original 7,167 on the Minatoya List had been named in TIG Exhibit 2, the working list of properties actively pursuing rezoning, and about 3,785 of those had a specific resolution outcome proposed. Resolutions 26-110 and 26-111 together account for roughly 2,056 units, close to 30 percent of the units originally facing the phase-out. That leaves a majority of Minatoya buildings across the county still without a defined path, and any Kaanapali building not named in an adopted resolution today is racing a legislative clock as much as a calendar one.
What the Price Gap Already Looks Like
Countywide condo prices fell roughly 34 percent from an August 2024 peak of about $972,000 down to a low near $642,500 by January 2026, a correction steep enough to reshape how buyers approach the whole condo market. But that single number hides the more useful story. As of mid-August 2026, apartment-zoned Minatoya condos across Maui were trading closer to 50 percent below their 2022 through 2023 highs, while hotel- and business-zoned buildings had held their value far better, with some seeing little to no decline at all.
Kaanapali's own market data told the same story earlier. By November 2025, local market reports were already noting that Kaanapali's single-family segment remained one of Maui's strongest luxury markets while condo values had begun to soften enough that buyers who could act decisively were finding real opportunity. Ten months later, the mechanism behind that softening has a name, and it is zoning, not condition or location.
Zoning premiums are not a new invention created by Bill 9. In 2023, before any phase-out was on the table, hotel-zoned condos across Maui already priced at roughly $1,445 per square foot compared to about $800 per square foot for regular condos, an 80 percent premium. What Bill 9 did was turn that existing premium into something closer to an existential divide. A building that already commanded more per square foot because of its zoning is now also the building whose owners never have to think about a 2029 shutoff date.
There is one more county-level detail worth knowing if you are the kind of buyer weighing a Kaanapali unit from off-island. County data shows roughly 94 percent of the units affected by Bill 9 are owned by people who do not live in Maui County, which is a large part of why this fight has stayed so contentious at the council level and why it is unlikely to quietly resolve itself before your closing date.
Two Lawsuits Sitting Over the Deadline
The Kaanapali Royal ownership group filed the first legal challenge to Bill 9, a case called Malter v. Maui County, on December 19, 2025, arguing the phase-out amounts to a regulatory taking that eliminates a property use that existed for roughly 45 years without compensating owners for the lost value. A second case, Lynam v. County of Maui, filed December 22, 2025, seeks class-action status on behalf of Minatoya List owners countywide. Both remain pending in Second Circuit Court, and as of the most recent reporting no preliminary injunction has been granted, which means the phase-out schedule is legally intact today. That could change. It is exactly the kind of variable a buyer needs to check again close to any closing date rather than assume settled.
What This Means If You're Comparing Two Kaanapali Units Right Now
Do not let resort branding stand in for zoning status. A building can carry every visual signal of a resort, front desk, pool towels, a name on a brochure, and still be apartment-zoned with a rental clock running. The only way to know for certain is to pull the parcel's zoning designation by TMK number and check it against the county's current Minatoya and resolution lists.
If a building is named in an adopted resolution like 26-110 or 26-111, ask when that resolution moves from the Planning Commission back to full Council for a final vote, since a recommendation is not the same as a rezoning. If a building is not named in any resolution, ask the seller or listing agent directly what the ownership group's plan is: wait for a future resolution wave, fund a private rezoning application, or plan to convert to long-term residential use ahead of the 2029 deadline. And even inside hotel-zoned buildings, check the AOAO's own house rules. Some associations restrict nightly rentals regardless of what the zoning code technically allows.
If you are comparing a Kaanapali unit to something in Wailea, it is worth knowing that Wailea's own rental market has held pricing and occupancy more resiliently than Kaanapali's over the past two to three years, in part because a meaningful share of its Minatoya inventory has faced the same phase-out question. Our Kaanapali versus Wailea comparison goes deeper on how the two resort areas differ beyond this zoning question, and our guide to Maui's short-term rental rules walks through the regulatory landscape investors need before writing an offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Bill 9 shut down every vacation rental in Kaanapali? No. Hotel-zoned and resort-zoned buildings, along with legally permitted short-term rental homes and bed and breakfasts, are untouched. Bill 9 only affects apartment-zoned buildings operating under the old Minatoya exemption.
If my building isn't named in a resolution yet, is it out of options? Not necessarily, but the path gets harder. Owners can wait for a future council resolution wave or fund a private change-in-zoning application, both of which take time and money that a named building in an adopted resolution does not have to spend.
Could the pending lawsuits change the 2029 deadline? They could, but as of the most recent court updates no injunction has been granted, so the deadline remains the controlling law. Anyone buying with the phase-out date built into their pricing should keep an eye on both Malter v. Maui County and Lynam v. County of Maui rather than assume either case will resolve in time to matter.
If you are weighing a Kaanapali condo purchase and want a straight read on where a specific building stands in this pipeline, that is exactly the kind of due diligence Matt Talbot walks clients through before an offer goes in. Reach out through our buyer resources page or start with a look at current Kaanapali listings and market conditions to see how this zoning line is shaping today's inventory.
