The argument for additional regulation of the short term rental industry on the Big Island is that it will somehow magically increase the number of long term rentals available and solve our housing crisis.

It won’t.

The UHERO study shows exactly what the problem is and how to fix it.

The blue and green portions of the chart are land costs and construction costs. As you can see, they are relatively similar whether you are in Iowa or New York. That makes sense because the construction industry has become global. Though Alaska and Hawaii both have slightly higher costs, they are only 10% or 20% higher than the rest of the country.

The red portion of the chart is regulatory costs. So why does a house in Hawaii cost twice as much as a house in Alaska? Because local politicians here in Hawaii keep adding layer after layer after layer of regulation onto the housing market.

So what happens when you remove those regulations? Fortunately we have a straight forward answer to that question because Austin, TX did just that, but not before they tried to ban short term rentals. Fortunately, the Texas courts stepped in to protect private property rights and they were unable to make the regulations stick.

So instead they made it dead simple to build more housing stock in Austin. They built more than 30,000 new units in 2023. What happened? Housing costs went down by 11%.

Now, some people ( Heather Kimball for example ) will say “What about neighborhood character!”. Here is the thing - our neighborhoods are going to change no matter what. If we don’t build housing, then the costs of living on the Big Island will grow until the only people who can afford to live here will be tech bros and wealthy retirees. It will be like living in Silicon Valley, only without the high paying tech jobs, modern medical care and basic government services. Doing nothing will cause continued gentrification, out-migration and radical changes to our neighborhood’s character.

That is what is happening now.

By streamlining new construction, eliminating planning and permitting barriers and making it dead simple to build more homes our community can actually reduce housing costs. Does this mean more neighbors? Yes, it does. We’ll continue to see retirees, successful entrepreneurs, remote workers and young adventurers move to the Big Island…..as they’ve been doing for decades. The difference is that locals will also be able to live and succeed here too.

We have a choice to make and you can make that choice when you fill out your ballot on July 23.