Along with Kilauea’s thundering volcanic eruptions on the Big Island of Hawaii, sales of luxury properties on Hawaii’s Big Island, Oahu, Maui and Kauai are making a lot of noise.
At least 55 homes sold for +$5M from January 2018 through the end of July 2018, according to data from Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers. These luxury sales represent an increase of +31% from the same period last year.
Matt Beall, principal broker with Hawaii Life Real Estate, said he’d not seen so many sales over $10M in his 20-year career in Hawaii real estate.
Though West Coast and Asian vacationers and second homeowners have long favored the Hawaiian Islands, Mark Zuckerberg and his family put this island chain of paradise on people’s radar when they purchased 700 acres of property on the island of Kauai.
In 2018, that radar flash became reality for a surge of Silicon Valley buyers. The reasons for this gush of demand? Beall said, “Three things…stock market volatility, implications from the US tax overhaul and Hawaii’s healthy market for second homes.”
Winston Chesterfield, a director with the research firm, Wealth-X, said, “You’re not seeing them (prospective home owners) buy penthouses in Honolulu – they’re buying vast estates. “ Chesterfield added, “Why not? It’s wild. It’s green. There’s ocean. There are animals. There’s a very strong organic sense on all of these islands.”
Sounds like paradise to me.
