If you own a North Shore beach house that isn't your full-time home, which Honolulu tax change will actually show up on your bill? For most of the past two years the answer seemed to be the empty homes tax. It got the hearings, the testimony and the headlines. It is also gone. Bill 46 (2024) was never brought back for a final vote and died automatically on August 1, 2026, under the City Council's two-year rule.
The change that will move your bill passed with far less noise. Ordinance 25-44 redraws the Residential A tax class, the one most Oahu second homes fall into. It applies to tax years beginning July 1, 2027, and the city's Real Property Assessment Division says the first sign of it will be the assessment notices mailed by December 15, 2026. About half the homes now in the class will drop out of it. The beach homes that stay are the base the next rates will be set against.
A Bill That Ran Out of Time
Bill 46 expired without a final vote. On December 11, 2024, the Council voted 7–2 to postpone the vote, according to the bill's legislative record, and never scheduled it again. Honolulu Civil Beat reported that Council Chair Tommy Waters said in a written statement that "The Council remained divided, and the Administration had consistently opposed the measure." The same report quoted Mayor Rick Blangiardi from June: "This one sounded good. When we did the deep dive, it wasn't."
A second route closed at the same time. The Honolulu Charter Commission voted 8–5 on a proposal to put an empty homes tax framework before voters. That was one vote short of the nine needed to reach the ballot, Civil Beat reported in July. The last draft of Bill 46 would have applied to tax years beginning July 1, 2027. Since it was never enacted, that date doesn't apply.
By coincidence, July 1, 2027 is also when Ordinance 25-44 takes effect.
The Class That Already Taxes Second Homes
Honolulu already taxes second homes differently. It does it through classification. Under Revised Ordinances of Honolulu Section 8-7.1, Residential A covers qualifying single-family parcels and condo units that are assessed at the threshold value or more and have no home exemption, along with residential-zoned vacant land assessed at the threshold or more. If you own a North Shore house you don't occupy as your principal residence, and it's assessed above the line, you are in this class.
Here is what Ordinance 25-44 changes, set against the rates the Council adopted 9–0 on June 3, 2026, in Resolution 26-62 for the current tax year.
| Tax year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 | Tax years from July 1, 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Residential A entry threshold | $1,000,000 assessed | $1,300,000 assessed |
| Residential A tiers | Two: up to $1M, above $1M | Three: up to $1.3M, $1.3M to $3.5M, above $3.5M |
| Residential A rates per $1,000 | $4.00, then $11.40 | Not yet set |
| Transient Vacation tiers | Two: up to $800K, above $800K | Three: up to $900K, $900K to $2M, above $2M |
| Transient Vacation rates per $1,000 | $9.00, then $11.50 | Not yet set |
| Residential rate, with home exemption | $3.50 | Set annually |
The bottom right of the table matters most to a beach house owner. The tier lines are now law. The rates for each tier don't exist yet. The city's calendar puts Council rate-setting for the July 2027 tax year on June 15, 2027.
Half the Class Leaves. The Rest Carries It.
The Honolulu Board of REALTORS® supported Bill 34 (2024), the measure that became Ordinance 25-44, and argued it for fairness. In testimony to the Council on September 3, 2025, CEO Suzanne Young wrote that the Oahu single-family median was under $700,000 when Residential A was created. Since then, she wrote, "many modest, multi-generational properties have inadvertently fallen under the Residential A classification."
The market numbers back up that concern. In August 2026, Honolulu Board of REALTORS® resale figures put the Oahu single-family median at $1,240,000, up 12.2% from August 2025. The board credited the rise to stronger sales above $1.3 million. Under the old $1 million line, a typical island house without a home exemption counted as Residential A. The new $1.3 million line sits just above the islandwide median. Those are Oahu-wide figures. North Shore oceanfront trades well above them, which is why this shift lands differently there.
How much the class shrinks comes from a September 15, 2026 presentation by the Real Property Assessment Division: "More than 51% of the current Res A population has an assessed value below $1.3 million." The division then raised the open question itself. "It will be interesting to see what the tax rates will be for Res A if the administration and/or city council desires next year's Res A revenue to be revenue-neutral," it wrote, adding that "Less than half of the remaining Res A population will need to offset the loss of Res A parcels due to the threshold increase."
The arithmetic follows from that. If the Council wants Residential A to raise about what it raises now, the money has to come from a smaller group of higher-value homes. The ordinance also gives the Council a new tool for that group: a separate Tier 3 rate on net taxable value above $3.5 million. On the North Shore, that describes the beachfront estate, not the town cottage. Nothing has been proposed yet. The city has adopted no rate for any of the new tiers, and the presentation describes revenue neutrality as a question for the administration and Council.
What a Beach House Pays Today Above $1 Million
The current rates show why the Tier 3 decision matters. On the city's Residential A page, RPAD works through a $1.6 million home. With a $120,000 home exemption in the Residential class, the tax comes to $5,180. The same home in Residential A, with no exemption, pays $10,840.
At beachfront values the gap grows. Using this year's rates, a home assessed at $3 million with no home exemption pays $4,000 on its first $1 million and $22,800 on the next $2 million, a total of $26,800. If the same house were classed as a Transient Vacation unit, the current rates come to $32,500. Above $1 million, a second home's rate of $11.40 per $1,000 is already within ten cents of the vacation-rental rate of $11.50. The Hotel and Resort class is $13.90. Those figures use the current rates only. They are not a forecast for July 2027.
For investors, the vacation-rental class has its own definition. The city's tax code applies the transient vacation unit label to a dwelling advertised, offered or provided for compensation to transient occupants for less than 90 consecutive days, under ROH Section 21-10.1. The Department of Planning and Permitting's short-term rental page applies a separate land-use test for rentals under 30 days and requires registration. A property used as a transient vacation unit cannot also be classed as Residential or Residential A. The 30-day and 90-day thresholds measure different things, and a rental plan has to account for both.
The Calendar That Locks In Your Class
Classification follows a fixed annual calendar, and for the July 2027 tax year several of the dates have already passed. This is where the friction sits for anyone closing this fall.
- September 30, 2026: Per the city's property tax FAQ, the deadline to file a home exemption claim for the July 2027 tax year, with ownership recorded by that date. A missed claim is pushed to a later tax year, and the city gives no refund for years when no claim was filed.
- October 1, 2026: Valuation date for the 2027 assessment, per the RPAD assessment timeline.
- November 1, 2026: An owner whose home exemption no longer applies, for example someone who moved off-island and kept the house, must report the change within 30 days and by November 1. ROH Section 8-10.1 sets a $300 penalty for a qualifying change that goes unreported.
- December 15, 2026: Assessment notices go out. Each one lists the parcel's class, its value, any exemption allowed or denied, and net taxable value. Under ROH Section 8-2.1, if the class changed from last year, the notice must show both the old and new class.
- January 15, 2027: Deadline to appeal an assessment or a denied exemption, under ROH Section 8-12.1, and ROH Section 8-12.10 sets a $50 deposit per appeal to the Board of Review.
- June 15, 2027: Council rate-setting for the new tiers, on the same RPAD timeline.
- July 1, 2027: The new tax year begins. The home exemption rises to $140,000, or $180,000 for owners 65 and older.
For a buyer under contract today, the December notice will show the class the property carries into July 2027. It will not show what that class will cost.
This post is general information about how Honolulu's property tax rules work. It is not legal, tax or financial advice. Please confirm your own property's classification and options with the Real Property Assessment Division or a qualified tax professional.
Quick Answers
Does the empty homes tax still apply to anything? No. Bill 46 was filed under the two-year rule on August 1, 2026, without a final vote, and the Charter Commission ballot proposal failed.
My second home is assessed around $1.2 million. Does it stay in Residential A? Under Ordinance 25-44, Residential A for tax years from July 1, 2027 starts at an assessed value of $1.3 million, so your December 15 notice is the place to check which class the city has assigned.
Can anyone say what Tier 3 will cost? Not yet. The rate for value above $3.5 million will be adopted with the rest of the July 2027 rates, which the city's calendar schedules for June 15, 2027.
On the North Shore, a home's tax class affects what it costs to hold every year, and next year that cost depends on a rate the Council hasn't written yet. If you're weighing a second home or a rental property in Haleiwa, Sunset Beach or Mokuleia, NS Luxury Living can go through the December notice and the ownership costs with you, property by property. Schedule a private consultation before the January 15 appeal window closes.
