Apartment occupancy in Honolulu has climbed every month in the past year, pushing the June rate to a high this market hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. The Hawaii market with more than 80,000 units has seen occupancy surge a total of 520 basis points (bps) in the last year to stand at 98% in June. The last time occupancy was this tight in Honolulu was back in July 2011, when the market achieved an all-time high of 98.5%. In fact, occupancy in Honolulu only dipped briefly during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, falling to a low of 92.8% in June, before the performance started making slow and steady progress once again. Helping boost apartment occupancy in the past year, new construction in Honolulu has been very low in the last several years, with annual supply often nonexistent. Annual demand, on the other hand, has averaged at about 575 units in the past five years.
