Investors are seeing the “lucrative land” on Britain’s golf courses as increasingly “ripe for redevelopment”, said The Times. And, with one in five golf clubs now estimated to be “financially vulnerable”, pressure is increasing on club owners to abandon their fairways and sell the land to housing developers.
“Rising maintenance, insurance and staffing costs” and “fluctuating” membership numbers have left many golf clubs “struggling to remain viable”, while the land they occupy, often on the edge of towns, is in “acute demand” for housing.
How much land do golf courses take up?
There are roughly 1,800 golf courses in Britain – accounting for over a quarter of the golf courses in Europe. 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’s total land area.
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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, Fife, there are 10 courses, and the London borough of Enfield has seven.
Given the amount of land golf courses occupy and the shortage of affordable homes, there is now a “furious debate” between “fairway and driveway”, said the BBC. The golf courses in Greater London, for example, cover an area the size of the entire borough of Brent, and the “area occupied by a single golfer could provide a home for around 380 people”, said architect Russell Curtis in his “Golf Belt” report.
What are the pros and cons?
“Courses are typically large, low-density sites” 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 “are very close to public transport”, Curtis told the BBC, so it “seems reasonable that at least some of those should be turned into housing”.
But it’s not an even picture. In Wales, for example, most courses sit in out‑of‑town 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. “Many courses provide tree cover, habitats for wildlife, pollinator‑friendly environments,” Gavin Anderson, from England Golf, told the BBC. They offer “opportunities for ecological improvement that can exceed what is possible on developed land or open fields”.
What does it mean for golf?
Golf clubs are enjoying mixed fortunes. Sixty have been forced to close in the past decade, said The Golf Business, and the Custodian Golf consultancy estimates that nearly 20% of those still operating are financially at risk.
And yet, membership of English golf clubs, particularly council-owned ones, is on the up – rising from 730,602 in 2024 to 750,071 in 2025, with junior membership growing by more than 34%. The sport’s supporters say this is down to efforts to make golf more inclusive, which would be undermined by mass sell-offs.
Developers buying up golf courses are going to take away the sport’s accessibility, Chris D’Araujo, who is campaigning to save Enderby Golf Course in Leicestershire from redevelopment, told the BBC. “All the private rich clubs, they’re going to still be about, but you are making it less affordable, and taking it away from the masses.”