By: Jason Becker, PGA
CEO of Golf Life Navigators
05/03/2018
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal released an article talking about a trend of private club members choosing to live outside of gated club communities in “hipper” areas of Charlotte, North Carolina. Golf Life Navigators played a role in the development of the story as we contributed a number of current statistics and analytics of Consumer Buying Trends. In reference to the article and our findings that 40% of buyers would like to live “outside” of the gates of their future private club and have a non-resident membership, we are seeing that statistic continuing to increase. In the last 12 months, we are seeing a trend of consumers choosing to search for a club with a non-residential membership which has increased almost 5%.
What does this all mean? In a recent survey with clients who are looking at non-residential memberships, we have found these four commonalities which are adding to the trend line. Our team is conducting a much more in-depth research on this phenomenon but we thought we would share some preliminary results ahead of time to reference the WSJ article:
1.) “My wife is focused on the real estate component of this decision and she would rather live closer other amenities”.
2.) “We feel like we will be to young to be living in a gated golf community.”
3.) “We have heard stories of the club negatively affecting the real estate values within the gates of the club.”
4.) “Just simply don’t want to live on a golf course with the noise and activity.”
What should we be doing as an industry? I think if the topic has not arrived on the Boardroom table yet it probably is time to do so. As you know, having a non-residential membership could be a culture change for the club….but, if it means keeping the pipeline full with prospective members it surely should be discussed and postured for. We’ll be in touch soon with more results on the research.