Kauai Real Estate Update- To find out what Sold, went Under Contract and what was Just Listed on Kauai for last week click here; Kauai Real Estate Activity November 17 to 23, 2025.
I represented the Buyer in the purchase of a perfectly lovely Kahala unit that has one of the most iconic locations with the sweetest ocean views. Located in the center of the resort, it’s perfection inside and out.
That’s not all the activity, Poipu Beach had some heavy hitting sales; Oceanfront home on Lawai Road listed at $10.950M that sold for $10.5 Million, two homes in Kukui’ula listed at $8.499 that sold for $8.1M and the other listed at $7.595 that sold over asking at $7.6 Million. For a complete list of all the real estate activity since the beginning of the year click here; Poipu Beach Fee Simple Current Market Analysis
Kiahuna Plantation Real Estate Update- For the activity at the Kiahuna Plantation click here; Kiahuna Plantation Current Market Analysis
Wailua Falls On Kauai To Charge For Parking
Four State parks will start charging parking fees to nonresidents and commercial vehicles. Two are on the Big Island, one in Oahu and Kauai has the fourth.
The fees range from $7.00 to $10.00 statewide for nonresidents, commercial vehicles are charged by the number of passengers and the type of parking (big busses compared to smaller vans). Residents will continue to get in for free.
The funds collected go towards park maintenance, facility upgrades and long-term projects for the parks.
The four parks are:
🏝️ Wailua River State Park on Kauai
🏝️ Wailuku River State Park in Hilo
🏝️ Kekaha Kai State Park in Kona
🏝️ Pu’u ”ualaka’a State Wayside on Oahu
Hanalei Hill Stabilized
If you’ve been to the North Shore over the last four years you’ve probably had to stop and wait when the highway is down to a single lane, and you’ve probably seen the work being done on the hillside. The stabilization work, after four long years, has been completed.
It started after a massive 2021 landslide that happened in March where the amount of debris that came down covered the entire highway and cut off access to Hanalei. Boats were used for a time to get supplies, and people, in and out of the area. The emergency repairs were $15.3 million. The permanent work that was done costs $24 Million with 80% covered by federal funding.
The project was done in these three phases;
📍 Phase 1: Emergency stabilization, removal of 80,000 tons of debris and installation of 500 soil nails. Completed in October 2021.
📍 Phase 2: Road closures started, reinforcement of lower slope, additional 800 soil nails and wire mesh added.
📍 Phase 3: more mesh added and rerouting hillside water pipes to dump into Hanalei River, guardrails and permanent striping.
25% Rate Hike At Young Brothers
In a move to regain financial stability and forgo urgent rate increase, Young Brothers will increase their shipping rates by 25.75% as approved by the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission. This will start January 1, 2026. Young Brothers had been granted a 18.1% temporary increase which will now be replaced with a permanent 25.75% increase. The Public Utilities Commission also imposed was a prohibition for any rate increases for the next two years.
The fee increase is expected to start showing up in our prices.
Department of Justice Files Motion To Block Hawaii Green Fee
The “Cruise Lines International Association” had filed a lawsuit against the State of Hawaii new “Green Fee” that will be starting next year, their lawsuit says that the Green Fee violates the U.S. Constitutions “Tonnage Clause” and “Rivers and Harbors Act”. This happened late August of this year and now the Department of Justice has gotten involved by filing a motion earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward called the Hawaii Green Fee a “scheme to extort American citizens and businesses solely to benefit Hawaiʻi.”
The Green Fee is the first of its kind in the U.S. where money is set aside to address the impact of climate change to our state. Starting January 1, 2026 the Transient Accommodations tax will go up .75%. While hotels and vacation rental properties have been collecting this 14% nightly tax that never applied to cruise ships, so in addition to the Green Fee they will also start paying Transient Accommodations tax. and this was extended to cruise ships.
The cruise industry in Hawaii brings in about $1 billion on an annual basis.
However this is not a done deal. A motion to dismiss the DOJ’s motion has been filed by the States attorney. Stay tuned.
National Real Estate Sales 2025 vs 2024
Hawaii had a nice bump in October for our Real Estate Sales and it looks like the Nation did as well. In October Month over Month was up 1.2% and Year over Year was up 1.7%.
Here is what Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors had to say about first time home buyers and renters; “Home sales increased in October even with the government shutdown due to homebuyers taking advantage of lower mortgage rates. First-time homebuyers are facing headwinds in the Northeast due to a lack of supply and in the West because of high home prices. First-time buyers fared better in the Midwest because of the plentiful supply of affordable houses and in the South because there is sufficient inventory. Rents are decelerating which will reduce inflation and encourage the Federal Reserve to continue cutting rates and pulling back their quantitative tightening. This will help bring more homebuyers into the market since the Fed rate has an indirect impact on mortgage rates."
