Naka Nathaniel: The Agony Of Reading Real Estate Stories

There’s a true push-and-pull going on right now in Hawaii with which direction our Island Home takes in the coming decade in the wake of the pandemic, the continued outmigration and the horrors that hit Maui. 

We spent the last few days under another red-flag warning in the Hawaiian Islands. High winds reminded too many of us of the conditions back in August. And last week, the smoke from wildfires Mililani Mauka clouded the air of Oahu. 

Things remain very fragile here as we come to grips with many of the realities that too many of us have ignored for too long. However, not everyone is recognizing that fragility. 

The world of luxury travel and real estate have always ignored reality. These days it’s becoming increasingly dangerous and costly to do so. 

Two recent stories in the real estate sections of The New York Times “New Zealand Is Becoming a First Choice for Second Homes” and the Wall Street Journal “He Was Told He Had No Talent. This $7 Million Hawaii Home Is His Revenge” ignored the fragility of island life, and the urgent need to think and act differently about how, and where, we live today. These stories are examples of the false narrative of paradise that has for too long caused damage and disappointment. 

People get caught up in a dream that has been sold to them in glossy pages and majestic drone footage. However, there’s a lot more to consider. 

There is a change slowly happening in how Hawaii is portrayed. How tourism in Hawaii is marketed outside of Hawaii is likely to undergo a profound transformation.

I’m hoping for something akin to what Jerusalem Demsas wrote about in an Atlantic article about the change in visitors to New York City.

“Tourists are like bees: I don’t want a bunch of them circling around me, but I also don’t want them to disappear. It’s a delicate balance,” she wrote. “Tourists stick out and may not observe local norms, which can inspire petty grumblings and genuine anger from locals. But they’re a sign that the city is doing something right. Show me a city without tourists, and I’ll show you a city in decline.”

So just as tourism in Hawaii is altering course on the way that it’s marketed to the world, hopefully the same thing will happen with luxury tourism and luxury real estate in Hawaii.

I’m hoping that editors who work in these trusted news organizations will take into account the effects their content has. How do these stories affect pre-existing populations in these luxury destinations? Does this story tell the whole truth about this place? Or, is it too much centered on the false narrative of paradise? 

Now is the time to drop the aspirational hotel and home pieces that ignore the stress these places are under from climate change and inequality. Instead, we need news organizations to do a better job exploring responsible travel and home ownership. 

The stories and marketing of Hawaii as a tourist and aspirational place for a second (or third) luxury home leaves out critical context about what it means to own a home in a place that is threatened by fires, has water concerns and other strife associated with climate change. 

Plus, for those buying an extra home, the ethical considerations of having a house that sits empty for months and months in a place that has a housing and affordability crisis for locals has been under-examined by the media. 

And beyond the concerns over sustainability and equality, there’s the simple falsehood of any place, including and beyond Hawaii, being an escape. There is no paradise to flee to. 

My wife and I lived in Paris for nearly five years in the early 2000s. Before we moved to France, a friend of ours who grew up there offered advice in response to our daydreaming about the beauty of the place, the bread, the wine and the cheese.

He told us to remember that life there is not a vacation.

The details and frustrations of life will find you. He was advising us to prepare that for all of our excitement, living and working in Paris is far more complex than what has been portrayed. 

Real life, with all of its joys and problems, is always there. That’s not something to ignore, but something to embrace. 

So when it comes to covering luxury real estate in Hawaii or New Zealand/Aotearoa, I’m hoping editors will be more considerate when it comes to assigning these articles. They need to make sure they take into account the contemporary conditions in these fragile places.