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The lack of affordable long term rental housing is an issue in many places around the country and state. Part of the problem can be traced back to the market collapse in 2008. Remember when millions of homeowners lost their homes to the banks that we bailed out? Many/most of those people became long term renters.
As a landlord, renting on the Island of Hawaii means you will have no way to legally evict a non-paying tenant as the Sheriff has refused to do his job for two years now.
There are many causes for the lack of long term housing. The idea that banning/limiting vacation rentals will suddenly turn vacation rental operators into long-term landlords is fiction! A fiction which serves the interest of the hotel operators and wealthy Kona resort owners who will still be allowed to do short term rentals under the proposed legislation. Let’s call this bill what it is - a gift to the wealthy resort industry corporations and owners.
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quote:
Originally posted by hotinhawaii
The idea that banning/limiting vacation rentals will suddenly turn vacation rental operators into long-term landlords is fiction!
You think the homes would just sit vacant then?
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big $$ makers, with most all of the $$ going back to mainland... = exploitation
Tourist spending is still outside money brought to our local economy, even if some of that spending isn't fully taxed because the tourist has chosen to stay in an "illegal" vacation rental.
Vacation rentals are already covered by rules and laws which are somehow not being enforced. Adding new regulations will not fix this problem. Need I point out that the County staff responsible for enforcement of the existing rules all got raises even though this "problem" makes it obvious that they're not doing their jobs?
Let's suppose that County passes new regulations and somehow finds the staff/budget to enforce them. If the result is that "some" tourists can no longer afford to vacation here, isn't that a net loss of tourism revenue?
"You can have 10% of this dollar, or 100% of nothing."
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From hotinhawaii: "The idea that banning/limiting vacation rentals will suddenly turn vacation rental operators into long-term landlords is fiction! "
The hope really works in the other direction: long-term tenants hoping that their landlord is not going to convert VRBO and kick them out. It is not much of an issue on Hawaii Island.
It is a huge issue on Oahu, where local media accurately reported the impacts on communities like the North Shore and Kailua, where many long-term renters have had leases terminate and remaining renters are in constant worry about their landlords jumping on the VRBO bandwagon. (Some of these tenants occupied their rentals for 10-15 years.)
Converting to VRBO--a trend. How far will it go?
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It is a huge issue on Oahu
Then maybe Oahu should write some regulations and fund staffing to enforce them on Oahu.
It might help if Ige hadn't rejected Airbnb's offer to collect/remit taxes.
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"big $$ makers, with most all of the $$ going back to mainland... = exploitation"
How is this different from the hotels? How about we compare the percentage of hotels owned by local residents vs. the percentage of vacation rentals owned by local residents. Which industry do you think keeps more money in the islands?
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How is this different from the hotels?
...or shopping at Walmart, or buying gas, etc.
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It's a big issue on Maui and Kauai as well. Pretty much everywhere in the state except windward Big Island, which coincidentally is the only place where home prices haven't gone through the roof.
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This has nothing to do with housing. It's an effort by the hotel/resort/developer industries to reduce and eventually eliminate competition. New construction simply hasn't kept up with population increases. It's taking 4-6 months now to even get a building permit through the County in Hilo. The Council has done nothing to actually address issues around ensuring there is more affordable housing. The proposed legislation will let all the wealthy people with expensive homes in resort areas (which happen to be 60-80% white and far higher in income) while banning them elsewhere (places that happen to be 60-80% non-white and much poorer). Those that have a chance of being grandfathered in will have to register, navigate the Hawaii County bureaucracy, and pay $500 per year while the resort area folks pay nothing to do the same thing.
Own the lot next to you and want to build a small vacation rental? Sorry, "unhosted" rentals will be banned. But someone else can buy that lot, put 25 tents on it and as long as the owner claims to be in one of them they'll be allowed to rent them without fees or regulation because that's a "hosted" rental. No bathroom required! If you have any interest in this, you need to be at the hearing on 2/20. Please spread the word. That means anyone who has ever worked construction on a home that's ever been rented for under 180 days at a time, cleaners, landscapers, anyone in the local travel industry, people who do maintenance on vacation rentals, people who work in retail or restaurants--vacation rentals are the backbone of the economy for all of that. Did you rent a house in Puna for 179 days or less while building your home? Sorry, that would be banned too!
Please also demand that Council woman Eoff recuse herself from the vote. She owns a vacation rental in a resort zone so is exempted from regulation, personally profits from this legislation which will reduce competition and charge others doing the same things she's doing $500 per year outside of the small resort zones. She also initially lied about this and insisted she had never owned any property of any kind when I asked her about her TA license. She also tried to pressure me to not spread information that she had a vacation rental. Once I emailed her the proof of her license which is public information on the State's web site, she did a 180, pretended to misunderstand my question, and admitted she owns a TVR in a resort zone and insisted she pays all taxes on it. She ignored multiple requests for information on who helped develop and push this bill. She clearly tried to hide her conflict of interest to me. So I have to wonder what else she may be hiding.
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Keep in mind too that currently there is no way for any landlord to remove a lawfully evicted tenant short of spending thousands of dollars to fly in a Sheriff from another island. We've been dealing with the Castle monstrosity for years down in Seaview. The mainland owner got an eviction years ago to remove the squatters and the Hawaii County Sheriff has refused to carry out the eviction. The Council and mayor have done nothing to address this island-wide problem despite it making the news. They should start there because no one in their right mind would rent out something long term with no way to evict a tenant, even random squatters who show up and take over their building!
