Multi-family Hawaii real estate sales hit $500 million by the end of 2014, according to a report from Apartment Advisors. Jared Ikeda, president and principal broker of the company explained that the market is driven by local, non-institutional investors whose confidence in the market is high, despite rising prices. That’s because the demand for apartments and the rising cost of rents continue to climb.

A few sales in particular drove the statistics up for the year, and they included Waena Apartments, Kalaeloa Rental Homes and Hibiscus Hill. Collectively, they comprised over half the sales volume of multi-family Hawaii real estate in 2014.

That being said, there was still an impressive total of 73 transactions with 1,777 units sold. Sales volume saw an increase in every quarter throughout 2014, compared to 2013. In the fourth quarter, over 75 percent of those sales were priced over $1.5 million, as opposed to the same period last year when only 53 percent of transactions were above that amount.

As for multi-family property prices, there’s been a significant rise over the past few years. The average price per unit reached $221,000 by the end of the year, which marked the fifth year in a row of annual growth in the price per unit. The fact that we are now above the 2006 bubble pricing levels is something worth thinking about.

Multi-family properties may be uncommon here in Maui County, but the statistics help illustrate a bigger real estate trend when it comes to housing demand. If you’re in the market for real estate and you are looking for expert assistance, you’ll find our contact information at the bottom of the page. Mahalo!