"This bill only establishes the district and it does not rezone any properties," said Housing and Land Use Committee Chair Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins the day Bill 88 passed. "Rezoning will have to happen separately."
That single sentence is the whole story for anyone shopping a Minatoya-list condo in Kapalua right now. Bill 88 cleared the Maui County Council 7-2 on June 19, 2026, creating two new hotel zoning categories, H-3 and H-4, meant to give roughly 4,500 grandfathered vacation rental units across 104 properties a legal path to keep operating past Bill 9's deadline. The council sent it to Mayor Richard Bissen, who had already testified in favor during committee hearings, calling it "an intentional next step in implementing Bill 9."
What Bill 88 does not do is treat Kapalua's three Minatoya-list condo communities the same way. Kapalua Bay Villas landed on the county's shortlist of properties recommended for rezoning. Kapalua Golf Villas and Kapalua Ridge Villas did not. If you are evaluating a purchase in any of the three, that gap, not the view or the HOA brochure, is the number that should drive your offer.
What Bill 9 Already Locked In
Start with the deadline that is not up for debate. Maui County signed Bill 9 into law on December 15, 2025. It phases out transient vacation rental use in apartment-zoned buildings that operate under the so-called Minatoya List, the county's shorthand for properties that received building or use permits before April 1989 and were later recognized as having a legal nonconforming right to rent short-term. For West Maui, where Kapalua sits, that amortization period ends December 31, 2028. Short-term rental use in affected apartment-zoned units must stop January 1, 2029.
That date does not move because Bill 88 passed. It is the backstop every Kapalua Minatoya owner is negotiating against.
What Bill 88 Changes, and What It Doesn't
Bill 88 creates the H-3 and H-4 hotel zoning districts, modeled on the existing apartment-zoning standards but permitting transient rentals. The bill attaches Exhibit 1, a list from the Department of Planning of 104 apartment-district properties totaling 7,167 units that have historically operated as short-term rentals. Being named on Exhibit 1 is a starting point, not an approval. It confirms a property is eligible to apply, nothing more.
The more consequential document is Exhibit 2, the Temporary Investigative Group's curated recommendation of roughly 53 properties the group believed were strong candidates for rezoning. The TIG spent months evaluating which apartment-zoned complexes were realistically suited to remain vacation rentals versus which were better positioned to convert to long-term housing. That evaluation is where Kapalua's three Minatoya complexes stopped being interchangeable.
The List Within the List
Kapalua Bay Villas made Exhibit 2. Kapalua Golf Villas and Kapalua Ridge Villas did not. One broker following the TIG process called the outcome "a surprise to many," since the Ridge and Golf Villas were the only Minatoya-list condos in one of Maui's three official resort areas left off the recommended list entirely.
Here is what that split actually means for the three properties today:
| Kapalua Minatoya Complex | Current Zoning | On TIG Exhibit 2 (Recommended for Rezoning) | Practical Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kapalua Bay Villas | Apartment (Minatoya List) | Yes | Can pursue H-3/H-4 rezoning with the TIG's recommendation behind it |
| Kapalua Golf Villas | Apartment (Minatoya List) | No | Must pursue rezoning without a TIG endorsement, or plan to exit short-term rental use by January 1, 2029 |
| Kapalua Ridge Villas | Apartment (Minatoya List) | No | Same position as Golf Villas |
Being on Exhibit 2 does not guarantee rezoning. A property still has to go through Planning Commission review and a full Council vote, county by county, unit by unit. But it is a meaningfully different starting position than applying cold, without the TIG's backing, against three planning commissions that voted unanimously to recommend against Bill 88 in the first place.
Why Missing the List Costs More Than You'd Think
The rezoning process itself is not cheap. During testimony on Bill 88, property owner TJ Victorine told the council that land-use planners had quoted his 26-unit association between $200,000 and $500,000 to prepare the studies required for an individual rezoning application. "This is prohibitively expensive for most properties, including our own, and effectively nullifies the intent of Bill 88," he said.
That cost falls on the association, meaning it gets split across every unit owner, whether or not the application succeeds. For Kapalua Golf Villas and Kapalua Ridge Villas, sitting outside the TIG's recommended group, that expense comes with less certainty of a favorable outcome than it would for a complex the county has already flagged as a good candidate.
The first wave of council-initiated rezoning resolutions, numbered 26-110 and 26-111, moved through committee in early July 2026. They focused on timeshares, leaseholds, and small complexes under five units, not the West Maui resort communities. Kapalua's Minatoya properties are not in this first wave. Whatever path Golf Villas and Ridge Villas take, it has not started yet.
What This Is Already Doing to Kapalua Pricing
The uncertainty is showing up in the numbers, not just the testimony. Comparing the first half of 2026 to the same period in 2025, Kapalua Resort closed sales fell from 14 to 10, average days on market more than doubled from 115 to 253, and the median sale price eased from $1,635,000 to $1,387,500.
The split between complexes showed up early in the year too. In the first quarter of 2026, every closed sale in Kapalua was concentrated in the Ridge Villas and Golf Villas, all priced below $1,500,000, with four more units pending across Bay Villas, Golf Villas, and Ridge Villas. Even before the TIG's recommendation was widely understood, the two complexes now excluded from Exhibit 2 were already carrying the transaction volume, which suggests buyers were pricing in the uncertainty rather than waiting it out.
The high end of the market has softened too. A Bay Villa unit topped out at $2,935,000 in the first half of 2026, well below the $7,255,205 sale recorded in 2025 for a unit at the Residences at Kapalua Bay, the hotel-zoned Montage property next door that isn't touched by any of this.
The Two Complexes That Sidestep the Whole Question
Montage Residences at Kapalua Bay and the Ritz-Carlton Residences are both hotel-zoned. Bill 9's phase-out and Bill 88's rezoning process do not apply to either, regardless of how the county eventually treats Bay Villas, Golf Villas, or Ridge Villas. That certainty carries its own price. Monthly HOA fees at the Montage run as high as $7,000 for upper-tier units in 2026, a cost that reflects full resort service and a zoning designation that never has to ask the county's permission to keep renting.
That is the actual tradeoff in Kapalua right now. Certainty costs more every month. Uncertainty costs less every month but comes with a deadline and, for two of the three Minatoya complexes, no confirmed path past it.
What to Check Before You Write an Offer
- Ask which of the three Minatoya complexes the unit is in, and whether that complex made TIG Exhibit 2, not just whether it's on the Minatoya List at all.
- Ask the HOA board directly whether it has budgeted for a rezoning study, and if so, what stage that process is in.
- Confirm the amortization end date for the specific unit. West Maui's deadline is December 31, 2028, with rental use required to stop January 1, 2029, unless rezoning is completed first.
- If certainty matters more than yield, compare the math against a hotel-zoned unit at the Montage or Ritz-Carlton Residences, where the monthly dues are higher but the zoning question doesn't exist.
- Watch for the Department of Planning's eligibility list, which will confirm which specific properties can formally apply for H-3/H-4 status. As of late June 2026, that list had not yet been published and no application process had been announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Bill 88 mean Kapalua Golf Villas and Ridge Villas can no longer rent short-term? Not automatically. It means they are not on the county's recommended shortlist for rezoning, so unless the association pursues and wins its own individual rezoning application, or the county revisits the exhibit list, both complexes remain subject to Bill 9's January 1, 2029 phase-out.
Is Kapalua Bay Villas guaranteed to keep its rental rights? No. Exhibit 2 is a recommendation, not an approval. The complex would still need to complete Planning Commission review and a full Council vote before any rezoning becomes final.
Are the Montage and Ritz-Carlton Residences affected by any of this? No. Both are already hotel-zoned, which places them outside Bill 9's apartment-district phase-out and outside the Bill 88 rezoning process entirely.
Zoning questions like this rarely show up on a listing sheet, and by the time an appraiser or lender flags it, you've already lost negotiating leverage. If you're comparing Kapalua Minatoya-list units against hotel-zoned alternatives, or trying to underwrite a rental purchase against a 2029 deadline, Matt Talbot can walk the specific parcel history and zoning status with you before you write an offer. Start with an instant home valuation or explore current listings across the Kapalua resort to see where each complex stands today.
