Hawaii Waterfront property

Hawaii is America’s best state to own beachfront property, with beautiful luxury homes along our white sand beaches and of course, Hawaii’s crystal clear ocean.  

When you buy a beachfront home in Hawaii, one of the important things to understand is where your property line ends and where the public beach or ocean begins.  The shoreline in Hawaii marks the boundary where public land (state owned) begins and your property ends, since no oceans or beaches in Hawaii can be privately owned. 

The shoreline in Kailua is usually sandy beach, which means the real estate you own probably goes to where the vegetation ends and the sand begins.  In Hawaii Kai, your property might go right up to the water, since there isn’t a lot of sand, and instead the houses have rock walls that the water laps up on.  On the North Shore, you could have either, since some homes have great sandy beaches, like in Sunset, Mokuleia, and Waialua.  In other part of the North Shore, homes will have only a little sand, and therefore your property might not have any sand included at all.  

Shoreline Setbacks

Since you can’t own the beach or the ocean here, it’s important to know where your property line ends when you buy Hawaii beachfront property.  The “shoreline” refers to “the upper reaches of the wash of the waves, other than storm and seismic waves, at high ride during the season of the year in which the highest wash of the waves occurs, usually evidenced by the edge of vegetation growth, or the upper limit of debris left by the wash of the waves.”  That’s quoted from the Hawaii law. 

That’s why when you buy oceanfront property in Hawaii, it’s good to get a shoreline certification that tells you where that boundary is located.  The problem is that these certifications can take 6 months, since they have to measure the tidal ranges over a period of time, not just on one day. 

The standard setback from the shoreline for oceanfront homes in Oahu is 40 feet, but depending on each neighborhood, it could be even more.  That means that no permanent structure (house) can be built within that setback.  Sometimes you’ll see houses much closer than 40 feet to the water, and that’s usually because the shore has eroded since the house was built, or the house was built when the law was different. 

 When you’re looking at Oahu waterfront home listings, it’s important to know where the shoreline setback is, so that you don’t think you can build something where it can’t legally be built.  Also, if there is a structure that is inside the setback limit, you should make sure the title insurance and home owner’s insurance will still cover you.

In Kailua, the setback is usually going to include a lot of the beach, so even though your home is right on the sand, you probably don’t own any of the sand at all.  In Diamond Head, your home might be on a cliff, and even though you might own part of the cliff and noboby can get to the beach in front of you directly, you probably don’t own the beach at all.  The only way to be absolutely certain where you property ends and the public beach or ocean begins is to get a shoreline certification.