Driving Home: The Houses Located In Luxury Golf Communities

Houses in sought-after golf communities offer so much more than golf, says Anna Tyzack.

The Best Golf Communities (& The Houses Nearby)

Golf is just one of the reasons celebrities such as Hugh Grant choose to own a home in La Zagaleta in southern Spain. The exclusive Andalusian community is on a 900-hectare former hunting estate, and features a sports and equestrian centres, as well as two esteemed golf courses. Beyond the gates, the coast at Marbella is just ten minutes and the white-washed town of Benahavís, the gastronomic capital of the Costa del Sol, is a short drive into the hills.

Hugh Grant owns a home in La Zagaleta

‘The best golf communities are places to unplug and spend time with loved ones,’ says Jules Cowan-Dewar, CMO of Cabot, a developer of residential golf destinations. ‘You can play tennis, go for a bike ride, sit by the pool or have a round of golf in total privacy. If you want to venture outside the community, you’ll find spectacular scenery and local culture.’

On average, only about 30 percent of homeowners within a golf community play golf, says Robert Green of boutique estate agency Sphere Estates, so facilities and an interesting local scene are paramount. Buyers are looking for scenery that ‘shakes them in their bones’, agrees Cowan-Dewar. ‘The more spectacular the surroundings the better. Buyers want to surf the waves, climb the peaks or go fly fishing: they’re looking for so much more than golf.’

‘Extreme’ golf destinations are therefore becoming more popular: buyers at Cabot’s Revelstoke community in Canada, for example, can also go heliskiing as well as play a Rod Whitmandesigned course, while owners of lodges at Cabot’s new links course on the remote Lofoten Islands, Norway, will enjoy hiking and boating in the fjords. The Swiss ski resort of Andermatt is proving particularly popular with British golf buyers, with homeowners skiing in winter and playing a its Swiss PGA championship course at an altitude of 1,500m in summer. Meanwhile, Evian in France offers a triumvirate of golf, snow sports and water sports, thanks to its position on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Canada’s Cabot Revelstoke is considered an ‘extreme’ golf destination

Prior to the pandemic, golf was in decline but now enquiries for golf properties are up by 30 percent, says Green, thanks to the lifestyle benefits of a golf destination. The price for a four-bedroom property with a pool in top-drawer destinations such as La Zagaleta or Costa Navarino in Greece’s Peloponnese, starts at €1.5m. At this level, buyers will expect worldclass golf, even if they don’t play every day. ‘A serious golf course adds a premium of 20 to 40 percent to the value of the property,’ Green says.

Spain and Portugal are still top of his clients’ list: Sotogrande in Spain has five courses, including the renowned Real Club de Golf designed by Robert Trent Jones, while Quinta do Lago in Portugal has three championship courses, as well as access to the Royal Course and Ocean Course at neighbouring Val do Lobo. ‘The golf has to be so challenging that you’ll want to play it again and again,’ Cowan-Dewar says, though, buyers are also looking for grassroots golf: a fun, short course to play with children or grandchildren.

Six Senses Les Bordes has access to two of the world’s finest courses

As buyers increasingly intend to spend whole winters or summers at their golf properties, they’re prepared to invest further from home. According to Savills, there’s been increasing demand from British buyers for properties in Barbados – where more than 70 percent of buyers are now from Britain – on Royal Westmoreland and Sandy Lane, as well as the 475-acre Apes Hill resort. Douglas Craig, a British businessman who bought a villa at Apes Hill last year describes it as ‘a vibrant living community, rather than a resort’. Meanwhile Canouan, home to a challenging Jim Fazio-designed course, and the Bahamas, which hosts the Hero Challenge each year, are also attracting British buyers as is Cabot St Lucia’s new Point Hardy Golf Club on St Lucia. Even Mauritius is on British buyers’ radar: owners of properties at Heritage Villas Valriche will have views over the Indian Ocean’s first contemporary links course, La Réserve, as well as access to the Heritage Golf Club.

At the top end of the market, hotel amenities and five-star service are standard in the new breed of branded golf residence. In Portugal, Six Senses Pinheirinho Comporta will feature an 18-hole championship golf course, part of the larger Terras da Comporta development being designed by Sergio Garcia, while the Viceroy-branded residences on the Ombria Resort in the Algarve have access to a Christy O’Connor Jr course; in Spain, St Regis apartments are available through Lucas Fox at Finca Cortesin, an exclusive golf community on the Costa del Sol. Green is receiving interest for Six Senses Les Bordes (p194) in the South of France, which have access to two of the world’s finest courses and the ten-hole Wild Piglet.

St Regis-branded apartments are available at Spain’s heavenly Finca Cortesin

While buyers at the top of the market regard their homes as investments, more often than not it is a legacy purchase, says Cowan-Dewar. ‘Families are making more of an effort to spend time together and golf is a screen-free activity for all generations,’ she says. ‘A golf property is something special to share with family and loved ones. Once you become part of the community, it’s very hard to leave.’

The World’s Most Sought-After Golf Destinations

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