The golf industry has seen a recent flurry of golf course sales and availability in the last two years – and members of Golf Business International are ideally placed to assist both vendors and purchasers.
Gleneagles, Mannings Heath, Fairmont St Andrews, Portmarnock Hotel, Chart Hills, Tracy Park, the Buckinghamshire, Cameron House, Woodbury Park, Hagley Golf & Country Club, the Ridge, and the QHotels’ portfolio are among the best-known sales in recent times, while smaller venues have been sold for conversion to residential developments.
Venues like the Roxburghe Hotel & Golf Course, and Styrrup Hall Golf & Country Club remain on the market, while the 13-venue Club Company, which stated it was on an ‘acquisition strategy’ in the early summer, was itself rumoured to be available only a couple of months later.
This recent increased activity in the golf real estate market has been reflected in an influx of related enquiries to Golf Business International for the provision of associated services.
Member Mark Smith, of Smith Leisure, has recently negotiated the proposed sale price and contract terms for a golf operator tenant buying a freehold. And this is just one area of many where the skill sets of Golf Business International members can be of assistance to buyer and seller.
Within the near 40-strong membership – which offers collectively almost 1,000 years of golf industry experience – there are experts in viability studies; investment appraisals; venue management; the reconfiguration of facilities; the optimisation of land value; company acquisition; planning applications in sensitive areas; valuation; purchasing, leasing and selling; master planning; investment procurement; and much more. All of which are much in-demand when the sale of a property is mooted.
Golf Business International chairman Howard Swan said: “The recent influx of enquiries relating to potential sales and purchases of golf facilities highlights once more the plethora of skills, experience and expertise available within Golf Business International.
“The organisation was created to make life easier for the golf industry, by pooling together an unprecedented wealth of knowledge in one all-encompassing golf consultancy. When contemplating the sale or purchase of a golf facility, however large or small, it would pay to speak first to one of our members.”
Golf Business International, formed originally as the Golf Consultants Association in 1999, is unique in the UK in its ability to make available a team of highly-respected and experienced golf industry professionals to deal with any aspect of the business of golf through from conception to end.
Golf Business International www.golfbusinessinternational.com