In September 2025, a pair of buyers went under contract on a Palmetto Bluff home. According to a lawsuit later reported by The Island Packet, they signed believing club membership was voluntary. Four days later, South Street Partners emailed the community that it would remove the voluntary membership provisions. The buyers paid the $50,000 club joining fee and closed that October. On December 1, South Street announced that the joining fee would drop to $0 starting January 1, 2026.
That gap of a few weeks shows how quickly club costs in this community changed. For anyone pricing a Palmetto Bluff purchase today, the change is bigger than one fee going away. The one-time cost of entry moved. It left the club every homeowner has to join and landed on the golf club, which is optional.
The fee schedule as announced for 2026
In March 2026, The Island Packet laid out the current terms. Homeowners must belong to the base club, which covers pools, fitness centers and restaurants. Golf membership is a separate, optional purchase with three tiers. Golf joining fees went up on May 1, and annual dues stayed the same.
Membership | One-time joining fee, before | One-time joining fee, 2026 | Annual dues |
|---|---|---|---|
Base club, required | $50,000 | $0 as of Jan. 1 | Not reported |
Palmetto Bluff Trust | Not reported | Not reported | $15,246 |
Golf Tier I | $200,000 | $300,000 as of May 1 | $22,000 |
Golf Tier II | $100,000 | $120,000 as of May 1 | $12,500 |
Golf Sports | $20,000 | $30,000 as of May 1 | $5,000 |
Each row matters less than how the rows add up. Before 2026, a buyer who wanted unlimited golf paid $50,000 to the base club and $200,000 to the golf club, for $250,000 in total. Today that same buyer pays $300,000. A Tier II buyer's combined cost fell from $150,000 to $120,000. A Sports buyer's fell from $70,000 to $30,000. A buyer who never plans to play golf went from $50,000 to nothing.
So the 2026 changes cut the one-time cost for every buyer except the one who wants full golf access. The fee cut and the price increase were announced months apart for different reasons. Together they changed who pays for what.
Why the top tier absorbed the increase
Tier I is the only membership with unlimited play on all three courses. That includes Anson Point, which The Island Packet reports is the only course in Palmetto Bluff reserved exclusively for club members. Guests of Montage Palmetto Bluff can play the other two. Tier II members get four Anson Point tee times a year, plus 15 at the Jack Nicklaus-designed May River course and 15 at Crossroads, the reversible nine-hole course in Moreland Village. Sports members get unlimited Crossroads play.
Anson Point opened in January 2026. Its temporary clubhouse, The Cottage, followed, and the developer's midyear report lists it among the year's new amenities. The March email announcing the increase said demand for golf is rising. It also said officials are looking for a site for a fourth course. Members already on the Tier I waitlist could keep the $200,000 rate if they started the upgrade and paid by April 15.
A waitlist with a payment deadline, a brand-new members-only course and a search for another site all point the same way. The scarce product at Palmetto Bluff is unlimited golf, and that tier is where the price went up.
How the required fee reached zero
The base-club change grew out of litigation, not demand. Club membership has been required since well before the current owners arrived. Here is the sequence as The Island Packet and the court record describe it:
- 2003: Under the Palmetto Bluff Community Charter, a homeowner becomes a club member automatically on accepting the deed.
- April 12, 2022: About a dozen homeowners sue the developer, the club, South Street Partners and related entities over mandatory membership and short-term rental rules.
- June 2023: The developer and the club file a declaration that waives membership for new owners and lets existing owners resign. Owners who resigned are offered reimbursement of their joining fee.
- March 6, 2024: A second suit argues the waiver changed the covenants without the required homeowner vote.
- March 14, 2025: A special referee sides with those plaintiffs and rules that removing mandatory membership requires a vote.
- September 2025: South Street tells owners it will drop the voluntary membership option.
- December 1, 2025: South Street announces that the base joining fee will drop to $0.
- January 1, 2026: The $0 base joining fee takes effect.
- February 12, 2026: The buyers from the opening file suit seeking their $50,000 back.
Jordan Phillips, managing partner of South Street Partners, told The Island Packet that several community meetings were held to test whether a vote to end mandatory membership would pass. Most homeowners who attended preferred to keep it. He explained the next step this way:
"We decided to move towards reducing the joining fee to zero, all in an attempt to be proactive and address claims in the lawsuit."
That account comes from his February 24 interview with The Island Packet. The upshot is that membership stays mandatory and the fee for joining is now zero.
What the Supreme Court decided, and what it left open
The 2022 case went to the South Carolina Supreme Court on a narrow question: whether the club agreements' arbitration clause could move the dispute out of court. In Opinion No. 28339, heard April 22 and filed June 10, 2026, the court affirmed the Court of Appeals as modified. The court held that the agreements did not clearly hand the arbitrability question to an arbitrator. It agreed the clause was unconscionable because its 60-day deadline to demand arbitration unlawfully shortened the limitations period. The developer asked for a rehearing. The Palmetto Bluff Neighborhood Association posted the court's July 24, 2026 order denying it.
None of this decides the homeowners' underlying claims. The case continues in state court. For a buyer, that means the structure of club costs may still change.
The structure at issue is uncommon in Bluffton. The Island Packet reports that Palmetto Bluff Club members hold no ownership interest in the club, only the right to use its facilities. Oldfield Club and Berkeley Hall Club are registered nonprofits, and Palmetto Bluff Club is not. Phillips says the covenants require dues to be set at a break-even level. In his words, "It cannot make money, so it operates like a nonprofit."
Where the zero sits among neighboring clubs
The same Island Packet report gave entry costs for two nearby private communities as of March 2026. At Colleton River Club, new homeowners pay a one-time $125,000 fee. Annual dues are $22,077 for a limited membership without golf or $31,542 for a full membership with golf. At Spring Island, new homeowners pay a $150,000 initiation fee plus $34,695 in annual dues.
Against those figures, Palmetto Bluff now has one of the lowest required entry costs in the area for buyers who skip golf. It has one of the highest for buyers who want everything. A buyer comparing the three communities on list price alone could miss a six-figure difference in either direction, depending on how much golf they plan to play.
The market in the year the required fee disappeared
According to the Hilton Head Area REALTORS® local market update for August 2026, 92 Palmetto Bluff homes closed from January through August. That compares with 49 in the same period of 2025. The year-to-date median sale price was $2,695,000, up from $2,525,000. Sellers received 95.5% of list price on average. Inventory stood at 41 homes in August, down from 58 a year earlier. Days on market until sale averaged 154 for the year, up from 105.
The developer's 2026 midyear report shows the same direction. Through midyear, community-wide closed and pending sales totaled $341.4 million across 140 transactions, against $211 million across 91 in the first half of 2025. At midyear there were 34 active resale homes, with a median asking price of $3.4 million and an average of $940 per square foot.
The jump in sales came the same year the $50,000 required fee ended. It was also the year Anson Point opened, The Cottage arrived and the new 10,500-square-foot Palmetto Bluff Club Fitness Center was completed. Measured against an August median of $2,595,000, the old fee was about 2% of the price. The data cannot show which change drew buyers. They show that sales volume nearly doubled while homes took longer to sell. That suggests buyers were active and still negotiating on price.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is base club membership still required for new owners? Yes. As reported in March 2026, the base club remains mandatory under the community's governing documents, and the joining fee has been $0 since January 1, 2026.
Is golf membership required? No. The Palmetto Bluff Golf Club is optional, and its three tiers carry separate joining fees and annual dues.
Are the 2026 figures final? The rates in this post were announced in early 2026 and reported in March. We found no later published fee schedule, so confirm current figures with the club before you budget.
Did the Supreme Court ruling resolve the lawsuit? No. The June 2026 opinion addressed only whether the dispute belongs in arbitration. The homeowners' claims remain in state court.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm any membership obligations or contract terms for your own purchase with a qualified attorney or other professional.
Before a client goes under contract in Palmetto Bluff, we confirm the current membership documents, fee schedule and golf waitlist status with the club. If you are deciding which level of Palmetto Bluff membership fits how you plan to live there, The Ussery Group can walk you through the costs before you commit. Request a Confidential Consultation.
