Port Royal Plantation Real Estate

Before You Buy in Port Royal Plantation

Port Royal Plantation real estate is single-family houses and a few empty lots. The community’s covenants allow one family home to a lot, detached everywhere except one area set aside on the plat, and forbid timeshares and fractional ownership. The rest of this page covers what a listing leaves out: which listings in the search aren’t really in the plantation, what the association charges, the building rules, and why this is the wrong place to buy a vacation rental.

Port Royal Plantation Homes: Ocean, Sound, Golf and Woods

The most sought-after houses face the ocean or Port Royal Sound along the plantation’s mile of beach, and many others are a short walk from one of the 21 beach walkways the association keeps. Inland, homes back onto the golf courses, the lagoons and wooded lots, and the covenants set a floor on size: at least 1,700 square feet of enclosed space for a new house, and more on some lots. Ocean Point, on the land where the first Port Royal inn and clubhouse stood, has its own design guidelines on top of the community’s.

Not every listing the search shows is inside the gate. The MLS area called Port Royal also takes in Wimbledon Court, the street of Royal Dunes Resort, just outside the plantation, where villas and timeshare weeks are listed. Timeshares aren’t allowed in Port Royal Plantation, so a listing priced like a week at a resort is one of those. Check the street against the Port Royal Plantation guide or ask the listing agent.

Owning in Port Royal Plantation: Assessments, a Transfer Fee and Approvals

Every landowner pays the association’s annual assessment: for 2026, $2,282 for a lot with a house and $1,940 for an empty lot. On top of that is the Beach House assessment for the rebuilt oceanfront clubhouse and pool. When a home sells, a transfer fee of half of one percent of the price goes to the association, a rule in force since May 2017. Questions about the figures go to the association’s accounting manager at (843) 681-5114.

Building, adding on, re-roofing, repainting or taking down a tree all need the Plans Approval Board first. It normally meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month, and submissions are due by 4 p.m. on the Monday of the week before. In Ocean Point, the neighborhood’s own review comes before the board’s.

Buying a Port Royal Plantation Home to Rent Out

You can’t buy a home in Port Royal Plantation to run as a vacation rental. The declaration of covenants, restated by the landowners and recorded with Beaufort County in December 2025, prohibits short-term rentals and defines them as anything under 180 continuous days. The exceptions are narrow: a buyer renting from the seller under a purchase contract, the renewal of a lease that has already run 180 days, and one Port Royal landowner renting another’s home for at least 90 days. The owner and tenant both sign the association’s lease approval form before the lease starts, and only the people on the lease get renter decals.

Long-term leases are allowed, and some families rent first to try the community out; one owner’s review says they did exactly that 13 years ago and never left. If rental income is the point, look at the communities built for it: Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes and Shipyard all allow vacation rentals, and the Hilton Head real estate guide covers the rest of the island.

Touring Homes Behind the Gate

The gate won’t let a buyer in to drive around and look: passes are issued only at a landowner’s request, so tour with your agent and let them arrange access. To get a feel for the area first, Port Royal Golf Club and Robber’s Row Grill, in its clubhouse, are just outside the gate and open to the public, and Fish Haul Beach Park is on the same sound.