Gated communities
Where are the gated communities near Myrtle Beach?
From the Cherry Grove marsh to the ocean at DeBordieu.
By Devin Day, Operations Officer · Reviewed by Tim Nash, Broker-in-Charge · Updated October 22, 2026
Two of these gated communities sit on the ocean, and ten have golf.
The short answer
These 18 gated neighborhoods run from North Myrtle Beach to DeBordieu Colony, south of Pawleys Island. Most of them are on a golf course or on the water. Homes in them usually sell for about $200,000 to about $2 million, and most homeowners association (HOA) fees are about $95 to $400 a month.
Choose by what you want
The ocean, or an oceanfront club
A marina with staff
A boat ramp at home
A famous golf course
History you live inside
Main Street by golf cart
Lots of nearly half an acre
A fee under $100 a month
North Myrtle Beach, 1 to 3
1. Tidewater Plantation: nine holes along Cherry Grove Inlet
Tidewater, in North Myrtle Beach, has one of the best public courses in South Carolina: Golf Digest ranks it No. 38 in the state. Nine of its holes play along the tidal inlet at Cherry Grove.
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The course opened in 1990. Golf Digest named it the best new public course in America that year. Golf Magazine put it first on its list of 1990's top 10 new public courses. About seven in ten of the house lots touch the course. Golf membership is sold to residents and property owners of Horry, Georgetown and Brunswick counties.
Tidewater is inside North Myrtle Beach's city limits, with city services. It is on the Intracoastal Waterway, not the ocean, but the neighborhood keeps its own beach cabana, with parking, at Cherry Grove Beach.
Tidewater has about 580 houses and one master association, with six smaller associations under it, so a house may answer to two associations. We check both for any home you like.
Homes at Tidewater usually sell for about $625,000. The HOA fee is about $230 a month.
2. Seaside Plantation: Main Street by golf cart
From the south end of Seaside Plantation, Main Street in North Myrtle Beach is about two-thirds of a mile by road. The way runs on two side streets, with no main highway to cross. The city lets a golf cart with a state permit use secondary roads posted at 35 mph or less, from sunrise to sunset.
Each spring and fall the Society of Stranders brings its shag dance festivals, the Spring Safari and the Fall Migration, to Main Street and Ocean Drive. The ocean is a quarter to three-quarters of a mile from the houses, and some houses look onto the neighborhood's lakes.
Festival weeks bring crowds to Main Street.
Homes here usually sell for about $720,000, with an HOA fee of about $210 a month.
3. Barefoot Resort: the course that hosts the Monday After the Masters
Dye Estates, a gated neighborhood inside Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach, surrounds the Dye Course, home of the Monday After the Masters. Hootie & the Blowfish host the charity pro-am each spring, and it brings celebrities and PGA Tour players to the course. Many of its houses are large custom homes, on lots of about two-thirds of an acre.
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Its gate is staffed. A guard works the main gate 24 hours a day, and owners drive through a resident lane with a barcode on the car. A guest gets in only when the owner has given the guard the guest's name and the date. At the second gate, an owner who has set up a gate code can let a guest in by phone. The guest calls from the keypad, and the owner presses 9.
Leatherleaf, the other gated neighborhood here, has 62 houses with the Love Course on every side. Davis Love III designed that course with Pinehurst No. 2 in mind, and Leatherleaf's Residents' Club has a lifestyle director who plans events.
In summer a free shuttle runs to the owners' beach cabana, which has key-fob parking, showers and a pet-washing station. In these two neighborhoods you call the driver 15 minutes ahead. At Barefoot a golf membership stays with certain houses. The seller gives it up at closing, and the buyer can take it over by enrolling within 60 days.
Most of Barefoot Resort has no gate. In Dye Estates no one may swim, boat or fish in the ponds. Lots there are still for sale with no deadline to build, so a house can go up next door at any time.
Leatherleaf homes usually sell for about $700,000 to $975,000, with an HOA fee of about $390 a month. Two Dye Estates homes resold this past year, for about $1.4 million and about $2.5 million.
Myrtle Beach, 4 to 6
4. Grande Dunes: an oceanfront club and a marina for big boats
In Myrtle Beach, many Grande Dunes homes come with a household membership to the Ocean Club, a private club on the beach. It has towel and bar service at its pool and cabanas on the sand. We confirm it for each home you look at.
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The private Members Club is a separate membership from the home. Its course was designed by Nick Price, a member of golf's Hall of Fame, with Craig Schreiner. The clubhouse has golf simulators, and the calendar includes themed dinners, wine tastings and a Fourth of July cookout.
Grande Dunes Marina, on the Intracoastal Waterway, has 126 slips and takes boats up to 120 feet long, with fuel and a store. A two-mile trail along the waterway is open to the public. In Calais, Palermo and Villa Venezia, most houses are one-story Mediterranean-style homes, and many have a private pool.
Grande Dunes has a security company on contract, with a main guard house, a north guard house and a guard house at the Ocean Club. This page covers three of its gated sections: Calais, Palermo and Villa Venezia.
Homes in those three sections usually sell for about $1.5 million, and the HOA fee is about $200 to $400 a month.
5. Waterway Palms Plantation: a Charleston-style plan around a lake
Waterway Palms Plantation, in Carolina Forest, was planned to echo Charleston's Battery district. At its center the association owns a lake parcel of about 15 acres. The clubhouse stands on a point in the lake, with water on three sides.
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Most houses sold here lately were built since 2020, and they are large: many are custom homes of about 3,000 to 3,800 square feet. Many rise two or three stories, some have an elevator, and lots on the Intracoastal Waterway often have a private dock. The neighborhood also has its own boat ramp on the waterway, so a boat can go in without a trip across town.
The lots are small, and about one in five has no house on the county roll yet.
Homes usually sell for about $780,000, and the HOA fee is about $150 a month.
6. The Bluffs on the Waterway: a boathouse clubhouse on the waterway
The Bluffs on the Waterway, in Carolina Forest, has two clubhouses, and one of them is a boathouse on the Intracoastal Waterway. Its boat ramp sits on a waterfront lot of more than 6 acres. Grande Dunes Marina is about 2.5 miles away by water.
Homes for sale in The Bluffs on the Waterway nowSee all 16
Many of its houses are custom Mediterranean-style homes in stucco. Black Creek runs through the woods along the west side, and the county's bike park is less than a mile away.
The Carolina Bays Parkway (S.C. 31) runs along one side; the nearest lots are about 280 feet from it.
Homes here usually sell for about $850,000; the HOA fee is about $150 a month.
Socastee, Surfside Beach and Murrells Inlet, 7 to 12
7. Myrtle Beach Golf and Yacht Club: room for the boat and the camper
At Myrtle Beach Golf and Yacht Club, off Bay Road in Socastee, the association keeps storage for RVs, trailers and boats, for a fee when space is open. Enterprise Landing, a public boat ramp on the Intracoastal Waterway, is about a 4-minute drive from the entrance.
The owners' association owns about 62 acres of open land, most of it the wide strips of grass and woods between the streets. Its Community Watch desk is covered 24 hours a day, and the HOA fee is about $95 a month.
Despite the name, there is no golf or yacht club anymore; Heron Point, its golf club, closed years ago. Sandpiper Place, where D.R. Horton is building new houses, shares the entrance but has its own owners association. We look up the association for any home you like.
In the older part, homes usually sell for about $225,000.
8. Prestwick: a Pete and P.B. Dye course named Course of the Year
Prestwick, near Surfside Beach, has a course by Pete Dye and his son P.B. Dye that was named the 2025 Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course of the Year. It carries several of Dye's marks: wooden bulkheads along many water banks, deep-faced bunkers around greens that are often raised, and fast greens.
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Prestwick opened in 1989 as a private club, founded by the Jackson family, who also created Ocean Lakes. The Gatlin Brothers once lived here and held a charity golf tournament each year, and about half the lots are on the course. When the club ended its memberships, the owners association took over the pools and the tennis center. Owners have two pools and two hard courts, and the eleven clay courts take their own membership.
The course is fully public now, so you share the fairways with visiting golfers.
Homes usually sell for about $480,000, and the HOA fee is about $190 a month.
9. Seasons at Prince Creek West (55+): a clubhouse, indoor and outdoor pools and bocce
At Seasons at Prince Creek West, in Murrells Inlet, the builder listed a ballroom, a card room, an art studio and a billiards room in the clubhouse.
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Today the community has a clubhouse, indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, tennis and bocce. The Murrells Inlet MarshWalk is about a 10-minute drive.
Every occupied home must have a resident 55 or older. Most are one-story builder homes, about half of them 1,750 to 2,350 square feet. They sit on lots of about a fifth of an acre, so the yards are small. The county roll shows a house on every lot.
Homes usually sell for about $500,000, and the HOA fee, about $340 a month, includes internet, trash pickup and lawn care.
10. Bellwood Landing: big lots on Collins Creek, with TPC beyond the woods
In Bellwood Landing, in Murrells Inlet, about a dozen lots back onto Collins Creek, which runs through a wide band of woods. Beyond the woods lies TPC Myrtle Beach, a Tom Fazio design that has hosted the PGA Tour's Monday qualifier for the Myrtle Beach Classic.
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The lots are big, many of them nearly half an acre, and seventeen are an acre or more. Many houses are custom, often two stories.
For tennis, pickleball or a cookout, owners drive about 4 minutes to the Park at Prince Creek West. It has courts and a covered pavilion with grills. The park is shared with the other Prince Creek West neighborhoods, not Bellwood's own.
Homes here usually sell for about $810,000, and the HOA fee is about $160 a month.
11. Wachesaw Plantation: a members' club on a bluff above the river
Before the neighborhoods were planned, archaeologists dug at Wachesaw, on the Waccamaw River in Murrells Inlet. Their University of South Carolina study of Wachesaw and the neighboring Richmond Hill plantation found more than half a million artifacts. Some finds are on display in the clubhouse.
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The members own the Wachesaw Plantation Club. Its Tom Fazio course has hosted Carolinas Golf Association championships. Each March the members host the Can-Am Junior Team Matches.
From the best lots you look down a Fazio fairway or out over the Waccamaw River.
Kimbels, the club's restaurant, is on the bluff above the waterway and the 18th green, with a Tavern Room, open decks and an enclosed porch. Wachesaw's eight clay tennis courts and its book clubs and card groups fill the rest of the week. The main gate has a guard, and Wacca Wache Marina, outside the gates, has about 100 wet slips and indoor racks.
The club is rebuilding its pool and its Magnolia's restaurant, so part of the club is a work site for now.
Homes usually sell for about $700,000, and the HOA fee on most homes is about $150 a month.
12. Wachesaw East: where the LPGA played four years
Wachesaw East, in Murrells Inlet, has a course that hosted four televised LPGA Tour events, from 1997 to 2000. Karrie Webb won the first two.
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Clyde Johnston laid out the course on a former rice plantation, past freshwater lakes and wetlands. Houses line the fairways behind the gate, most of them one story and from the early 2000s. The club's grill, the Toasted Tee Pub & Grub, has hosted happy hours with live music.
The course and its grill are a business of their own, not the homeowners': Festiva Real Estate Holdings bought them in 2017.
Homes usually sell for about $500,000, and the HOA fee is about $145 a month.
Pawleys Island, 13 to 18
13. The Reserve: Greg Norman's private course and a marina with dry storage
Near Pawleys Island, The Reserve's marina sits at the southern tip of Sandy Island, where Thoroughfare Creek meets the Waccamaw River. Staff launch and haul boats from a dry storage building that holds about 200. The marina also has a fuel dock, and a boardwalk runs through a cypress forest to the river.
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The Reserve Golf Club is a private Greg Norman course of up to 7,200 yards, set among 160 acres of wetlands. It has hosted the Carolinas Mid-Amateur twice, and a golf membership includes the club's dining and social events.
Each fall the Pawleys Island Festival of Music & Art puts up its tent at the golf club, and the neighborhood has private beach access with parking.
Dry storage takes boats up to 27 feet. A bigger boat needs a wet slip or a side tie.
Homes usually sell for about $1.3 million, and the HOA fee on most homes is about $320 a month.
14. Willbrook Plantation: a neighborhood on three rice plantations
Willbrook, near Pawleys Island, was built on the land of three rice plantations, Willbrook, Oatland and Turkey Hill, and its golf course crosses two of them. Five markers along the course tell that history hole by hole. Under the live oaks by the 5th hole are brick remains at the site of the plantation house, which burned in 1895 and was rebuilt that year.
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By the 8th hole is the Oatland cemetery of enslaved people, protected inside the community. After rice, the land was used for duck and quail hunting.
Willbrook is a gated neighborhood of about 250 houses inside Litchfield by the Sea, with its own clubhouse and social calendar. Its residents have Litchfield by the Sea's private beach and Beach Club, and one car barcode is issued for both. Golf membership is separate, and the club accepts applications from any golfer.
Homes usually sell for about $840,000, and the HOA fee is about $340 a month.
15. Litchfield Plantation: the owners own the plantation house
Near Pawleys Island, at the end of the Avenue of Live Oaks, stands Litchfield Plantation's house, and the owners own it. For about 50 years the developer controlled the association. In 2018 the owners took control after court challenges, and the house, its pool and about 7 acres passed to the association.
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The house and its avenue of oaks appear on a map of the land drawn in 1794. After taking it over, the owners repaired it and set up a club room, and it has hosted weddings to help pay for its upkeep. A terrace off the main room overlooks the old rice fields.
The gatehouse stands on the avenue. The association also owns a beach house on Pawleys Island, about 4 miles away by road. A private marina on the river is an optional extra.
The old rice fields beside the community, about 330 acres, still belong to the original development company, not to the owners.
Houses here usually sell for about $800,000 to $1.8 million. The HOA fee on most homes is about $230 a month.
16. Litchfield by the Sea: a mile of beach and a guard around the clock
Litchfield by the Sea, near Pawleys Island, has about a mile of its own beach, with an oceanfront Beach Club, a deck and a pavilion.
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A guard works the main gate day and night. Owners' cars come in with a barcode, and each guest must be registered by the owner before the visit.
A normal week can include Tai Chi on Wednesday and yoga on Thursday at the Beach Club. In between there is crabbing off the docks on Osprey Lake and a walk on the paved paths through the marsh.
Many homes are condos and villas from the 1980s to the 2000s, and the Beach Club comes with the home. The association also lists single-family homes in Charlestowne Grant, Compass Point and River Club, and freestanding villas in Oystercatcher Island. Many of Charlestowne Grant's houses are raised beach houses.
It is many neighborhoods inside the gates, each with its own sub-association, and the HOA fee differs from section to section and from unit to unit. In the sections whose sales we read, condo and villa fees range from about $620 a month to about $1,880 for an oceanfront condo.
One-bedroom condos in Summerhouse usually sell for about $200,000, and four villas in Breakers Reef sold last year for about $1.5 million to $2.2 million.
17. Heritage Plantation: a dock master and a crow's nest over the river
Heritage Plantation, near Pawleys Island, has a marina with a full-time dock master. Its dock house is built over the Waccamaw River, with a crow's nest and a swing on its roof. The marina also has a deck over the water, bordered by cypress trees, that serves as a daily sunset gathering place.
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The HOA fee includes cable TV, home internet, the dock master and 24-hour security, and the association lists a separate phone line for the main gate.
Many mornings are reserved for league play on four green-clay Har-Tru courts and four pickleball courts. The Heritage Club, a public par-71 course by Dan Maples, lies among the live oaks on land that was once the True Blue and Midway plantations.
A few lots look over the old rice fields toward the river.
Trash pickup costs extra, and boat slips are rented by the day, the month or the year.
Homes usually sell for about $710,000, and the HOA fee is about $325 a month.
18. DeBordieu Colony: a planters' colony with a Dye course and a private beach club
Before the Civil War, rice planters built a colony of summer homes at DeBordieu, on the ocean south of Pawleys Island. Later owners of the land included Isaac Emerson, the Bromo-Seltzer maker, and the Vanderbilt family. Locals say "Debidue".
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Only DeBordieu owners can join the DeBordieu Club. It has a Pete and P.B. Dye course that has hosted the Carolinas Mid-Amateur, and eight Har-Tru tennis courts. Its places to eat include the Beanery cafe and the Beach Club, with three dining spaces. On the Fourth of July the colony holds a parade.
Many houses are raised beach houses with an elevator, and some stand right on the ocean. Every car comes through one gate. Guests are registered online, in an app or by phone, and a guest pass lasts up to a week. The colony covers 2,700 acres, and at least 600 of them are a nature preserve.
South Carolina spends public money to rebuild a beach only where the public has full access to it, and DeBordieu does not qualify. Its owners pay for their beach themselves, through assessments to a beach fund they voted to set up. Boats cannot stay at the community dock overnight.
Homes here usually sell for about $2 million, and the HOA fee is about $300 to $400 a month.
What do homes sell for, and what is the HOA fee?
Place · homes sell for · HOA fee a month · gate
| Neighborhood | Homes sell for | HOA fee a month | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Tidewater Plantation | About $625,000 | About $230 | Guard house |
| 2. Seaside Plantation | About $720,000 | About $210 | |
| 3. Barefoot Resort | About $700,000 to $975,000 in Leatherleaf | About $390 in Leatherleaf | Guard and keypad (Dye Estates) |
| 4. Grande Dunes | About $1.5 million | About $200 to $400 | Guard houses |
| 5. Waterway Palms Plantation | About $780,000 | About $150 | |
| 6. The Bluffs on the Waterway | About $850,000 | About $150 | |
| 7. Myrtle Beach Golf and Yacht Club | About $225,000 in the older part | About $95 | Gatehouse |
| 8. Prestwick | About $480,000 | About $190 | Gatehouse |
| 9. Seasons at Prince Creek West | About $500,000 | About $340 | Call box |
| 10. Bellwood Landing | About $810,000 | About $160 | |
| 11. Wachesaw Plantation | About $700,000 | About $150 on most homes | Guard |
| 12. Wachesaw East | About $500,000 | About $145 | |
| 13. The Reserve | About $1.3 million | About $320 on most homes | |
| 14. Willbrook Plantation | About $840,000 | About $340 | Car barcode |
| 15. Litchfield Plantation | About $800,000 to $1.8 million | About $230 on most homes | Gatehouse |
| 16. Litchfield by the Sea | About $200,000 for a one-bedroom condo to $2.2 million | About $520 to $1,880 | Guard, around the clock |
| 17. Heritage Plantation | About $710,000 | About $325 | 24-hour security |
| 18. DeBordieu Colony | About $2 million | About $300 to $400 | Guest passes |
For neighborhoods without a gate, see the best neighborhoods in Myrtle Beach, homes with no HOA, golf communities and 55+ communities.
What are the pros and cons of a gated community?
Pros
- Most of these neighborhoods are built around something you use: a golf course, a marina, a boat ramp or a beach club.
- Some HOA fees cover more than the gate, such as security, cable or internet.
- Some gates have a guard on duty day and night; others have a gatehouse or a watch desk.
Cons
- Every guest, contractor and delivery has to get through the gate, so a party or a repair takes some planning.
- Only two of the 18 are on the ocean, so from most of them a beach day starts in the car.
- Owners pay for big projects through their association. Outside city limits in Horry County the HOA, not the county, maintains the private streets, and DeBordieu's owners pay assessments to rebuild their beach. Our agents check for special assessments before you make an offer.
Common questions
Gated communities FAQ
Does a gate make a neighborhood safer?
We do not rate any neighborhood as safe or unsafe. The price table shows which gates have a guard, a gatehouse, a keypad or a call box.
How do guests get through the gate?
By a guard with a guest list, a call box at the gate, or a code from the owner. When you tour homes with us, we set up the visit with the gate before we go.
Is there a gated community in Surfside Beach?
No, not inside the town. Prestwick, about a mile outside it, is the gated neighborhood on this page nearest Surfside Beach.
Are there 55+ gated communities near Myrtle Beach?
Yes. Seasons at Prince Creek West in Murrells Inlet is the 55+ community on this page, and visitors use a call box at its main entrance.
Are there gated golf communities near Myrtle Beach?
Yes. Most of the places on this page are golf communities, from Tidewater in North Myrtle Beach to DeBordieu Colony.
Is Barefoot Resort a gated community?
Only in part. Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach is mostly open, with a few gated neighborhoods inside it.
Is Grande Dunes a gated community?
Only in part. Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach is a large planned community, and only some of its sections have gates.
Sources: Dye Estates rules, Litchfield by the Sea guest guide, DeBordieu owners' packet, Heritage Plantation association, SC Clean Marina, Reserve Harbor, Wachesaw Plantation Club. Also the associations' and clubs' own documents, county records and local news. Each price is the past year's middle sale, checked against the MLS and the county deed index, and Horry County prices leave out builder sales. A price from few sales is a rough guide, and drive times assume no traffic. Not legal advice.
Photo credits
Tidewater Plantation from above, with its golf holes along the inlet labelled. U.S. government aerial photo, 2023, by the USDA Farm Service Agency, Public domain, via The National Map (USGS). Chapter3 Realty exported this view from the NAIP image service at 2400x1800, resized it to 1600x1200, raised the contrast slightly and added 2 labels placed from coordinates.
Prestwick from above, with its Dye golf course labelled: houses among the fairways, with a long lake at the left and an RV lot at the lower right. U.S. government aerial photo, 2023, by the USDA Farm Service Agency, Public domain, via The National Map (USGS). Chapter3 Realty exported this view from the NAIP image service at 2400x1800, resized it to 1600x1200, raised the contrast slightly and added 2 labels placed from coordinates.
Willbrook Plantation from above: its houses are in the middle and at the upper right, beside golf fairways. U.S. government aerial photo, 2023, by the USDA Farm Service Agency, Public domain, via The National Map (USGS). Chapter3 Realty exported this view from the NAIP image service at 2400x1800, resized it to 1600x1200, raised the contrast slightly and added 1 label placed from coordinates.
Litchfield by the Sea from above: homes around a lake, large buildings by the beach and the Atlantic Ocean at the right. U.S. government aerial photo, 2023, by the USDA Farm Service Agency, Public domain, via The National Map (USGS). Chapter3 Realty exported this view from the NAIP image service at 2400x1800, resized it to 1600x1200, raised the contrast slightly and added 2 labels placed from coordinates.
Large beach houses with walkways over the dunes, more houses among dark green oaks behind them, and a wide salt marsh with creeks at the top, at DeBordieu Colony seen from a plane over the ocean. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey, Public domain, via U.S. Geological Survey.
Chapter3 Realty resized these photos and cropped some of them.
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