Every home for sale in The Landings lists a single HOA number in the listing sheet. That number is real, and it is due every March, but it is not the whole story. The Landings runs on two entirely separate obligations, set by two entirely separate organizations, and only one of them is mandatory. Buyers who assume the listed fee covers everything are wrong. Buyers who assume the second bill is required because an older marketing page told them so are also wrong. The only way to know your real annual cost is to ask two distinct questions about the specific house you are considering, not the neighborhood in general.
The Mandatory Bill
Every property owner in The Landings pays into the Landings Association, the community's homeowners association, whether or not they ever set foot on a golf course. This is the Annual Dues, also called the Assessment, and it funds security, road maintenance, public works, and the day-to-day operation of the gates. The 2025 amount was $2,518 per lot, due March 1, with 10 percent interest and a 10 percent late fee kicking in after April 1, and gate access suspended for anyone still unpaid. That last detail matters more than it sounds: this is a covenant-enforced fee, not a suggestion, and it follows the lot rather than the owner.
The amount itself is not fixed forever. Covenants require a member vote every three years, and that vote needs a two-thirds supermajority to pass. The current cycle is unusual. The first 2027-2029 Annual Dues proposal went to a vote earlier this year and did not clear that supermajority threshold, so it failed. The board went back, cut the increases, deferred some projects, and put a scaled-back version in front of owners as a second, separate vote. That vote is open right now and closes September 15, 2026. Anyone closing on a Landings property this fall is buying into a community mid-decision about what its baseline carrying cost will be for the next three years. That is worth asking your agent or the seller about directly rather than assuming the 2025 number still applies.
The Optional Bill, and Why It Isn't Actually Optional for Everyone
The second bill comes from the Landings Golf & Athletic Club, a private club that is legally and financially separate from the Association. Club membership is not required to own property here. It is required if you want to use the golf courses, the tennis and pickleball facilities, the marinas' clubhouse amenities, or most of the on-island dining.
As of June 2026, initiation fees run $80,000 for Full Golf, $50,000 and up for Associate Golf, $35,000 for National Golf, and $40,000 for Athletic. Those are initiation numbers only. Annual dues, food and beverage minimums, and capital assessments sit on top, and the club does not publish those figures publicly. The only way to get a current, complete number is to call the membership office directly at 912-598-8050 and ask for the full sheet, including transfer and refundability terms.
Here is the part that trips up out-of-state buyers specifically: whether a given house effectively requires membership to make sense of the lifestyle you're buying into depends on that house, not on a blanket community rule. A patio home a short walk from the Village might function fine without it. A home backing up to a fairway, marketed on the promise of golf-cart access to the course, is a different calculation entirely. Confirming this before you write an offer is not optional due diligence. It's the difference between a real carrying cost and a guess.
There's a second wrinkle sellers and buyers both miss. Club membership does not transfer with the house. In 2024, the Association restructured fees for members who no longer own property here but kept their club membership anyway, a category capped at 100 members that opened up after the 2009 recession pushed the club to sell memberships more broadly. Previous property owners who stay on as members now pay 7.5 percent of the current Annual Dues as an access fee. The reason this matters to a buyer: if the seller is a longtime club member, their membership status is theirs, not the house's. You apply fresh, at whatever the current initiation fee happens to be that year.
A Course Under Renovation Is a Timing Question, Not a Cosmetic One
If your interest in a specific home is tied to a specific course, ask about renovation timing before you get attached. Terrapin Point, the Willard Byrd design that runs to the tip of the island, is next in the club's renovation queue, with Davis Love III's name attached as of mid-2026. A course renovation typically means that course is closed for a season. If you're picturing daily golf on a particular layout starting the year you move in, confirm where that course sits in the renovation schedule first.
What the Closed-Sale Numbers Actually Say
Portal-level days-on-market figures for Skidaway Island have been all over the place in 2026, some showing homes moving in under six weeks, others showing well over three months for the same general area. That spread alone tells you DOM isn't the number to anchor on here. A local closed-sale snapshot from February 2026 gets closer to the real mechanism: ten homes closed that month across the Landings, South Harbor, Grand Harbor, and Modena section of the island, averaging about $1.2 million and selling at roughly 96 percent of list price, with an average of 76 days on market. The same report flagged condition as the defining variable. Fully renovated homes, particularly updated kitchens, baths, flooring, and major systems, were moving faster and closer to list. Homes still needing work sat longer regardless of where they were priced per square foot.
For context on where prices sit broadly, the median sale price across Skidaway Island area homes settled near $899,000 for the twelve months ending in June 2026, down about 2 percent from the year before. That figure is useful as a baseline, but it tells you almost nothing about how fast a specific house will sell. Condition does that.
Put together, the practical read for a buyer is this: don't let a low list-to-original-price ratio or a favorable per-square-foot number talk you out of asking hard questions about the roof, the HVAC system's age, and when the kitchen was last touched. In this market, a dated interior at a fair price is still a slower sale, and a slower close changes your negotiating leverage.
Before You Write an Offer
If you're seriously considering a specific address in The Landings, get answers to these before you go under contract:
- What is the current Association Annual Dues for this lot, and does the seller know whether the 2027-2029 vote has resolved by your closing date?
- Does this specific property carry any expectation of club membership, formal or informal, and if so, at what tier?
- Is the seller a current club member, and if so, does their membership transfer, lapse, or convert to Previous Property Owner status at closing?
- If your interest is tied to a specific course, where does that course sit in the renovation queue?
- What is the actual condition of the major systems, not just the finish level, since that is what's driving absorption right now, not price per square foot alone.
None of these are exotic questions. They're just easy to skip when a listing photo of live oaks and a marsh view does most of the emotional work for you.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Is club membership required to buy a home in The Landings? No. The Association's Annual Dues are mandatory for every property owner. Club membership is separate and optional, though many buyers choose a specific home because of the lifestyle the club makes possible.
How do I find out if a specific house requires or assumes club membership? Ask the listing agent directly, and separately call the Landings Golf & Athletic Club membership office to confirm current tiers and fees for the type of access you actually want.
When will the new Annual Dues amount take effect? The second 2027-2029 vote closes September 15, 2026. Until results are certified, the 2025 assessment amount remains the operative figure for budgeting purposes.
If you're weighing a move to Skidaway Island and want someone to walk through the specific numbers for a specific house before you make an offer, The Wright Group can help you get straight answers from the right offices, not just the listing sheet. Contact Us.
