Only current and former residents would be allowed to purchase homes under a House Republican bill designed to lower prices and make Hawaii housing more affordable across the state.

Real estate brokers and other real estate salespeople also would be prohibited from buying, offering to buy, or negotiating the purchase of a home on behalf of a buyer who is not a current or former resident, under House Bill 2203.

The bill was introduced last session by state Rep. Diamond Garcia (R, Ewa- Kapolei) but failed to get a hearing.

Garcia hopes the proposal will gain traction this session with Gov. Josh Green and the Legislature focused on developing more affordable homes, especially following the loss of 3,000 or so homes in the Aug. 8 wildfires on an island that already had a housing shortage.

The lack of affordable homes continues to drive away local residents and emphasizes “the fact that there are more Hawaiians living on the U.S. continent than in Hawaii,” Garcia said Tuesday following a Capitol news conference.

He was joined by Hawaii developer Peter Savio, who said Hawaii knows how to build affordable homes, but mainland and foreign investors continue to drive up prices beyond what residents can pay.

Savio, for years, has proposed two separate zonings: one for locally owned properties where the owner would pay no property tax and prices would be based on the area medium income; and another for homes owned by people on the mainland and foreign countries who would pay “three or four times their property tax rates” to make up for assessing no property taxes on local owners and for not having to pay income taxes.

“We’re subsidizing them,” Savio said. “We’ve had this problem for 60 years, and we’ve never tried anything different,” he said. “We cannot build our way out of this problem.”

Savio’s plan has been backed by the House Minority Caucus, which introduced HB 633 last session; the bill carried over into this session.

“The root of this problem is our housing prices are based on the wages and resources of buyers from around the world,” according to HB 633. For “all housing built with government funds or assistance we will place deed restrictions to keep the housing in the same area median income range pricing that it was initially offered at.”

Like Garcia, state Sen. Brenton Awa (R, Kaneohe- Laie-Mokuleia) wants to ban all property ownership for people with no Hawaii ties.

He joined Garcia and Savio at Tuesday’s Capitol news conference and said Savio’s plan “falls in line” with his own thinking.

“Peter’s an expert in the field of developing affordable housing,” Awa said. “His step would be good. It would be better than nothing. I agree with what he wants to do, tying it to wages. If we’re on a fork, he’s one of the prongs. It’s not the same prong, but we’re all at the same dinner.”