Shelter Cove Condos for Sale

Real estate in Shelter Cove means condos: villas owned one by one in a handful of gated buildings around the harbour and along Broad Creek, on the sound side of the island across William Hilton Parkway from Palmetto Dunes. There are no houses. What you buy into is the building as much as the villa, because each one sets its own fees and its own rules on renting, so the rest of this page takes them one at a time.

Shelter Cove Condos by Building

Location within the harbour is most of the difference in price. On the water itself, Harbourside I and II put 72 villas on floors two to five above the shops and restaurants by the King Neptune statue, and Yacht Club Villas has 43 on the edge of the yacht basin. Mainsail, finished in 2003 beside the marina store, is the newest and largest: 56 two- and three-bedroom condos with covered parking and a storage room each.

At the quieter western end, Captains Quarters has 64 one- and two-bedroom villas and a few penthouses in two five-story buildings facing Broad Creek and the marsh, and Anchorage Villas, from 1983, is 88 two-story villas around two lagoons, the one building where owners and guests can keep pets. On the Newport peninsula in Broad Creek, Newport Villas (66 condos) and the 16 townhomes of the Peninsula at Newport are owners’ enclaves, and Tradewinds Trace is 28 three-story townhomes from 2006 by the Arts Center.

Quarter Shares at Harbourside III

Harbourside III, the 39 villas above the harbour’s shops and restaurants, is sold in quarter shares rather than whole villas, which is why its listings ask a fraction of what a villa next door does. A share is a quarter interest in one villa, and the building runs its own rental office, letting villas by the week, Sunday to Sunday. Read the share’s documents for which weeks are yours and how the rental income is split before comparing it with a whole villa.

Buying a Shelter Cove Condo to Rent Out

If you are buying to rent, the building decides almost everything. Captains Quarters, Harbourside I and II, Yacht Club Villas and Anchorage allow short-term rentals; Newport Villas and the Peninsula at Newport do not, and Tradewinds Trace restricts them. Sources disagree on Mainsail’s minimum stay, so ask for the current regime rules with any listing there. Stays under 30 days need a Town short-term rental permit and business license, and owners who rent short-term pay a transportation fee to the Palmetto Dunes association that helps fund the Dunes Buggy, the free seasonal shuttle that takes guests to the beach. Our guides to Palmetto Dunes property management and Hilton Head property management cover who manages rentals here.

Shelter Cove and Palmetto Dunes

Shelter Cove is part of the Palmetto Dunes property owners’ association, so its owners pay that association’s annual fee on top of their building’s regime fee and share the resort’s amenities. The MLS files it the same way, as a section of the Palmetto Dunes area, and our Palmetto Dunes homes for sale page covers the oceanfront side: its houses, its villas and Leamington. The trade is the beach for the harbour: from Shelter Cove the ocean is a mile or more away, while the marina, the restaurants and the Towne Centre are a short walk.