Vacation Rental Investment on the Kohala Coast
This is a resort corridor built for visitors, with real, permitted short-term rental zoning across most of its named condo communities -- but the regulatory framework changed meaningfully in 2025, the tax stack is genuinely layered, and this page names the real gaps in what could be confirmed rather than papering over them with a confident-sounding but unverified summary.
The Zoning Foundation: Bill 108 and Resort-Zoned Districts
Hawaii County regulates short-term vacation rentals (STVR) under Bill 108, adopted by the County Council in November 2018 as Ordinance 2018-114. It defines the zoning districts where STVR use is permitted -- generally Resort-Hotel (V) zoning and areas designated Resort or Resort Node under the county's General Plan, per Hawaii County Code section 25-4-16 -- and provides a Nonconforming Use Certificate pathway for STVRs that operated outside a permitted zone before the ordinance. Kona, the Kohala Coast, and Waikoloa Beach Resort are specifically described in multiple STVR-compliance guides as areas generally sitting within permitted zones, which is a genuinely favorable starting point for a Kohala Coast rental investment compared with a market where STVR use is broadly restricted outside narrow exceptions. That said, "generally" is not "every parcel confirmed" -- confirm the specific unit's zoning designation directly against Hawaii County's own zoning map before assuming rental legality.
A New 2025 Registration Requirement You Need to Track
Layered on top of that underlying zoning framework, Hawaii County passed Bill 47 (Ordinance 25-50) in 2025, creating a new countywide registration requirement for every TVR owner, hosted and unhosted alike. As of this research, the county's registration portal was reported not yet live, with a reported registration deadline of July 1, 2026, and reported fees of $250 initial plus $100 annual renewal for a hosted bed-and-breakfast operation, and $500 initial plus $250 annual renewal for an unhosted short-term vacation rental. This is a real, recently enacted, dated requirement -- not a replacement for the underlying zoning question, but an additional compliance step on top of it. Confirm the current status of the registration portal, the deadline, and the fee structure directly with Hawaii County's Planning Department before modeling a rental investment, since this is exactly the kind of recently changed rule that could shift further by the time you're reading this.
The Property Tax Bill Scales Sharply With Value -- and Rental Property Often Sits Above $2 Million
Covered in full on this site's Property Tax Guide for this market: Hawaii County's newly adopted FY2026-27 rate schedule taxes non-owner-occupied residential property on a tiered basis -- reportedly $11.10 per $1,000 up to $2 million of net taxable value, $14.50 per $1,000 from $2 million to $4 million, and $17.00 per $1,000 above $4 million. A separate hotel and resort classification is reported at $11.55 per $1,000. Because most Kohala Coast rental property is purchased as a non-owner-occupied second home rather than a genuine primary residence, the tiered non-owner-occupied rate -- not the lower homeowner rate -- is the realistic default to model, and given this corridor's pricing, a meaningful share of that inventory lands in the higher tiers. This is a real, substantial, and recently increased fixed cost that applies regardless of whether the unit is ever actually rented, and it should be modeled before gross rental revenue, not as an afterthought against it.
The Tax Stack on Rental Income Itself
Separate from the annual property tax bill, any actual rental income is subject to Hawaii's General Excise Tax (a tax on business gross receipts, typically passed through to guests) and the state Transient Accommodations Tax, with the state's 2025-2026 "Green Fee" adding a further increment on top to fund climate-resilience projects. Multiple 2026 sources describe the combined statewide hotel-stay tax burden -- state and county TAT plus GET plus the Green Fee -- as reaching roughly 18.5%, though this page did not confirm a precise Hawaii-County-specific line-item breakdown of that figure against a primary source, and states it as directional rather than exact. Hawaii County most likely levies its own separate county-level Transient Accommodations Tax on top of the state components, consistent with the pattern other Hawaii counties adopted following the same 2021 state enabling legislation -- but this page did not independently confirm Hawaii County's specific current rate and effective date against primary ordinance text, and names that as a genuine gap rather than assuming a figure.
HOA and Resort Rules Can Restrict Rentals Even Where Zoning Allows Them
Even where Hawaii County zoning permits STVR use, individual condo association or resort community governing documents can still legally impose their own additional restrictions -- minimum stay lengths, rental caps, registration requirements with the association itself, or outright prohibitions in some buildings. This research did not review the specific rental rules of any named Kohala Coast community's governing documents, and does not state a general rule as settled fact for every community here. Request and review the specific association's current CC&Rs, bylaws, and any rental-policy amendments directly before purchasing with rental income as part of the investment thesis -- a listing's general description of the resort as "rental friendly" is not a substitute for the actual governing document language.
Nightly Rates and Occupancy: Not Independently Confirmed Here
This page did not find independently confirmed, current average nightly vacation rental rates or occupancy percentages for the private rental market across Kohala Coast condo and villa communities, broken out by property type, bedroom count, or oceanfront-versus-interior positioning. General resort hotel room rates found in this research reflect hotel pricing at Prince Resorts Hawaii, Auberge, Fairmont, Hilton, and Marriott properties, not the private vacation-home and condo rental market that likely represents the bulk of actual individual-investor activity here, and this page does not extrapolate a private-rental-market income figure from hotel pricing data. Anyone evaluating a specific property as a rental investment should request actual historical booking and revenue data from the current owner or a local property manager, and cross-reference it against comparable active listings on major booking platforms, rather than relying on a corridor-wide average this research could not responsibly produce.
What This Page Doesn't Cover
This page states honestly what could and couldn't be confirmed about short-term rental regulation, taxation, and income potential on the Kohala Coast. It does not state current average nightly rates or occupancy percentages for the private rental market, specific property management company fee structures, the exact current combined ordinance-confirmed tax percentage on a Kohala Coast rental stay, or a parcel-level zoning confirmation for every unit in every named resort community. Confirm all of these directly with Hawaii County's Planning Department, the Hawaii County Real Property Tax Office, the Hawaii Department of Taxation, the specific community's HOA, and a local property manager before purchasing with rental income as part of the investment thesis. Nothing on this page is financial, tax, or investment advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: BNBCalc's Hawaii short-term-rental regulation guide, Hawaii Life's coverage of the county's transient-accommodations rental bill process, and searchhawaiiproperty.com's explainer on Bill 47 (Ordinance 25-50) for Bill 108 (Ordinance 2018-114)'s underlying zoning framework, the Nonconforming Use Certificate pathway, and Kona/Kohala Coast/Waikoloa Beach Resort's general status as sitting in permitted resort zones; searchhawaiiproperty.com and the Hawaii County Planning Department's own "Short-Term Vacation Rentals" page (via search-result snippet) for Bill 47's 2025 registration requirement, reported July 1, 2026 deadline, and reported fee structure; Big Island Now's reporting on Hawaii County Council's FY2026-27 property tax rate adoption for the tiered non-owner-occupied and hotel/resort rates; the Hawaii Department of Taxation's own materials, Governor Josh Green's office, Kiplinger, and HAWAI'I Magazine (as established elsewhere on this site) for the General Excise Tax, state Transient Accommodations Tax, and 2025-2026 Green Fee, with the combined ~18.5% statewide hotel-stay tax figure sourced to 2026 travel-industry reporting rather than a Hawaii-County-specific breakdown; and Marriott, Hilton, Fairmont, Auberge, and Prince Resorts Hawaii's own property pages for general hotel-rate context, explicitly not extrapolated into a private-rental-market income figure. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here: current average nightly rental rates or occupancy percentages for the private vacation-rental market on this corridor; specific property management company fee structures; Hawaii County's specific current county-level Transient Accommodations Tax rate and effective date; and a parcel-level zoning confirmation for every unit in every named resort community. This page is independent research, not financial, tax, or investment advice; confirm all current regulatory, tax, and income figures directly with Hawaii County's Planning Department, the Hawaii County Real Property Tax Office, the Hawaii Department of Taxation, the relevant community's HOA, and a local property manager before making an investment decision.