Prices Increasing for Honua Kai One Bedroom Condos in High Demand

In light of a couple recent closings of one bedroom units at Honua Kai, the lack of available inventory in this category, and from what my personal buyer clients are telling me about their needs and desires – I think we will continue to see Honua Kai one bedroom condo units be in very high demand and will continue to see substantial price appreciation.

In this post, I am only going to comment on resale properties at Honua Kai as I think that they are a more accurate barometer of the actual market place rather than the developer prices, which in many instances have been locked in for several months and sometimes upwards of a year.

2014 YTD Partial Ocean View One Bedroom Sales

I was very surprised to see two recent closings of one bedroom units on the south side of the Hokulani tower, facing the Westin, recently close in the high $700k range. Hokulani #718 just recently closed at $796,000 after being on the market for a little more than 6 months.

This property currently has an outstanding ocean view all the way to Black Rock, but is on the same side of the building that will be impacted by impending construction at the adjoining Westin property. My thought process is that they were willing to pay this amount because the rumor is that the adjoining building will be sticking to its original floor plate instead of having an extending wing closer to Honua Kai and they are looking to go no higher than 6 stories, meaning that the majority of the view will remain intact.

Hokulani #518 also just recently closed two floors down at $767,500. This closing was a bit more of a head scratcher for me with it being on the lower floor and significantly more impacted by the construction in terms of view, but as we know, willing buyers and sellers are what determine market prices. 

It still blows me away a bit how much the prices on these units have gone up in a recent timeframe as my clients who I represented on the purchase of Hokulani #618 paid about $525,000 for their unit in 2011. (Here’s what my clients had to say about purchasing Hokulani #618.)

Hokulani #316, listed at $699,000, closed on 5/30/14 for $690,000.

Konea #1024, an upper floor partial ocean view 750 sq.ft. unit listed at $769,000, closed on 5/5/14 for $745,000.

Konea #336 was an unlisted property that I represented the buyer on closing for $691,525 on 6/27/14.

View from the lanai of Konea #336, an unlisted property that I represented a buyer client on his purchase.

Price/Sq.Ft. on Partial Ocean View One Bedroom Units

Generally speaking, I think using this metric as an overall assessment of value can be dangerous and inaccurate because location is the #1 component of real estate values.

However, because we are talking about a condominium complex rather than a single family home, and I have isolated the view planes, I feel that it is noteworthy to mention that thus far in 2014 – the average price per square foot of living area for partial ocean view one bedroom units in the resale market is $1,042 for 2014. Contrast this figure to the 2013 partial ocean price/sq.ft. figure which was $927 (sales of Hokulani #244, Konea #210, and Konea #610).

Just for historical purposes, one of my buyer clients purchased Konea #410 in the spring of 2012 for just under $500k; talk about some serious appreciation in just a couple of years.

Mountain View One Bedroom Sales

Year to date, there have been 3 one bedroom mountain view units at Honua Kai:

• Hokulani #826 closed for $620,000 on 4/24/14
• Hokulani #532 closed for $625,000 on 7/22/14
• Konea #516 closed for $650,000 on 3/17/14

It is noteworthy that Konea #516 was 70 sq.ft. larger (thus a lower price/sq.ft. by about $60) than both of the units in Hokulani, it had the double sinks, full tub, and overall more spacious bathroom, and just an overall more pleasant setting than the other two have.

A video of Konea #516 that I shot for a couple buyer clients when it was on the market earlier this year

The average price per sq.ft. on the three mountain view sales was $983. This figure is slightly higher than the two mountain view resales last year (Hokulani #528, Hokulani #724, and Konea #224), which amounted to $927/sq.ft. Isn’t it odd that this is exactly the same price/sq.ft. that the partial ocean view units sold for in 2013 as well?

Nevertheless, these figures are much higher than when the developer did the fire sales and you had many of these units closing in the $400-$500k range.

The One True Ocean View One Bedroom Sale in 2014 YTD

Konea #448, listed at $790,000, closed in February of this year for $770,000. This unit is 780 sq.ft., which is the largest of the one bedroom floor plans at Honua Kai, excluding both of the one bedroom plus den floor plans. In hindsight, it looks like the buyer did pretty well closing at $987 per sq.ft. vs. the average of the partial ocean view units at $1,042 per sq.ft.

The reason that I am classifying this property as a true ocean view versus the aforementioned units is because of its proximity to the front of the building (one stack back from the oceanfront 3 bedroom units), making its ocean view planes considerably more expansive than the others.

3 Pending One Bedroom Sales

At this current time, there are 3 one bedroom sales currently under contract – two partial ocean view units and one true ocean view unit.

Hokulani #418, a partial ocean, is listed at $799,000. It will be interesting to see where this closes considering that there is about a $100k spread between comparable Hokulani units #316, #518, and #718 (see above partial ocean view sales).

Hokulani #142 is a one bedroom plus den unit listed at $820,000 and has been under contract for about 3.5 months now, which is atypically long for these types of properties.

Konea #544, which in my opinion is one of the nicest one bedroom units in all of Honua Kai, is under contract listed at $825,000. I did a video blog on this outstanding property in early 2013 when it was listed for a lower price. The seller relisted it recently for a higher number and put it under contract quickly. Konea #544 video blog.

Why Are Prices Appreciating so Much on One Bedroom Units at Honua Kai?

1. They are generally the most affordable units at the resort and the entry price point levels of any condo building are usually the most active, which in this case, has lead to appreciation.
2. There are no more developer one bedroom units actively for sale; just two and three bedroom units.
3. The one bedroom units and studio units generally represent the best return on cash. I was just in a partial ocean one bedroom unit today that rents out about 90% average occupancy throughout the course of the year. It’s pretty hard to find any real estate in Hawaii that consistently does this. I have seen one bedroom units maxing out at about 93% average occupancy (340 days out of the year based on a full year of availability), which is just incredible.
4. In hindsight, the developer at Honua Kai clearly undersold much of the real estate back in the sales of 2011 and 2013. Many of these units were one bedroom units and speculative buyers just jumped on the opportunity in hopes of making some quick cash.

Hokulani #724 is the top value mountain view unit listed at $675,000

One Bedroom Units Currently Actively For Sale at Honua Kai

Currently, there are 5 one bedroom units on the market right now. The best values are as follows:

• Hokulani #724, a mountain view unit, just reduced from $699,000 to $665,000.
• Hokulani #238, a partial ocean view, listed at $849,000.
• Hokulani #213, which is one of only 7 interior courtyard one bedroom units at Honua Kai, listed at $899,000. I have shared more details on Hokulani #213 on this blog post: Rare Condo Offering – Inner Courtyard Ocean View One Bedroom at Honua Kai Resort.

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