Why would two Mauna Lani villas, priced within a few thousand dollars of each other on the same afternoon, end up costing their new owners very different amounts to actually hold? The purchase price is the same. The resort is the same. The answer lives in three things that changed this year and that no listing sheet is built to show: a state tax that got more expensive in January, a county rule that started applying in July, and an HOA reserve situation that only shows up if you ask the right question before you write an offer.
Mauna Lani's condo market has had a strong year by any measure. The mid-2026 median condo price sits at $1,900,000, up 9.4 percent year over year, with price per square foot running around $965 and roughly six months of supply on hand, a healthier balance than some of its Kohala Coast neighbors. Mauna Lani also posted the highest condo closing volume of the three major resort communities along this stretch of coast. Entry into the resort's most rental-active villa complexes, Kulalani and Islands at Mauna Lani, now starts near $1.6 million. A handful of oceanfront single-family closings this year averaged $16 million at roughly $2,613 per square foot, though with only three sales in that tier the number says more about how thin that market is than what a typical buyer should expect to pay.
None of those figures, on their own, tell a buyer what it actually costs to own here in 2026. That number depends on which community you're in, what you plan to do with the property, and whether anyone told you about the tax and compliance changes before you signed.
The Tax Line That Changed On January 1
Hawaii's state Transient Accommodations Tax moved from 10.25 percent to 11 percent on January 1, 2026, under Act 96, the legislation often described as the state's "green fee." That 0.75 percentage point increase sounds small until it sits alongside the other layers that already apply to short-term rental income here: a 3 percent county TAT and a General Excise Tax that runs 4 to 4.5 percent depending on the county surcharge. Stack those together and a Mauna Lani owner renting a villa short-term is now giving up somewhere around 18 to 19 percent of gross rental revenue to state and county tax before a single cleaning fee or management commission comes out.
That is not a rounding error for anyone underwriting a purchase on projected rental income. A buyer who ran their numbers on a Kulalani or KaMilo villa in late 2025 and is still using that spreadsheet in 2026 is working from a tax assumption that is already out of date.
A New Registration Requirement Layers On Top
The tax change is not the only thing that shifted this year. Hawaii County's Bill 47 requires all short-term rentals on the Big Island to register annually, a requirement that took effect July 1, 2026. Registration comes with a fee, generally cited around $250 for a hosted rental and $500 for an unhosted one, and operating without registering can carry fines that run into the thousands of dollars. For a buyer comparing a Mauna Lani villa to a similar unit elsewhere on the island, this is a Big Island-specific cost and compliance step that a mainland comparison spreadsheet will not surface on its own.
It is also worth being precise about which properties this actually touches. Short-term rentals are permitted in most of Mauna Lani's villa complexes, including Mauna Lani Point, Mauna Lani Terrace, Islands at Mauna Lani, Kulalani, and Palm Villas, all of which carry Resort (V) zoning under Hawaii County code. Custom single-family estates on fee-simple fairway lots, the kind found in Champion Ridge, The Estates, and Mauna Lani Point Estates, often carry different CC&R restrictions on rentals, so the zoning that applies to a villa two streets away does not automatically apply to an estate lot. Anyone buying with rental income in the plan needs to confirm the specific parcel's zoning and association rules rather than assume the resort's general reputation for STVR-friendliness covers every address inside the gate.
What The Sticker Price Actually Buys
Set the tax and registration questions aside for a moment and look at what a buyer's dollar actually gets across Mauna Lani's roughly dozen residential communities, because the differences are real even before you factor in rental economics.
| Tier | Communities | What defines it |
|---|---|---|
| Entry-level villa | Fairways, Villages | Lower HOA dues, a mix of original and renovated interiors, the most accessible way into resort ownership |
| Rental-forward villa | KaMilo, Kulalani, Islands at Mauna Lani | Larger footprints, premium finishes, higher HOA dues that fund gated amenities and stronger rental demand |
| Oceanfront condo | Mauna Lani Point, Mauna Lani Terrace | Direct or near-direct ocean and fishpond frontage, walking distance to the Auberge and Fairmont Orchid |
| Custom estate | Champion Ridge, The Estates, Mauna Lani Point Estates | Fee-simple single-family homes, often four-plus bedrooms and around 4,000 square feet, distinctly lower monthly dues than the villa tier |
KaMilo leans into larger, multi-level layouts with stone counters and premium appliances, the kind of finish level that supports higher nightly rates if a buyer is renting. Kulalani sits in the upper-middle tier, with unit sizes running from roughly 1,331 to 2,022 square feet across its buildings, and its HOA fees typically read as moderate for the amenity level, sometimes bundling utilities depending on the building. Fairways and Villages remain the more accessible entry points, with lower dues but a greater need to check each building's reserve study before assuming the lower monthly number tells the whole story.
It is worth noting, too, that the Mauna Lani Advantage private club program was discontinued a few years back. Today, on-property access runs through the hotels and villa complexes directly, meaning the amenity relationship a buyer is actually purchasing looks different than it did under the old club structure, even in a building that hasn't changed physically at all.
Why The HOA Line Item Can Hide The Real Risk
Here is where the sticker price gets genuinely misleading. HOA dues are supposed to function as a rough proxy for what a community costs to maintain, but they only tell you about ongoing costs, not about liabilities already in motion.
Kulalani is a useful, concrete example, not because anything is wrong with the community, but because its own HOA has been publicly transparent about a multi-building remediation project. Work on buildings 10 and 11 began January 26, 2026, following a phased schedule the board has been tracking and communicating to owners. Around the same period, South Kohala's water utility issued restrictions requiring a 25 percent cut in general water use and a 50 percent cut in irrigation, the kind of infrastructure pressure that touches landscaping-heavy resort communities across the coast, not just one building.
None of this means a buyer should avoid Kulalani or treat the situation as a red flag. It means the two villas with nearly identical HOA dues and nearly identical list prices can carry very different levels of remaining special-assessment exposure, and the only way to know is to ask for the reserve study, the remediation schedule, and recent board meeting minutes before writing an offer, not after.
What This Means If You're Actually Comparing Communities
A buyer weighing Mauna Lani's villa tiers against each other in 2026 is really weighing four separate questions at once: what the unit costs to buy, what it costs to carry through HOA dues, what it would net if rented under this year's tax structure, and what liabilities the association may already be working through. The list price answers exactly one of those. The other three take a phone call, a document request, and someone who already knows which questions Mauna Lani's specific buildings tend to raise.
That is where local, on-the-ground guidance earns its keep. Frank and Nicolaas Schenk have spent years walking Mauna Lani's villa complexes and estate lots with buyers who came in looking at a spreadsheet and left with a much clearer picture of what a given address actually costs to own, not just to close on.
If you're comparing communities inside Mauna Lani, or trying to understand how this year's tax and registration changes affect a specific property you're considering, reach out to Schenk Properties. We know which buildings are mid-remediation, which HOAs run lean reserves, and which units still make sense once the real numbers are on the table.
A Few Direct Questions
Does every community at Mauna Lani allow short-term rentals? No. Mauna Lani Point, Mauna Lani Terrace, Islands at Mauna Lani, Kulalani, and Palm Villas carry Resort (V) zoning and generally permit STVR, subject to each association's own rules. Custom single-family estates on fee-simple lots often carry different CC&R restrictions, so this needs to be confirmed parcel by parcel rather than assumed resort-wide.
What's the real tax burden on a Mauna Lani short-term rental now? As of 2026, the state Transient Accommodations Tax is 11 percent, up from 10.25 percent before January 1. Combined with the county TAT of 3 percent and General Excise Tax of 4 to 4.5 percent, the effective tax burden on gross short-term rental income runs approximately 18 to 19 percent, before management fees or cleaning costs.
Do I need to register a short-term rental separately from the state tax filings? Yes. Hawaii County's Bill 47 added a mandatory annual county registration requirement for short-term rentals starting July 1, 2026, with its own fee schedule, separate from the state GET and TAT registration every rental owner already needs.
