Oprah, you might be on to something here...

Due to the recent fires, Maui residents are worrying a rebuilt, Lahaina could slip into the hands of wealthy outsiders.

Oprah's recent purchase, revealed in sales deeds, means she now owns around 1,000 acres of land on Maui.

520-acre plot for $3.89 million (2023)

330 acres for $2.47 million (2023)

Two 10-acre swaths of land for $100,000 each (2022)

The controversy of millionaires buying up land in Hawaii was also highlighted in December 2021 when Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla, bought 110 acres of a former sugar plantation on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The land added to the couple's 1,300 acre $ 100 million luxury estate, which has made them the target of critics, slamming them for trying to 'colonize' the island.

Zuckerberg was also accused by some of trying to force the tenant farmers from their historic plots, and in 2017 he apologized in the local newspaper, explaining that he was abandoning his quiet title actions and would 'work together with the community on a new approach'.