The Hawaiʻi Ledger Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026

Oʻahu · permits

Building permits by board area

341,368 of the 372,884 permits in the city's static permit file are placed in a board area by the tax map key each one carries. The file's own title covers January 1, 2005 through June 30, 2025; the earliest issue date in it is Sept. 23, 1999.

The file's title says it begins Jan. 1, 2005, but its earliest issue date is Sept. 23, 1999 and it holds 1,261 permits issued before 2005; the by-year table prints what the file holds. Its last issue date is July 1, 2025, one day past the title's range.

Since Jan. 1, 2020

Board areaPermitsValue of workMedian permitNew buildingsSolarADUAll years
ʻEwa6,960$776,402,392$25,0005303,8602528,867
Kailua6,744$964,129,363$19,0001692,93518028,641
Waipahu4,603$471,299,462$22,000462,6663320,368
Kāneʻohe4,248$283,724,738$19,0001371,8858019,098
Hawaiʻi Kai3,787$180,162,269$17,000451,8195216,679
Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale3,535$523,141,860$25,000901,6921919,928
ʻAiea3,398$526,528,656$19,0001331,6795915,533
Mililani-Waipiʻo3,398$257,988,298$20,0001751,956613,774
Pearl City3,189$277,673,131$19,0001071,5258313,275
Kuliʻouʻou-Kalani Iki2,930$190,001,043$20,000911,3424912,627
Kaimukī2,418$211,548,714$15,0001491,1046010,886
Mānoa2,320$297,674,525$15,5001089724910,088
Diamond Head-Kapahulu-St. Louis Heights1,986$194,265,745$18,00093720678,774
Waiʻalae-Kāhala1,722$161,028,955$19,00058634238,132
Liliha-ʻĀlewa1,706$140,140,789$16,11597752168,359
Nānākuli-Māʻili1,673$122,396,309$25,00087887188,525
Āliamanu-Salt Lake1,670$295,591,696$21,70051740297,682
Waiʻanae Coast1,599$204,117,035$25,000100839197,083
Wahiawā-Whitmore Village1,598$151,137,902$20,00063716306,961
Nuʻuanu-Punchbowl1,511$99,249,914$15,00065623157,073
North Shore1,345$119,907,013$24,000105462387,335
Mililani Mauka-Launani Valley1,327$100,497,244$20,000490108,966
Kalihi-Pālama1,211$897,680,094$29,16056364156,431
Kahaluʻu1,137$77,062,510$24,00055479215,733
Pālolo1,091$83,257,083$15,50070465125,216
Koʻolauloa969$109,406,366$24,50053344125,656
Makiki-Tantalus962$217,175,205$25,0002627554,728
Kalihi Valley936$55,366,819$19,50041396104,507
Ala Moana-Kakaʻako638$985,604,981$70,00062203,565
Waikīkī585$293,790,002$75,0000004,167
Waimānalo584$52,582,395$24,00053236123,156
Downtown-Chinatown522$407,689,289$100,0003402,967
McCully-Mōʻiliʻili472$163,752,492$28,000226863,060

Counted from the city's open-data file Building Permits - January 1, 2005 through June 30, 2025 (dataset 4vab-c87q), read Sept. 19, 2026, and placed by the State of Hawaiʻi's Oʻahu parcel layer: each tax map key is matched to a parcel and the parcel to the board area a point on it falls in. 20,035 rows carry a placeholder key that is not a parcel and 11,481 carry a key the parcel layer does not have; both are left out of every area's count, so these are counts of what could be placed, not of everything the city issued. “Value of work” is the estimated value the applicant filed, summed; it is not a market figure. The file is static: the city stopped adding to it when permitting moved to HNL Build, so nothing after July 1, 2025 is here. The Ledger publishes counts and totals only, never a permit's address, applicant or contractor.