Ongoing completion of a 700-unit luxury condominium helped push Maui condo sales in April to a nearly five-year high, while single-family home sales rose by a more moderate clip from a year earlier.

The Realtors Association of Maui yesterday reported that condo sales last month on the Valley Isle more than tripled to 158 from 41 in the same month last year. The last time so many condos sold in any month was December 2005 at the tail end of Hawai'i's real estate boom.

The luxury condo project, Honua Kai, has been busy closing sales that it largely made in 2005 and 2006 when it had reported selling 512 of 700 units.

Construction of the first units at the Kā'anapali project began wrapping up last year, accounting for about 150 sales. Sales are continuing this year at a brisk pace as additional units are completed and buyers close sales. Last month, there were 45 Honua Kai sales.

Sales in other parts of Maui also were up. In Kīhei, there were 51 condo sales last month compared with eight a year earlier. In Nāpili/Kahana/Honokōwai, there were 16 sales versus six in the same period. And in Wailea/Mākena, there were 13 sales versus three.

The median sale price for all Maui condos sold was $455,000 last month, up from $410,000 a year earlier.

Honua Kai sales ranged from $573,300 to $4.5 million, which helped boost the median.

Honua Kai and other large new condo projects can have a significant influence on home sale statistics for Maui because the Realtors Association of Maui counts new-home sales in its data. Such projects, especially high-rises, often result in big batches of pricier sales compared with the resale market.

By comparison, the Honolulu Board of Realtors excludes new-home sales from its data in part to give a more comparable picture of demand and prices for homes.

In Maui's single-family home market, sales were up 76 percent to 88 last month from 50 a year earlier. The median price was $477,500 compared with $497,000 in the same period.