We first flagged Bill 9 in an earlier issue as a potential game changer for Maui’s housing and tourism mix. The bill, which seeks to phase out short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts affecting roughly 6,000 grandfathered units, cleared the County Council on second and final reading yesterday, December 15, by a 5–3 vote.
The bill now advances to Mayor Bissen, who introduced it in May 2024 and has said he will sign it. As passed, Bill 9 phases out these short-term rentals, with implementation beginning January 1, 2029, in West Maui and January 1, 2031, for the rest of the county. The delayed rollout is intended to give owners time to transition their properties.
Supporters continue to frame Bill 9 as a long-overdue housing correction. Opponents point to the administration’s own financial analysis and UHERO modeling, which suggest millions in losses in visitor spending, tax revenue, and jobs, at a time when Maui’s economy is still recovering.
The bill’s passage is unlikely to be the end of the story, with legal challenges expected and parallel discussions already underway about carving out certain properties from the phase-out through future zoning changes.
By the numbers
- Maui hotel rooms: ~9,600
- Maui legal vacation rentals today: ~13,000
- Total visitor Hotel + VR today: ~23,600
- Vacation rentals targeted by Bill 9: ~6,000
- Hotel and Vacation Rental accommodations after full implementation: ~17,600
What that means
- Roughly a 25 percent reduction in Maui’s total Hotel + VR accommodation supply
- Roughly a 40 -45 percent reduction in the vacation rental inventory
One line from the debate captured the emotional core of the issue. As Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez put it, “Profits are replaceable. Generational communities are not.”
Whether this creates housing for locals, reshapes the visitor economy, or gets rewritten in court remains an open question. This story is certainly not over.
Back on Oʻahu, the 90-day rule is still stuck. Nothing has changed since we reported back in August. A federal court has ruled it can’t be enforced until the city builds a process for legally existing rentals. That hasn’t happened, so 30-day rentals remain the standard in residential and apartment-zoned areas.
