Some homes at Hoʻopili come with a promise attached. The buyer agrees to live there as a principal residence for ten years. Below that promise sits a buy-back provision written into the City's deal with the developer. A price doesn't tell you whether a home carries this restriction. Your deed does.

That matters most for two kinds of buyers who look closely at the ʻEwa plain. A military family on orders may need to rent the home out after a PCS. An investor may want a lower-priced townhome to rent from day one. A deed-restricted Hoʻopili home can work against both plans, and even the earliest clocks don't run out until late summer 2027.

Where the restriction comes from

Hoʻopili was rezoned from agricultural land under Ordinance 15-13. Under that rezoning, D.R. Horton signed a Unilateral Agreement in May 2015 and an Affordable Housing Plan Agreement with the City and County of Honolulu, effective May 9, 2016. Both documents are in the State Land Use Commission's annual report filings for the project. Anyone can read the text there.

The agreement has two affordable obligations:

• 10% of project homes for households at or below 80% of area median income. One-fifth of that tier is set aside as rentals.
• 20% of project homes for households between 81% and 120% of area median income.

These obligations are counted in credits. Different unit types earn different multipliers, so the credits don't add up to a simple count of restricted homes.

The affordable price isn't a discount the builder picks. It comes from a formula. Monthly housing costs are capped at 33% of gross household income, assuming a down payment of up to 10%. Those costs include principal, taxes, insurance and any condominium fees. Under the City's 2026 income limits, effective May 15, 2026, the 120% ceiling for a four-person household is $184,800 and the 80% figure is $123,200.

The rule that follows the house

Section 7.e of the agreement does the real work after closing. Affordable units sold to households at or below 140% of area median income fall under the "Ten-Year Buy-Back" provisions of the City's affordable housing rules. During that period:

1. The home must be the buyer's principal residence.
2. The developer has the right to verify owner occupancy.
3. The developer, the City or a designated affordable housing provider may seek financial recourse if the occupancy requirement is violated. They are not obligated to.

Two carve-outs change how this plays out. The buy-back provision excludes units "financed under a federally subsidized mortgage program." Section 7.f also recognizes that most qualified households buy with federally subsidized or insured loans, naming FNMA, FHA, VA, Freddie Mac and USDA. It says the occupancy restrictions will include the minimum purchaser protections those programs require, and it cites the VA's own regulation, 38 CFR 36.4354. The agreement doesn't say how that plays out on a specific VA-financed deed. It does make clear that the financing on a purchase affects how the restriction applies.

The second carve-out covers foreclosure. A foreclosure, a power-of-sale foreclosure or a deed in lieu automatically extinguishes the restrictions, and they no longer attach to title.

How a "general public" sale can still carry the restriction

A unit set aside for the 81% to 120% income tier goes through a set marketing sequence:

1. Initial Marketing Period: 120 days offered to households earning 81% to 120% of area median income, at prices affordable to them.
2. Secondary Marketing Period: if no qualified contract comes in, another 120 days offered to households earning 120% to 140%.
3. General public: if that also fails, the unit can be sold to anyone with no income test.

In step three, the agreement releases only the income requirement. The unit is sold "free of the restrictions" relating to household income, "but not free from any of the other restrictions." It still counts toward D.R. Horton's affordable obligation even after the income test is lifted. A buyer who never filled out an income form can still be living in a home whose deed tracks back to this agreement.

For buyers who do go through the program, the paperwork includes an Affordable Housing Eligibility Form and income verification. The Department of Planning and Permitting or its authorized agent certifies income using current payroll records, recent tax returns or another approved document.

The earliest clocks run into late 2027

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported in June 2023 that Hoʻopili delivered its first home in 2017 and had about 2,500 homes built by then. You might assume the earliest restrictions are close to expiring. The developer's own unit log gives a more exact answer.

The 2019 annual report to the County includes a "Haloa at Hoʻopili Affordable Unit Log (10 Year Buy-Back)." It lists each affordable unit's contract date, deed recording date and the end date of its buy-back period. D.R. Horton's 2025 filing carries the same kind of log. Across the two, the Haloa dates fall into recording windows like these:

Each ten-year period is counted from the date that unit's deed was recorded. As of October 2026, the earliest Haloa restrictions have about ten months left. Units recorded in 2018 have about a year and a half, and later phases have longer. The log also shows the restriction is tracked unit by unit, with a document number for each deed. A street address alone doesn't tell you a home's status.

Which Hoʻopili communities have restricted units

The most recent LUC filing, D.R. Horton's 2025 annual report dated July 3, 2025, lists affordable units by community and unit number through December 31, 2024. Communities with designated affordable units include:

• Haloa at Hoʻopili: specific buildings in the 500s through 1900s
• ʻAkoko at Hoʻopili: units in the 400s through 900s
• Kohina at Hoʻopili: units in the 100s, 200s and 800s, plus transferred credits in Kohina Phase 2
• ʻIlima at Hoʻopili: units in the 900s through 1200s
• Kaikoi at Hoʻopili: selected unit ranges across many buildings
• Kulia at Hoʻopili: all 119 units except the manager's unit, as a rental

As of that date, the report showed 771.64 credits awarded at the 80% tier and 69.30 at the 120% tier, with more pending. These are credits, so they don't count physical homes. The unit lists are what let a buyer check a specific address.

The City's affordable housing project list, last updated in October 2023, showed Hoʻopili selling two- and three-bedroom townhomes at the 120% tier. That list is too old to show what's available now. It does show which product type tends to carry the restriction, and that product type matches what an entry-level buyer is likely to look at.

Why the price makes these homes stand out

Hoʻopili's current pricing sits right where an entry-level buyer is likely to look. D.R. Horton advertises ʻAhakea at Hoʻopili from $655,965 and Nanahea at Hoʻopili from $925,990. On a September 2026 housing tour, Hawaii News Now reported that a model one-bedroom condo at Hoʻopili started at around $500,000.

For comparison, the Honolulu Board of Realtors reported islandwide resale medians for August 2026 of $1,240,000 for single-family homes, with a median 17 days on market, and $510,000 for condos, with 37 days. Those are resale figures for all of Oʻahu, not ʻEwa-only numbers. Still, a Hoʻopili townhome or detached condo in the $600,000s can look like the gap between a condo and a single-family house finally closing.

For a buyer who plans to stay ten years, the restriction may hardly matter. For a family whose orders could change in three years, or an investor who wants rent from day one, it can decide whether the deal works at all. If two nearby homes are priced close together, the one with a recorded buy-back may be the worse fit even if it's cheaper.

What to pull before you write an offer

The agreement leaves some details to the City's rules and the recorded deed. The text available through the LUC filings doesn't spell out the resale price formula or which party exercises the buy-back. It also says later amendments to the City's rules don't apply to this agreement. In practice, that leaves these documents to check:

• The recorded deed and any affordable housing covenant, matched by document number against the unit logs
• The unit's original income tier and its recording date, which together set the end of the buy-back period
• How the original purchase was financed, since the agreement treats federally subsidized and insured loans differently
• Whether the unit went through all three marketing periods, which keeps every restriction except the income test

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. A restriction like this depends on the specific recorded documents, so confirm how it applies to a particular home with a real estate attorney, your lender and the Department of Planning and Permitting.

FAQ

Can I rent out a restricted Hoʻopili home after a PCS move? During the buy-back period, the agreement requires the home to be the buyer's principal residence and allows recourse if that requirement is broken. Federally insured loans, including VA loans, come with their own minimum protections under the agreement. Your specific deed and loan type decide the answer.

Does every Hoʻopili home carry this restriction? No. The affordable obligation applies to a set share of the project, tracked unit by unit in D.R. Horton's annual reports.

When do the first restrictions end? The earliest Haloa affordable deeds in D.R. Horton's logs were recorded on August 24, 2017, with buy-back periods ending August 24, 2027. Many other restricted homes have later dates running into 2028 and beyond.

If you're looking at a Hoʻopili listing and want to know whether it carries a recorded buy-back before you make an offer, Chip Lewis can pull the unit's history and walk through how it fits your orders, your loan and your rental plans. Work directly with Chip to start your search or get a valuation.