Six months ago, the answer seemed settled: four Wailea condo complexes were on a fixed countdown to lose their short-term rental rights, and nothing was going to stop it. That answer is no longer accurate for three of the four. Between May and July of this year, the Maui County Council reversed course, and by late July, specific Wailea buildings had names attached to an active rezoning process that could let them keep renting nightly well past the date most owners had circled on the calendar.
If you're comparing Wailea condos right now, this matters more than the median price you saw on a portal last week. The regulatory ground under these buildings has moved twice in the past six months, and a guide written in February, or even May, is describing a version of Wailea that no longer exists.
Where This Started: A 1989 Line and a 2031 Deadline
The root of all of this is a zoning correction from decades ago. In 1989, Maui County required buildings in apartment-zoned districts to be occupied long-term, six months or more. Buildings that had already secured county approvals before that cutoff kept operating as they always had, under a legal nonconforming use. In 2001, then-Corporation Counsel Richard Minatoya issued the opinion that formalized which buildings qualified, and the resulting roster became known as the Minatoya List.
That exemption held for over two decades until Mayor Richard Bissen signed Bill 9 into law on December 15, 2025, officially Ordinance 5909. The law phases out short-term rentals in apartment-zoned Minatoya buildings, with West Maui properties required to stop by January 1, 2029, and the rest of the county, including South Maui and Wailea, following on January 1, 2031. Hotel-zoned and resort-zoned properties were never part of the exemption Bill 9 closes, which is why buildings like Wailea Beach Villas, Ho'olei, and Wailea Elua were never part of this conversation at all. In Wailea specifically, only four Minatoya-listed complexes carry the 2031 clock: Wailea Ekahi, Wailea Ekolu, Palms at Wailea, and Grand Champions.
February Looked Like the Final Word. It Wasn't.
Owners of those four buildings had one real hope: a proposed pair of new zoning categories, H-3 and H-4, that would let qualifying apartment-zoned buildings convert to hotel status and keep their rental rights for good. The county's three planning commissions reviewed that proposal and rejected it. On February 24, 2026, the Maui Planning Commission voted 8-1 to recommend denial, with Commissioner Mark Deakos calling the fix a way to undermine Bill 9. Because the recommendation was denial, moving the new zoning forward required a two-thirds council supermajority, six of nine votes, a considerably higher bar than Bill 9 itself had needed to pass.
That looked like the end of the road. It wasn't. On May 26, 2026, the council's Housing and Land Use Committee voted 6-1 to advance the rezoning bill, now numbered Bill 88, over the planning commissions' unanimous objection. Mayor Bissen testified in favor, calling it an intentional next step in implementing Bill 9. The full council passed Bill 88 on first reading June 5 by a vote of 7-2, then gave it final approval on June 19 by the same 7-2 margin, clearing the supermajority the planning commissions' rejection had required. Bill 88 became Ordinance 6008, effective June 22, 2026, formally creating the H-3 and H-4 hotel districts. Council members were careful to note the ordinance doesn't rezone any specific property on its own. It only builds the category a building could move into.
The Council Named Names in July
That second step, the one that actually matters to a specific building, started almost immediately. On July 1 and July 6, the Housing and Land Use Committee worked through two resolutions, 26-110 and 26-111, that refer the first wave of specific properties to the Maui Planning Commission for reclassification. The full council adopted both on July 24. As Maui Now reported, Resolution 26-111 covers seven properties the county says already function like hotels, including Wailea Ekahi I, II, and III, Wailea Ekolu, and Palms at Wailea, alongside Papakea and Maui Eldorado in West Maui.
Grand Champions is not on that list. During the July hearings, a rental manager named Brian Banks testified that all four Wailea complexes, Ekahi, Ekolu, Grand Champions, and the Palms, have operated primarily as short-term rentals since they were built, and asked the committee to add Grand Champions to the resolution. As of this writing, it hasn't been added. The Planning Commission is expected to take up the named properties as soon as September 2026, with a Council vote on the actual rezoning still ahead after that.
None of this is finished business. Being named in a resolution starts the review process; it doesn't complete it. But three of Wailea's four affected buildings now have a live, council-endorsed path toward the same permanent hotel status that buildings like Wailea Beach Villas have held all along, while the fourth is waiting for a future wave that hasn't been scheduled.
Three Tiers, Not Two
A Wailea Minatoya condo shopper is no longer choosing between "safe" and "doomed." As of August 2026, there are three distinct positions a building can occupy.
Wailea building | Status as of August 2026 | What it means for a buyer |
|---|---|---|
Wailea Beach Villas, Ho'olei, Wailea Elua | Hotel or resort-zoned, never part of Bill 9 | Short-term rental rights were never in question |
Wailea Ekahi (I, II, III), Wailea Ekolu, Palms at Wailea | Apartment-zoned, Minatoya List, referred to Planning Commission July 24, 2026 for H-3/H-4 rezoning | Rezoning could preserve rental rights permanently, but review is still ahead; expect Planning Commission action as soon as September |
Grand Champions | Apartment-zoned, Minatoya List, not included in the first rezoning wave | Still tracking toward the January 1, 2031 phase-out unless a future council resolution adds it |
Two lawsuits challenging Bill 9 as an unconstitutional taking are also still moving through Second Circuit Court. A dataset compiled in April 2026 found no injunction had been granted in either case at that point, and nothing in the more recent zoning news changes that. The litigation and the rezoning process are running on separate tracks, and either one could still shift the picture again.
What to Actually Verify Before You Write an Offer
A listing sheet won't tell you which of these three tiers a building sits in today, and a guide written even a few months ago might already be wrong. Before comparing price per square foot across Wailea buildings, confirm directly:
- Whether the specific complex was named in Resolution 26-111 or a later council resolution, not just whether it appears on the broader Minatoya List. The council's own agenda records are the most current source, since news coverage lags the legislative calendar by weeks.
- Whether the Planning Commission has scheduled or completed its review of that resolution, since a referral is a starting point, not an approval.
- What the AOAO's governing documents say about short-term rentals independent of county zoning. An association's own bylaws can restrict rentals more tightly than the county does, regardless of which zoning district a building eventually lands in.
- Whether your own goals depend on rental income holding steady past 2031, or whether you're buying for personal use where the zoning outcome matters less to your day-to-day plans.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Does being named in Resolution 26-111 mean Wailea Ekahi, Ekolu, and the Palms are safe from the phase-out? Not yet. The resolution refers these properties to the Maui Planning Commission for review, expected as soon as September 2026. A final council vote on the actual rezoning would still need to follow before anything is settled.
Why was Grand Champions left out? The council has been processing properties in sequential waves rather than all at once. Grand Champions wasn't included in the first wave despite a request from an on-site rental manager to add it, and it isn't yet clear whether or when a future resolution will take it up.
Does the January 1, 2031 deadline still apply while this plays out? Yes, as written. The rezoning referral doesn't pause Bill 9's phase-out date. It only opens a possible path for a building to be reclassified before that date arrives, and that path still requires Planning Commission and full council approval.
Wailea's zoning story has moved twice this year already, and it may move again before any of this is final. That's exactly why a snapshot from six months ago isn't good enough to make a purchase decision on. If you're weighing a Wailea condo against another one down the road, or trying to figure out where your own building stands in this process, Laurie Keyhani tracks these county actions as part of everyday work in South Maui. Let's Connect and go through the current status of your specific building together before you make a decision based on old information.
