Daufuskie Island Homes for Sale

Daufuskie Island real estate is a small market with a big condition attached: everything you own here, from the house to the groceries, crosses the water to reach you. What is for sale falls into four places, the three gated communities and the old island around them, and about half of it at any time is land rather than houses. Condos for sale on Daufuskie Island are few; most attached homes here are townhouse-style villas. Below: what each part of the island is like to own in, what building involves, and how daily life works without a bridge.

More for Daufuskie Buyers

Daufuskie Island Real Estate by Community

Daufuskie Island homes differ more by where they sit than by their size. The listings above are split into the same areas used below.

Haig Point

The private, member-owned club community on the north end, and the most polished part of the island: its own ferry from Hilton Head, running from early morning to late at night, a Rees Jones golf course, an equestrian center, a beach club and the 1873 lighthouse. Haig Point invites serious buyers on a discovery visit of up to three nights to look at homes, and the Daufuskie Island rentals page explains how that works.

Melrose on the Beach

The beachfront community facing Hilton Head across Calibogue Sound, built around the island’s old resort. It has its own property owners association, which reviews every new house (single-family only, in a Lowcountry style) and capped the number of lots in 1994. The Sportsman and Corakko Beach Club are here; Melrose Landing, where the public ferry docks, is across the island by Freeport Marina, despite the name. The Jack Nicklaus golf course is closed, with a reopening in phases planned. The old resort’s land is set to become a Six Senses resort, announced in 2024 and not yet open.

Bloody Point

The southern tip of the island, with its own property owners association. It was built around a golf course that has closed for good, and that land is being turned into parks and trails. Bloody Point’s 1883 lighthouse and the rest of the island are in our Daufuskie Island guide.

The Historic District and Oak Ridge

Outside the gates is the old island: the historic district, on the National Register since 1982, with its Gullah settlements, churches and cottages along unpaved roads, and smaller subdivisions such as Oak Ridge. Land comes up here more often than houses.

Daufuskie Island Lots for Sale

Land is a large share of what is listed, from lots inside Haig Point, Melrose and Bloody Point to acreage in the historic district. Before you buy one, find out which utilities it has. The Daufuskie Island Utility Company, the island’s only water and sewer utility, serves Haig Point, Melrose and Bloody Point. In the historic district homes are on wells and septic, so a lot there needs both, and the ground has to pass for a septic system. Every island home has power.

Building costs more than on the mainland. Materials come over by barge and the crew comes by ferry every day, and the communities review plans before anything is built: Melrose, for one, wants drawings from a South Carolina-licensed architect and charges an extra road-use fee for a modular home because of the weight of the trucks.

Living Without a Bridge

People cross on the ferries. Year-round residents of the island pay a reduced fare on the public ferry from the C.C. Haigh Jr. Boat Landing, and Haig Point owners have their own boat. Everything else, from furniture to a truck, goes on a barge booked by phone. A few residents keep a car on the island, but most get around by golf cart. There is a general store at Freeport Marina and no supermarket, so plan to shop on the mainland and bring it back. The Daufuskie Island ferry page has the boats and resident fares.

That is the short answer to why Daufuskie Island is so cheap next to Hilton Head across the sound. Every trip, delivery and building job runs on a boat schedule, there is no supermarket or hospital on the island, and only a few hundred people live here year-round, so fewer buyers compete for each listing. The quiet that keeps prices down is the reason most buyers come.

Buying a Daufuskie Home to Rent Out

Plenty of owners rent their homes to visitors, because the island has no hotel. Beaufort County, not a town, licenses short-term rentals on Daufuskie: you need a county zoning permit and business license, and a new rental in the residential zones needs a special use permit decided at a public hearing. Inside Haig Point and Melrose the community’s own rental rules apply too. Guests also need their ferry, luggage, cart and groceries sorted before they arrive, so line up someone on the island to handle it. Our Daufuskie Island rentals page covers it from the guest’s side.

Not Ready to Buy Yet?

Rent first. A few nights in a Melrose beach house or a historic-district cottage tells you more than any listing about the ferry, the carts and the quiet. For homes on our side of the water, see Hilton Head real estate.