Act 210, explained:
a simpler deal for local homebuyers
What this bill means for Hawai‘i homes to stay in Hawai‘i hands
Governor Green signed House Bill 1740 into law as Act 210 on July 8, 2026.
For the past ten years, every time an affordable housing program in Hawaiʻi got gamed, the state's answer was to add another rule. Longer occupancy requirements. More conditions. More paperwork. Each fix made sense on its own. Together they built a system where local families who finally got into a home found they couldn't leave it.
Act 210 goes the other way. It strips the rules down to one, and makes that one permanent: you have to be a Hawaiʻi resident, and you have to live there.
First, the fast pass
Building housing in Hawaiʻi under the normal rules is close to impossible. Permits take years. Zoning fights take longer. Fees stack up before a single unit exists.
So the state made an offer. Chapter 201H of the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes says: if you're going to build homes priced for local residents, we'll give you a fast pass. Expedited review through HHFDC, exemptions from many planning and zoning rules, fee waivers, and access to financing like tax credits and low-interest loans. You skip the line. In return, the homes go to people who live here.
That's the whole bargain, and it's the reason any of this matters. Without the fast pass, most of these projects never get built at all.
Then we spent ten years adding rules
In 2016, a building called 801 South Street opened in Kakaʻako. The deal there was simple: buy at a below-market price, be a local resident, live in the unit.
What happened next set the pattern for the decade. Because Hawaiʻi builds so little housing, prices kept climbing, and owners who sold after a year sometimes walked away with six figures of appreciation. Civil Beat reported that about two dozen units in one tower resold over roughly two years for an average gain of more than $109,000, with one buyer clearing close to $200,000 in about a year.
Some of those sellers were doing exactly what you'd want, taking the gain and moving up to a home that fit a growing family. But from the outside it looked like a lottery. If your name came up, you won. If it didn't, you watched someone else win.
So the programs tightened. Occupancy requirements went from two years to five, then to ten. Every county and agency ran its own version, each one a little stricter than the last. Today, depending on which program a home was built under, an owner can be committed to living in that unit for anywhere from ten to thirty years.
What that cost the people it was meant to help
The rules did stop the flipping. They also stopped everything else.
A family in one of these homes can't move when their circumstances change, because the terms they signed hold them in place for a decade or more. So they stay. Not because the home still fits, but because moving isn't something the program allows.
We've watched first-time buyers make choices no housing program should be forcing. Putting off a wedding, because a second income would push the household over an income limit. Putting off having kids, because the unit they qualified for has one bedroom and moving isn't an option. These are rational decisions given the rules. They're also not what anyone wanted when they wrote them.
Act 210's trade
Act 210 opens a path through 201H with as few restrictions as possible, in exchange for one that never lifts.
What comes off. The long occupancy clock is cut back sharply. On this path, at least 80 percent of units go to Hawaii residents who live in the home for five years after the first sale, rather than the ten-to-thirty-year terms running elsewhere.
What comes off, part two. No income screening. HHFDC no longer runs its own financial review of buyers, and renters no longer have to prove to the agency that they can afford the rent. Lenders and landlords already do that work, and the duplicate review was causing delays without protecting anyone.
What goes on, and stays on. From the first sale forward, every unit in the project carries a deed restriction that doesn't expire, exclusively making the home only available to Hawaii residents.
Do you qualify?
Under Act 210, a qualified resident is someone who:
is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident
is at least 18 years old
is domiciled in Hawaiʻi and physically lives in the unit
holds a majority interest in no more than one other property suitable for living in, and disposes of it within two years of taking ownership of the new one
That last one is what makes moving up possible. You can already own a starter home and still buy here, as long as you sell the first one within two years. Programs that bar any other property ownership outright lock out the exact households trying to take the next step.
Notice what isn't on the list: an income cap. Homes on this path aren't income-restricted. The affordability screen is what gets traded away in exchange for the local-ownership requirement.
This page is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. HHFDC publishes the official requirements.
The rule that never expires
Three conditions attach to every unit, permanently:
Someone domiciled in Hawaiʻi has to live there. There's a hardship exception under HRS 201H-49, and it explicitly covers disability-related absences, including hospitalization, inpatient rehabilitation, and stays in a medically necessary care facility.
Any rental has to run at least a year. That takes these homes out of the vacation rental market for good.
Any sale has to be to a qualified resident. Hawaii residents come first.
That's the swap. Instead of holding owners in place for decades, Act 210 restricts who the home can ever belong to. It stays out of the second-home market, out of the short-term rental market, and out of the offshore and international buyer market. Permanently.
For a homeowner, that means you can move when your life changes. For the community, it means the home you leave goes to another local family.
Terms on this page
HHFDC — Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation, the state agency that runs the 201H process.
HRS Chapter 201H — the state housing law that lets qualifying projects get expedited review and exemptions from many local rules. The fast pass.
Deed restriction — a rule written into a property's title that binds every future owner, not just the person who agreed to it.
Domiciled — Hawaiʻi is your permanent home, not just where you're currently staying.
Sources: Act 210 (HB1740, 2026) · HHFDC 201H program · Civil Beat on 801 South