Luxury Condos

Where the Luxury Condos Are

Big Island luxury condos cluster along the Kohala Coast in the resort communities: Mauna Lani, Mauna Kea, and Waikoloa Beach Resort, with a smaller number in Keauhou and along Aliʻi Drive in Kailua-Kona. Most are two and three bedroom units in low rise buildings, many with ocean or golf frontage.

A condo often makes more sense than a house for someone who is on island part of the year. Grounds, exterior, and usually the roof are handled for you. You arrive and the place is ready, which is the actual reason most of my clients end up choosing one over a single family home.

Association Fees and What They Cover

Association fees on Big Island resort condos run higher than mainland buyers expect, and they cover more. Typically that means exterior maintenance, insurance on the structure, grounds, and shared amenities. What they generally do not cover is your interior insurance, and in many buildings the resort or club membership is billed separately.

Read the association documents before you are emotionally committed to a unit. Reserve funding, any pending special assessment, and the rental policy are the three things that most often change a deal. I pull those early rather than at the back end of the inspection period.

Rental Rules Vary More Than You Think

Short term rental rules on the Big Island depend on county zoning and, inside the resort communities, on the specific association. They are not uniform. A building next door to one that rents nightly may not allow it at all. If rental income is part of the plan, that gets verified first.

Hawaii County is the authority on the zoning side. On the association side it is the governing documents that decide, not what a listing description says. If you are comparing a condo against a house, run the luxury homes search alongside this one.