Aloha, this is David and today we're going to be covering condo complexes here on the island of Oahu and I'm appropriately wearing my Kahala Aloha Shirt designed by Dale Hope, a good friend and mentor regarding Aloha Shirts in Hawaii because he is "the authority". In any event, we're going to start at The Kahala Beach Apartments, which are direct oceanfront condos here in Kahala.
Kahala Beach Apartments
Kahala Beach Apartments
As a Realtor, I've been asked more about this condo complex than any other condo projects on Oahu and the reason why is these things are leasehold, meaning you don't own the land beneath the building. There's only 3 years left on the land lease, which is why they're so cheap. So, Kamehameha Schools owns the land beneath these condos as well as beneath The Kahala Hotel and they also own the land beneath Waialae Country Club. For a little bit of trivia on the Kahala Beach Apartments, although it's called the Kahala Beach Apartments, technically from an MLS standpoint, it falls under Waialae Golf Course. So, technically, it's the only condo complex that falls under Waialae Golf Course.
It's really sad, because if these condos were fee simple, they would be worth millions and millions of dollars a piece. Especially, when comparing to something down on the Gold Coast. Our office is right down the road from here. Our house is right down the road from here and I've had 20+ years in the business to buy one of these. There's a reason why I haven't bought one. It's because this imminent land lease is going to be expiring in 3 years. So, if that's not your cup of tea and you don't want to throw down that money, once you do, the carrying cost on the 2 bedrooms are going to be like $4500/month for lease rent to Kamehameha Schools, property taxes and maintenance fees. Then, these direct oceanfront 3 bedrooms are going to run more like $8,000-$10,000/month after you pay cash, because banks won't finance them. So, that's the reason why they're so cheap and they won't tell you than on Zillow or Realtor.com.
So, if you're interested in other condos here in Kahala, lets continue this tour here today because we're going to cover all the options. The rest of them going forward should be fee simple.
Kahala Pacifica
We just left the beach at Kahala and now we're going to talk about Kahala Pacifica, which is directly inland from Kahala. Although it has a Kahala name, it technically falls under the neighborhood of Kalani Iki. What's really cool about Kahala Pacifica is it is a gated community. The gate is open now as there must be a party going on as it's a weekend.
Kahala Pacifica
What's unique about these is technically we call them condos because technically they are. However, they're kind of like detached single family homes. They're very spacious. They're 3 stories and they range from 2,000-3,000 sq. feet under roof. They have relatively affordable maintenance fees, which is really nice. There's also a common area swimming pool if you drive up the street and hook a right. That's one of the perks for the people that do live in Kahala Pacifica.
Regarding the pros and cons, the pros would obviously be the living area and square footage. To have something relatively easy to maintain right here in Kahala, you're just a stone's throw away to Kahala. That's what's awesome about it. It's also close to H-1 highway and easy access to everything. However, the 2 potential downsides would be for those of you that don't want to do stairs, this is not a project for you because there's a lot of stairs. These are multi-level units. The second thing is it's morning now, so we're getting some of the east sun coming. But, what happens in the afternoons is these are butted up against the mountain here, so you will get some of the hotter afternoon sun hitting these homes in the afternoons with sunsets. I know this from a first hand experience. My grandma used to have a place here towards the very end here in the back.
Once again, these are very spacious and a good value to be here in Kahala. The downsides would be the stairs and the hot afternoon sun. Our next project will be a town home project, which is Kahala View Estate.
Kahala View Estate
We just left Kahala Pacifica, which is directly behind me. Adjacent to it here is Kahala View Estate. This is off Hiikala Place here. What's nice about this one as well is it is a gated community. There's several levels, similar to Kahala Pacifica. However, what's nice about this one is in addition to having a swimming pool, you have a tennis court. So, that's another perk of the amenities here at Kahala View Estate.
Kahala View Estate
What's different about these compared to Kahala Pacifica is that they're going to have carports vs. fully enclosed garages. So, if you need an enclosed garage, maybe you're looking at Kahala Pacifica. If you're ok with a carport, perhaps Kahala View Estate might be the way to go. What's nice about these is they're set a little further back in the valley, so they can be a little bit cooler. But, you will still get some of that afternoon sun that comes off the ridge to the west here. So, that summarizes Kahala View Estate and now we're going to head back down the valley and we're going to cover some of the town homes as well as Kahala Towers.
Waialae Gardens
The next complex we're covering is Waialae Gardens. What's very unique about this one is it's the only condo complex in Kahala that has both a mix of town homes and a high rise, which consists of all 1 bedroom condos.
Now, in these town homes, this is going to be 1 of 3 projects we're going to cover today in Kahala (we're at Waialae Gardens right now), but we're going to cover Tropic Gardens and Tropicana Village. Here, at Waialae Gardens, at the 2 following properties you are going to notice as you come across these in MLS, the 2 story units in the middle are 2 bedroom, 2 baths with roughly 1,000 sq. ft. Then, these units that are single level. They're roughly the same size, but it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom in product. So, take note of this architecture at Waialae Gardens on these town homes. As we come to the other 2 projects, you'll notice they have the same architectural style. They just have different HOA's. Another thing about these (in general) is they come with 1 uncovered parking stall. So, if you're looking for 2 stalls, it's very rare that they show up. So, what most people revert to is street parking here. Then, another thing is these will not come with covered stalls. They're all in an open lot. So, if that's a deal killer for you, maybe you want to consider one of the high rises or something that does have covered parking. But, it's a great affordable condo option here in Kahala.
Tropic Gardens
We just covered Waialae Gardens across the street. Now, if you come directly across the street, you have our 2nd complex that's very similar to Waialae Gardens is Tropic Gardens. As you see, they're a similar architectural style in that they have single level units on the end as well as 2 story units in the middle. Out the back, that's going to be the common area swimming pool. Here, you've got the same architectural style here at Tropic Gardens.
Now, for those of you that are shopping real estate online is you might come across at some of these condo complexes such as Tropic Gardens or Waialae Gardens is once in a blue moon, you see something that's really cheap or inexpensive or "too good to be true" is because it's leasehold. These were all like Kahala Beach Apartments on land that was owned by Kamehameha Schools. So, I'd say north of 90% of these now are all fee simple. However, when you do come across those leasehold ones, I'd take them with a grain of salt because the people that own the land interest now have really no interest in selling them. They just want to ride out the storm and take over the units. So, I'd stick to the fee simple ones as a little bit of advice.
If you have any questions about Tropic Gardens, feel free to give me a call. What we'll do next is we're going to cover the 3rd kind of "sister" of these 3 projects which is going to be Tropicana Village.
Tropicana Village
We're now just a little further down the road. We were just further up here at Hunakai St. in Kahala. All 3 of these projects you can see from Hunakai St. You'll notice it starts to get a little bit noisier here as we start to get closer to H-1 Highway behind me here. However, what I want to point out here is Tropicana Village. This is going to be the 3rd of 3 sister condo complexes in Kahala. First we hit Waialae Gardens, then Tropic Gardens, now Tropicana Village.
There's a similar architectural style. Once again, you've got the 2 story units in the middle with the 3 bedrooms on either end. Both are about 1,000 square feet and they typically come with 1 uncovered parking stall.
We have several condo complexes left. What you can see out the back is Kahala Towers, which is one of several high rises in Kahala. But, we have 1 more town home project we're going to cover before we cover Kahala Towers, which is right down the street here on Hunakai and it's called Kahala Gardens.
Kahala Gardens
The next one we're going to cover is Kahala Gardens, which is a sleeper project. It's right across Hunakai St. That's where we came from (near H-1). What's unique about these is they have a combo of 2 story and single level units that range anywhere between this 1250 (Hunakai) address to a 1220 address, which we're going to walk up to.
If you could bare with me as we walk along Hunakai St., which is a main thoroughfare in Kahala. What's nice is directly across the street you have the movie theaters at Kahala Mall. As we walk further up, this is all considered Kahala Gardens. Once again, as we started this segment I said this is a sleeper of a project. The reason why is you almost never see these come on the market. Unlike the 3 projects we covered across the street with Waialae Gardens, Tropic Gardens and Tropicana Village, all 3 of them throughout the year you'll see available listings hit the market.
This is a very quaint project. Much smaller than the previous 3 like I said. The 1220-1250 (Hunakai St.) address range will cover Kahala Gardens. Next, we're going to cover Kahala Towers, which is behind me here.
Kahala Towers
Directly behind me now, we've got Kahala Towers. As you can see, there are 2 towers. Hence, we call it Kahala Towers. There's "A" and "B". One is taller than the other. There, you have a mix of 2 and 3 bedroom condos. You'll have mix of parking. Typically, they'll come with 1 parking stall. Some will be covered and some will be uncovered. There's a nice swimming pool right at the base off Waialae Ave. here.
The building itself went through a lot of capital improvement recently. The owners were coughing up a bunch of money to fix things that needed to get repaired. But, anyone that steps in now is looking better. It's a great, convenient location. The only downside (which obviously you can't change) is it's right next to H-1 highway. So, that's why you hear that noise behind me here. It's not too bad now as it is a Sunday.
Those that live there will have nice views over Kahala towards the ocean, which is nice. We've come full circle. Directly behind Kahala Towers in the distance you'll see Kahala Pacifica and behind that Kahala View Estate, which we covered earlier. Now, we're going to be on to the final condo complex we're going to cover today, which is my favorite, having lived in the building before, which is Regency at Kahala. We'll cover that one. Then, we'll wrap up our tour here of Kahala Condos.
Regency at Kahala
Here we are now at the final condo project here in Kahala, which is Regency at Kahala. This is the only one that has a true Kahala address for MLS. Most of the others are going to fall under either Waialae Golf Course, like Kahala Beach Apartments or they're going to fall under Kalani Iki, which are going to be the condos back behind me there. So, Kahala Regency, right adjacent to Kahala Mall is going to be the only condo project in Kahala that's technically in Kahala from an MLS neighborhood standpoint. However, with that said, we refer to all of these as Kahala condos that we're covering today.
I hope you enjoyed our segment here on Kahala condos. Our office is right across the street here above Subway. If you need any help for condos in Kahala, feel free to reach out and give us a shout at 808-371-3509. Mahalo!