{"id":627863,"date":"2026-04-24T12:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627863\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:41:15","slug":"are-golf-courses-the-answer-to-the-housing-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627863\/","title":{"rendered":"Are golf courses the answer to the housing shortage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investors are seeing the \u201clucrative land\u201d on Britain\u2019s golf courses as increasingly \u201cripe for redevelopment\u201d, said The Times<\/a>. And, with one in five golf clubs now estimated to be \u201cfinancially vulnerable\u201d, pressure is increasing on club owners to abandon their fairways and sell the land to housing developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRising maintenance, insurance and staffing costs\u201d and \u201cfluctuating\u201d membership numbers have left many golf clubs \u201cstruggling to remain viable\u201d, while the land they occupy, often on the edge of towns, is in \u201cacute demand\u201d for housing.<\/p>\n

How much land do golf courses take up?<\/p>\n

There are roughly 1,800 golf<\/a> courses in Britain \u2013 accounting for over a quarter of the golf courses in Europe<\/a>. In England alone, they occupy an estimated 270,000 hectares (667,000 acres): an area more than twice the size of Greater Manchester, and around 2% of the country\u2019s total land area.<\/p>\n

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There is regional density: in Woking, Surrey, more than 10% of the land is taken up by golf courses; in St Andrews<\/a>, Fife, there are 10 courses, and the London<\/a> borough of Enfield has seven.<\/p>\n

Given the amount of land golf courses occupy and the shortage of affordable homes, there is now a \u201cfurious debate\u201d between \u201cfairway and driveway\u201d, said the BBC<\/a>. The golf courses in Greater London, for example, cover an area the size of the entire borough of Brent, and the \u201carea occupied by a single golfer could provide a home for around 380 people\u201d, said architect Russell Curtis in his \u201cGolf Belt\u201d report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are the pros and cons?<\/p>\n

\u201cCourses are typically large, low-density sites\u201d on the outskirts of towns, said The Times. Such well located pieces of land are naturally attractive to developers and councils trying to find space for new homes. A number of London courses \u201care very close to public transport\u201d, Curtis told the BBC, so it \u201cseems reasonable that at least some of those should be turned into housing\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not an even picture. In Wales, for example, most courses sit in out\u2011of\u2011town or rural locations, and their lack of access makes them less attractive development prospects. Those opposed to this kind of development also point out that golf courses can be valuable havens for biodiversity<\/a>. \u201cMany courses provide tree cover, habitats for wildlife, pollinator\u2011friendly environments,\u201d Gavin Anderson, from England Golf, told the BBC. They offer \u201copportunities for ecological improvement that can exceed what is possible on developed land or open fields\u201d.<\/p>\n

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What does it mean for golf?<\/p>\n

Golf clubs are enjoying mixed fortunes. Sixty have been forced to close in the past decade, said The Golf Business<\/a>, and the Custodian Golf consultancy estimates that nearly 20% of those still operating are financially at risk.<\/p>\n

And yet, membership of English golf clubs, particularly council-owned ones, is on the up \u2013 rising from 730,602 in 2024 to 750,071 in 2025, with junior membership growing by more than 34%. The sport\u2019s supporters say this is down to efforts to make golf more inclusive, which would be undermined by mass sell-offs.<\/p>\n

Developers buying up golf courses are going to take away the sport\u2019s accessibility, Chris D\u2019Araujo, who is campaigning to save Enderby Golf Course in Leicestershire from redevelopment, told the BBC. \u201cAll the private rich clubs, they\u2019re going to still be about, but you are making it less affordable, and taking it away from the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investors are seeing the \u201clucrative land\u201d on Britain\u2019s golf courses as increasingly \u201cripe for redevelopment\u201d, said The Times.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-627863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}