A quiet country road that wanders towards the ocean. Cooling trade winds. Swaying palm trees. Vibrant greens and the vivid blues of the ocean along Maui’s North shore. If this sounds like a place that you would like to call home, 300 Mehana Road offers two separate opportunities for those that want to build their dream home or cottage on Maui. The state recently approved plans to drill a well to serve the parcel, making these two CPR properties a great places to create your own personal paradise.

Location

300 Mehana Road is located in the community of Haiku on Maui’s North Shore. This quiet town is located on the windward side of the island. Mehana Road is a small private road on the ocean side of Hana Highway. It is about 10 minutes away from a grocery store, restaurants, food trucks, the post office and fitness centers at the Haiku Cannery. It is about 15 minutes from Paia town. Ho’okipa Beach Park is ten minutes away. The airport is roughly half an hour away.

300 Mehana Road Unit A

Unit A consists of 3.88 acres of gently sloped agriculturally zoned land. This unit is designated for the construction of the main house on the property. There is plenty of space for your building site with lots of room left over for gardens or orchards or you can expand upon the existing grove of Coconuts. The property is just one lot back from Uaoa Bay. You don’t just see the ocean, you can smell it and hear it too.

300 Mehana Road Unit B

Unit B has entitlements to build a 1,000 square foot accessory farm dwelling (cottage), This unit includes 4.22 acres of gently sloped land. As with unit A, it offers big ocean views and Haleakala views. There is a grove of guava trees and plenty of space to plant your own orchard, gardens and more. There is even an ag storage shed included in the sale for you to keep all your farm and garden tools.

Utilities

Electric and high speed internet both run to the edge of the property. A buyer will be responsible for bringing those utilities to the building sites. There are two options for water. Many homes in the Haiku area rely on water catchment. Water is caught off a metal roof, stored in a catchment tank and then filtered prior to consumption. The seller also recently obtained approvals from the state for a well. The buyers of the units would be responsible for installation costs of the well.

Contact The Maui Real Estate Team

Unit A is offered for sale for $985,000. Check out the 300 Mehana Unit A listing page for additional photos. Unit B is offered for $895,000. Check out the Unit B listing page for additional photos. If you want the opportunity to build both a house and a cottage and just over 8 acres of land in total, you can of course buy both! These listings sold! Contact The Maui Real Estate Team for assistance with other Maui Land listings.

Last month, our broker Billy Jalbert and agent Martin Lenny listed a truly extraordinary property. This is the first time a whole building at Sugar Cove on Maui’s North Shore came to market. The owners combined two of the three units into a truly luxurious primary living space. The sellers opted to keep the third unit separate as its own guest living space. Today’s blog focuses specifically at the guest unit and its many amenities that make it a condo of distinction and luxury in its own right.

The guest suite or unit C offers four bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms include en suite baths, Two bedrooms share a bath. There is also half bath downstairs along with a laundry area, a writing / desk space in the living room and complete high-end kitchen.

The kitchen includes Hans Grohe Fixtures, imported granite counters, custom maple cabinetry and gourmet appliances. The views from the kitcken over the living room aren’t too shabby either.

Two of the four bedrooms offer stunning ocean views. The ocean view bedrooms also have ensuite bathrooms and access to the second story lanai. The two non-ocean view bedrooms are spacious and comfortable. They share a bathroom. Vaulted ceilings, recessed lighting and a bamboo ceiling treatment enhance the vibe of all four guest bedrooms. While there may be a few arguments about who gets the rooms with ocean views, even the most finicky of house guests will be hard pressed to complain about any of these bedrooms.

The bathrooms include custom maple cabinets, imported granite and Hansgrohe fixtures.

The beautiful wood work throughout the home is apparent from the moment you walk up to the custom Koa front door. The flooring in the living room kitchen and bedrooms are Cumaru wood. As mentioned above, the custom cabinetry and shelves throughout the home are Cumaru and Maple. A stunning custom, hand made Cumaru staircase leads to the second floor. The lanai area decks are beautiful and durable Ipe.

In addition to the visually compelling features of the home, there are a number of features that keep guests comfortable throughout their stay.

• Triple glazed low-E windows for storm integrity, soundproofing, and energy efficiency
• Walls and attics insulated for comfort and energy efficiency
• Central Air Upstairs keeps the bedrooms cool and comfortable
• Programmable water recirculation systems for instant hot water
• Energy efficient & programmable water heaters
• Water filtration & RO systems
• High speed wi-fi and smart-house systems throughout; Lutron lighting; Sonos audio
• 2 large screen TVs

These are just some of the high quality upgrades made by the owners.

If guests enjoy ocean sports, there is plenty of space to keep all of their toys. There is storage for 18 surfboards & windsurfboards and 10 rigged windsurf sails. With the wind and waves of Sugar Cove right out the back door, there is ample opportunity for fun.

The whole building 6 of Sugar Cove is offered for sale for $17,000,000. Take a 3D tour of the guest quarters and the rest of the building here. Check out the Sugar Cove Building 6 listing page for additional photos and details. Contact The Maui Real Estate Team to discuss the property with one of our agents.

Peace and Quiet. A beautiful home. Big vistas of the deep blue Pacific Ocean. You can have it all with this Estate Property in Huelo.

The serenity of the home is evident the moment you drive through the gated entry to the property. A pond full of lotus flowers sits in the middle of the circular driveway.

The quality of the home is evident throughout. There are oversized windows, 9 foot ceilings and an ocean view from nearly every room in the house. The kitchen features stainless steel appliances, cherry cabinets and granite counter tops. The floors are Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry) and Travertine throughout.

There are two master suites; one spans the entire second floor. Each features en-suite baths and oversize walk-in closets. There is a third bedroom as well as an office area. Trade winds are plentiful, but central A/C will help cool you down when necessary.

The ocean views from the property are substantial. Situated on the Northeast facing coastline of Maui, it is possible to watch sunrises and moon rises from the home.

The property consists of 3.8 acres of landscaped privacy with coconut palms, an extensive banana grove, mango, papaya and citrus. There are two excellent spots to add a cottage.

The Huelo location offers a quiet setting roughly 30 minutes from Kahului airport. It is approximately 10 minutes to restaurants and the grocery store in Haiku Town. Ho’okipa Beach Park is 15 minutes from the property. It is roughly 20 minutes drive to Paia town amenities.

This Huelo Estate is offered for $1,488,000. This listing sold in 2018. Contact The Maui Real Estate Team for assistance with other homes.

Lush Valleys

Towering Waterfalls

Rugged Shorelines

Our office has an exceptional new listing in the Hanawana Valley, deep in windward Maui. This is a property for those that truly feel the pull of the natural beauty of this corner of the island. A short walk from the property takes you to a tranquil waterfall located on state land. Accessed via a pathway of swaying bamboo, the fifty foot waterfall and swimming hole are the stuff of dreams. The property has deeded access to the ocean. A trail along a stream takes you to the majestic shoreline. A lava rock point stands in stunning contrast to the vivid blues of the ocean. Calm days open opportunities for swimming or diving. The tide pools on the lava rock point are teeming with life.

The property itself is filled with botanical treasures. There are massive and majestic common mango trees that stretch towards the sky. There are edibles like coconut, avocado, banana and papaya. Ginger adds splashes of color around the property. An old green house would be a great spot to raise orchids or as a place to raise starts for other plants.

There are two existing dwellings on the property. One is a simple two-story home. While modest, it makes for a great spot to enjoy the valley’s beauty. The second home is in need of considerable repair. It could be a project for those that want to fix things up or you could start a new with the spot making a wonderful building site. The true value of the property lies in the land itself.

This tropical getaway on the North Shore of Maui is offered for $1,425,000. This property sold in 2018! Contact The Maui Real Estate Team for assistance with other homes in the Maui Jungle.

Why is the Maui condo market showing signs of improvement in 2016? That is one of the questions, I asked myself in this post and did my best to answer by taking a deeper dig into this year’s condo sales. You will find all of those thoughts and a rundown on the overall July 2016 Maui Real Estate Stats. Without further ado, here are the July numbers and some thoughts and context on the market.

July 2016 Median Prices and Sales Volumes

There were 93 home sales with a median price of $600,000. In July of 2015, there were 129 sales with a median price of $590,000. That is a 28% decrease in volume and approximately a 2% increase in median price.

There were 110 condos sold for a median price of $440,000. Last July, there were 94 sales with a median sales price of $394,000. That is a 17% increase in median price and a 12% increase in median price.

There were 7 land sales with a median price of $490,000. There were 13 sales in July of 2015 with a median price of $250,000. This is a 46% decrease in volume and a 96% increase in median price.

Notable Numbers from the July Real Estate Sales Activity
While compiling the sales volumes and median prices, I came across some other noteworthy numbers.

• The highest priced home sale in July closed for $18,000,000. The Beachfront Oli Oli Kai Property on Stable Road in Spreckelsville closed for a new North Shore record. That said, it could of or maybe should have been classified as three separate sales. The property was condominiumized into three separate units. The three units included a total of three homes and approximately 3.6 acres.
• This was one of 7 home sales over $2,000,000. The six other sales included three properties in Lahaina and one sale each in Wailea, Kula and Ka’anapali.
• The highest priced condo sale closed for $3,850,000. The 3 bed, 3.5 bath unit at Montage Kapalua has 2,789 square feet of living space.
• That was one of 10 sales over $1,500,000 to close in July. The other sales included 2 closes at Ho’olei and one each at Ka’anapali Ali’i, Sugar Cove, Wailea Elua, Makena Surf, Honua Kai, The Whaler and The Palms at Manele.
• The high land sale for the month closed for $1,800,000. The four acre lot is located in Kapalua Plantation Estates. There was one other $1,000,000 plus land sale this month. That 17.47 acre lot is located in the Makila Ranch Area of Launiupoko.
• There were 13 bank owned properties that closed in July. That is down from the 20 that closed in July of 2015. There was only one successful short sale completed last month compared to the 8 completed in July of 2015.

New July Pending Sales Contracts
We track the number of properties that go pending in a particular month. It gives us a more recent data point on buyer demand and it also helps us to better suss out whether the prior month’s sales activity is something of a one off event or part of a broader trend. I will spell that out a little better as we review last month’s pending data.

Looking at the pending sales activity, the number of homes that went under contract in July was down compared to last year. The number of condos that went under contract was the same as last year and land pending sales were up ever so slightly. The decrease in home sales is part of what appears to be a continuing trend that we have seen over the last few months. Shrinking home inventory, particularly at lower price points, has led to a reduction in sales activity. The condo market appears to be continuing a recent trend of sales at or above last year’s totals. I will delve into that in more detail below. While land sales aren’t exactly booming, it was good to see that they were up slightly from last year. That would suggest that the low July land sales numbers were more of an outlier than the start of any sort of trend.

Thoughts on the Market
We have discussed the decreases in home sales volumes over the last few posts, but I haven’t talked a whole lot about the increase in condo sales activity. Of the 7 months of sales this year, one month had the same sales volume as the same month from 2015, and one month was down from the same month last year. Five of the months have experienced greater sales volume than the same month of 2015. The last four months have all seen an increase over the same month of 2015. Over that period from April-July, sales volumes are up 14% compared to the same period of 2015. That raised the question of why we may be seeing an increase in activity. I dug into the sales data a few different ways to try to see if I could come to any conclusions as to what is driving the increase in sales activity.

The first thing I did was break down the sales volume over the last four months by price point.

I can’t say that this breakdown provided me with a clear picture of the driving force behind price increases. We can see an increase in sales below $300,000 and an increase in the $1,500,000 and higher range. The middle price ranges tend to be a mixed bag. The biggest increase in activity of any price range occurred between $500,000-$749,999. I can’t say off the top of my head why that would have occurred. The middle of the market, so to speak, also included the only two price points where sales were down compared to last year. The remaining price ranges saw relatively limited increases over 2016.

Not feeling like I had a clear answer, I took a look at two other data points. The first data point is is whether or not the property allows short term rentals. This data is somewhat flawed as it is not a mandatory field in our multiple listing service. In other words, not every condo sale that occurred over the last month reported whether or not the condo allowed vacation rentals.

It is pretty clear that there was an increase in sales for properties that are reported to be vacation rentals. I calculated a 26% increase over the period between April 1, 2015 and July 31, 2015. It was interesting to note that the increase in vacation rental condo sales was particularly evident in the $500,000-$749,999 price range. That appears to point to a significant driver for sales activity in that price range.

The one other data point I wanted to look at was new developer sales. New developments can be market drivers that boost the overall sales activity. In some cases, the boost can mask other market trends. An example of this is when Honua Kai started to close a lot of condos while we were still in the thick of the downturn. Overall condo demand was low, but sales numbers were relatively high as buyers were closing on contracts that were originally written pre-construction during the peak of the real estate boom. From what I could glean, we haven’t seen a similar phenomenon over the last four months. There was an uptick in new development sales. I counted 29 new development sales from April 1, 2016-July 31, 2016. That is up from 23 sales during that same period last year. However, the vast majority of these contracts were written recently.

While I can’t say I have definitive answers on what is driving the recent uptick in condo sales, the data above points to three price ranges where the improvement was most prevalent and a type of condo that saw more activity. Based on anecdotal evidence and the quantitative evidence, I am going to postulate a few reasons for the increases in each of these segments. The increase in sales at the low end is a reflection of the continued strength of the buy over renting argument on Maui. Maui rental rates have soared. Low borrowing costs make owning a number of Maui condo less expensive than renting. As long as rents remain high and rates remain low and inventory is sufficient, that part of the market should continue to be busy. I can’t say definitively why the high end market is outperforming last year in terms of sales. When I look at the luxury home market, sales totals between 2015 and 2016 have been almost identical. It just seems as if high end buyers are gravitating more towards condos this year. I believe the increase in vacation rental condo sales, and in the $500,000-$749,999 range in particular, is a reflection of pretty strong consumer confidence among some mainland buyers. West Coast real estate markets have been strong and the stock market has performed well. This means more cash for discretionary purchases like a vacation rental condo on Maui.

A Few Closing Thoughts for Maui Buyers and Sellers
I think there are some things to be learned for the overall Maui market from my review of the condo numbers. The biggest is that there is variability in the strength of the market by price point. I think you can also add geographic variability as another factor. Not all communities are seeing equal levels of buyer demand. While these stats tend to paint the market in broad brushes, how buyers and sellers approach the Maui market is going to be a reflection of their specific segment of the market. Contact The Maui Real Estate Team if you are interested in buying or selling a property on Maui. We would welcome the chance to hear about your needs and to discuss market conditions that are most relevant to you.

The Maui Real Estate Team is partnering with Concierge Auctions for the no reserve auction of the Mea Makamae Ranch on August 4th. The property is located on the slopes of 10,000 foot Haleakala in the community of Haiku on Maui’s North Shore. Mea Makamae offers privacy, tranquility, a stunning natural setting and incredible recreational opportunities. The 38.7 acre property includes 7 horse paddocks, a round pen and a tack room. A small gulch with a seasonal stream offers additional opportunity for riding or heading out on an ATV for some offroad adventure. There are beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean, Haleakala and the West Maui Mountains. There is a small Christmas Tree farm on the property and plenty of room for different agricultural pursuits.

The 4,240 square foot, four bedroom, three and a half bath home includes 7-foot plantation entry doors, etched concrete floors, 12-foot open beam ceilings, and custom river rock fireplaces. The 1,000 square foot master suite features a walk-in-closet, a 6-foot Swedish soaking tub, a blue rock fireplace and a private 800 square foot deck with expansive views. The gourmet kitchen has teak a pass through to the covered lanai. The lanai is a great space for entertaining or just hanging out taking in the ocean and pasture views.

The 2,100 square foot oversized garage is big enough to store a boat or any other toys that you might want for around the ranch or other recreational pursuits. One of the unique elements of owning a ranch in Hawaii is that you are less than 20 minutes from world class wind and water sports. Surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, stand paddling and outrigger canoeing opportunities are just a short drive away. Waterfall hikes and fantastic mountain biking trails are less than 15 minutes away. The nearby towns of Haiku, Makawao and Paia offer yoga classes, good restaurants and a variety of boutiques.

Between the setting and the fun to be had, it is safe to say that future owners may have a few friends who would want to come and visit the Ranch. A 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1,000 square foot cottage is a great space for visitors. Highlights of the cottage include reclaimed pine floors, a vaulted cupola roof, outdoor shower, and a 420 square foot lanai.

The Ranch is listed for $5,400,000. We are partnering with Concierge Auctions for a no reserve luxury home auction on August 4th. You can find more details on the auction at the Concierge Auction site. You may also contact The Maui Real Estate Team with any questions about the property.