Billionaire rents luxury homes to Hawaii's poor

A Japanese billionaire has selected the first four of eight Hawaiian families that will get the chance to rent one of his multimillion-dollar homes in an exclusive Honolulu oceanside area for just $150 (£76) a month.

The low-income families could move into the furnished Kahala Avenue homes, purchased in 2005 for up to $3.4m each, as soon as this weekend. "They will be living in heaven now", said Genshiro Kawamoto, 75, a real estate tycoon. Among Mr Kawamoto's four rental homes is one with five bedrooms. The 603 square metre (6,489 sq ft) home was built in 1989 and is more than three times bigger than the average house on Oahu. Mr Kawamoto bought it in August 2005 for $3.4m.



The families were selected from 3,000 people who wrote him in response to his plan announced in October to rent to low-income Hawaiians. Mr Kawamoto said it was difficult to choose families because there was so much interest. He expects to select four more tenant families as early as next month.

He said he was renting the homes "because the affluent people can help the least fortunate people". Mr Kawamoto has spent about $115m to purchase 20 homes on Kahala Avenue since 2002. Many of the houses have been vacant since then.

The plan has not been welcomed by everyone, including some of his neighbours, who have complained about the upkeep of the homes and the possibility of the area losing value.

There are videos of the houses on this page.