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Molokaʻi Real Estate News, November 2026: Condo Prices Slide as Bill 9 Deadline Looms

Posted by benjamen.harper@gmail.com on November 7, 2026
Hawaii Real Estate, Molokai
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Molokaʻi is a small market. A handful of sales a month is normal, and one big closing can swing the averages hard. So the useful way to read it is over the whole year, plus whatever the county is doing that changes what a property can be used for. This fall, that’s mostly about condos.

The year so far

Coldwell Banker Island Properties’ year-to-date numbers through October:

Jan–Oct 2026Salesvs. 2025Median pricevs. 2025Median DOM
Single-family23flat$465,000-9%90
Condo24+14%$195,000-13%131
Land16+33%$163,000+25%199

Homes are selling at about the same pace as last year, at a lower median, and a lot faster: median days on market dropped from 154 to 90. Condos sold more units at lower prices. Land, usually the slowest part of the market here, had its best year in a while.

Hawaii Life’s summer snapshot (July) put inventory at 21 homes, 41 condos and 37 lots for sale, and called all three a buyer’s market. July also had five homes go under contract, the most of any month this year. The pattern has held all year: properties priced where buyers actually are sell, and the rest sit.

Bill 9 and Molokaʻi condos

This is the biggest issue for Molokaʻi condo owners.

Bill 9 (now Ordinance 5909) phases out vacation rentals in apartment-zoned condos on the “Minatoya list,” the group of complexes that had been allowed to rent short-term. It covers about 6,100 units on Maui and Molokaʻi. The deadline is December 31, 2028 for West Maui and December 31, 2030 everywhere else, which includes Molokaʻi.

Two of Molokaʻi’s condo complexes are on that list. A Maui guide to Bill 9 names them as Ke Nani Kai and Wavecrest. If you own in one of those, or you’re thinking about buying there, find out exactly where your complex stands.

The way out is Bill 88 (Ordinance 6008), which the council passed 7-2 in June. It created two new hotel zoning districts, H-3 and H-4, that let a complex keep renting to visitors if it gets rezoned. But nothing happens automatically. Each rezoning has to go through a planning commission and then a council vote. The Molokaʻi Planning Commission recommended against Bill 88, and the island’s council member, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, voted no.

So far the council has sent 32 shoreline complexes to the Maui Planning Commission for possible rezoning (September) and turned down four more on a 5-4 vote (October). None of those were reported as Molokaʻi complexes. At least two lawsuits challenging Bill 9 are also working through state court.

You can see the effect in prices. The condo median is $195,000, down 13% from last year, and Hawaii Life noted back in February that buyer caution had spread beyond the two affected complexes to the condo market as a whole.

If you’re buying a condo for rental income, don’t count on vacation rental income past 2030 unless the complex gets rezoned. If you’re buying to live in it or rent it long-term, this is where the bargains are.

County deed restriction program

In May, the county’s Department of Housing ran a Molokaʻi Voluntary Deed Restriction pilot. It offered homeowners grants of up to $100,000 in exchange for a 25-year deed restriction. If an owner in the program sells while the restriction is in place, they have to notify the county, and the county gets first right to buy the property.

The application window closed May 29. But if you’re shopping for a home over the next few years, ask whether a property has one of these restrictions. It will show up in the title report, and it affects who you can sell to and for how much.

Storm damage on the homesteads

The Kona low storms earlier this year hit Molokaʻi’s Hawaiian homestead communities hard. At the Hawaiian Homes Commission meeting held on the island in April, people described mold, unsafe housing, slow shipping for materials and a shortage of cesspool pumping service.

For any buyer this is a reminder: get a full inspection, ask directly about storm and water damage, and plan for repairs to take longer and cost more than they would on Maui or Oʻahu.

What this means for you

Buyers: You have time and room to negotiate in all three categories. Condos are the cheapest they’ve been in a while, as long as you’re clear about the rental rules.

Sellers: Homes are selling faster than last year, but at lower prices. Price to recent sales, not to what’s still listed.

Condo owners at Ke Nani Kai or Wavecrest: Talk to your association about the rezoning question now. The 2030 deadline is closer than it sounds once you factor in the planning process.

Thinking about buying or selling on Molokaʻi? Call or text us, or start here: Buying · Selling

Sources

Market figures come from the sources above and from MLS data reported by third parties. They’re deemed reliable but not guaranteed. In a market this small, a single sale can move a median a long way.