In Brief Waikiki is located in Hawaii’s tourist mecca, easily its most popular resort district. The neighborhood lies along a 1.5 mile stretch of
world class beach on the sunny southern shore of Oahu with some of the best and most consistent
weather on the planet.
The neighborhood is bordered by Kapiolani Park and
Diamond Head to the south-east and
Ala Moana to the west, making for the ideal central location. It is mostly surrounded by water, with the ocean to the south and the man-made
Ala Wai Canal to the north.
See our
video flying over Waikiki.
Waikiki is a dense high-rise neighborhood - a mini
Manhattan - with many hotels, about 130 residential condos and just a few old single-family homes, all located within 0.5 miles to the beach, with just 1 condo located directly on the beach;
Waikiki Shore - all other beachfront properties are almost exclusively hotels.
Most condos in Waikiki were built during the 1970’s construction boom with only a few built since 2005, including
Lanikea At Waikiki,
Loft at Waikiki,
Trump Tower Waikiki,
The Watermark,
Allure Waikiki,
Cove Waikiki and
Ritz-Carlton Waikiki.
Waikiki condos for sale - fee simple - range in price from about $200,000 for a small studio at
Waikiki Marina Condominium to more than $20,000,000 for the most stunning penthouse at the
Ritz-Carlton Waikiki.
Very little land remains that can still be developed. This condition, together with tight zoning and development restrictions, may create good potential for long-term appreciation.
Fee Simple vs Leasehold About 25% of Waikiki's condos are leasehold and no other
neighborhood on Oahu has this high a percentage of leasehold properties. Looking at all
Honolulu properties - excluding Waikiki - about 4.5% of properties are leasehold and on Oahu, excluding Honolulu city, just about 3% of properties are leasehold.
Fee Simple means you own the property outright; the most common form of ownership.
Leasehold means you have the right to use - and even sell - the property, but you do not own the underlying land and upon expiration of the lease the property typically reverts back to the landowner. On rare occasions, the association of a condo may have acquired an interest in the land, in which case it isn't straight forward what will happen upon expiry of the lease - as if the case with
Discovery Bay in Waikiki.
Short-term Vacation Rentals Some owners want the flexibility to stay in their unit while vacationing in Hawaii and otherwise rent out to vacationers, just like a hotel, maximizing potential rental income.
Waikiki is the place to search for short-term rentals, as the neighborhood has close to 30 buildings that allow
short-term vacation renting and outside Waikiki, anywhere on Oahu, there are very limited short-term vacation rental condo options, given Honolulu's strict
rules for short-term renting.
Neighborhood Waikiki is the biggest revenue source for the State of Hawaii. Nicely maintained by the City, State and the private tourism and retail sectors, hotels and shops spend millions in renovating and upgrading their properties, keeping a large portion of Waikiki real estate looking up-to-date and modern.
Beach replenishment and neighborhood beautification projects have created a stunning metropolitan tropical paradise. An eclectic and diverse mix of residents and tourists with a multitude of backgrounds and cultures come gather here from all over the world.
Three main traffic arteries, Kalakaua Ave, Kuhio Ave and Ala Wai Blvd run parallel through Waikiki.
Kalakaua Ave, a one-way street closest to the beach, with it’s
Rodeo Drive feel, is home to high-end fashion stores as well as a number of world class luxury oceanfront hotels and restaurants.
Kuhio Ave is a busy two-way street running along the center of Waikiki with a mix of secondary hotels, condos and restaurants.
Ala Wai Blvd is a one way street that runs the whole length along the Ala Wai Canal with a number of high rise condos, most of them with great canal, golf course and mountain views.
Among the condos you'll find a few sparse older homes that perpetuate the original Hawaiian charm, but Waikiki real estate is, today, almost exclusively a high rise condo style neighborhood.
Waikiki might be Hawaii’s most densely populated neighborhood, but with beautiful green parks, colorful tropical flowers and the surrounding crystal clear blue ocean, the spirit of Aloha prevails and the condos remain a commodity in high demand. With fun and balmy weather all year long, life in Waikiki is like one never-ending vacation.
Waikiki History Had it been left untouched, Waikiki would today be swampland, just as it was hundreds of years ago. It was clear to Native Hawaiians, however, that this land had great agricultural potential due to its abundant freshwater springs. It's believed that Oahu's Chief Kalamakua created an irrigation system in the 15th Century to take advantage of these assets. Soon, taro farming was in place along with newly built fishponds to feed his people.
These farmlands would be overrun 3 centuries later when King Kamehameha's armies landed here in 1794 on their way to conquering Oahu. His victory resulted in Waikiki becoming one of the new Kingdom's primary Royal Retreats, not only for Kamehameha, but also his successors on the throne. The beautiful beaches and waters of this district became the preferred hideaway for every ruler up to the last Queen, Liliuokalani.
The increasing importance of tourism in the early 1900's required firm land for building. For this reason the Ala Wai Canal was dug out in 1928 by Hawaiian Dredging. This drained the remaining swampland, creating the new, solid real estate that was needed.
The years following the Canal's building saw new buildings spring up to serve the visitor industry. This was slowed down only by the attack on Pearl Harbor. That event altered the neighborhood from a resort to something resembling a military base. Until the end of World War II the famous beaches were strung with barbed wire and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was converted to soldiers' barracks.
Up into the early 1950's, there were still private homes on Kalakaua Ave and other beachfront streets. They'd all eventually give way to tourism properties. One exception was the 1st high-rise Waikiki condo, Foster Tower, which went up on Kalakaua in 1961 and remains a condominium today.
By the late 1960's the streets between Kuhio Ave and the Ala Wai had become widely known as 'The Jungle'. Due to deteriorating structures, crowded conditions and many colorful residents, this area had a reputation as a good place to avoid.
A solution was needed, especially in light of rising land values. This resulted in the demolishing of most of the old wooden homes, replaced by the condos that you see today.
Over 200 years after Kamehameha's landing, this land is now under siege by those looking to conquer their own slice of this part of Honolulu. We call them Waikiki condo buyers.
