Deerfield Plantation:
1,600 Acres. One Mile to the Ocean.
The Grand Strand’s Best Value Address.
Gated. Golf cart to the beach. Extremely low HOA fees — some sections have none at all. Entry-level condos under $120K and custom brick homes above $500K sharing the same address. And scenic golf course landscape that still frames backyards even though the course itself has closed. Deerfield is Surfside Beach’s largest community and its most under-discussed value story.
The number that stops buyers first is the acreage: 1,600 acres. Deerfield Plantation is not a neighborhood — it is a master-planned community of community-defining scale, occupying a substantial portion of Surfside Beach’s inland area between Highway 17 Business and Highway 17 Bypass. It has two entrances, one from each highway. It contains multiple sub-communities, hundreds of single-family homes, multiple condo complexes, townhomes, and developable lots. And it sits one mile from the Atlantic Ocean — golf-cart distance from the Surfside Beach pier, the Surfside restaurants, the farmers market, and Fuller Park.
The second number that stops buyers is the HOA fee: extremely low in most sections, and zero in some of them. In a Grand Strand market where HOA fees regularly run $300–$500 per month and climbing, Deerfield’s cost structure is genuinely unusual. The community’s master-planned golf course landscaping — mature trees, scenic fairway views, wooded lots — still provides the visual character that resort communities charge those fees to replicate, even though the golf course itself has closed. You get the look of a golf community without the ongoing cost of maintaining one.
acreage
& the Atlantic Ocean
at Golf Colony
Business & Bypass
A Master-Planned Community
Built Around a Golf Landscape That Still Shows.
Deerfield Plantation was developed around a golf course community in Surfside Beach. The course has since closed, but the landscape it created — generous lots, mature tree lines, scenic views, lush preserved greenery — remains the physical character that defines the community.
The Community at a Glance
Deerfield Plantation occupies approximately 1,600 acres in Surfside Beach, positioned between Highway 17 Business (the closer highway, nearer the ocean) and Highway 17 Bypass (the inland highway). The community has entrances from both sides — a practical detail that makes the internal navigation intuitive and access to both the beach and to inland highways equally convenient. Developed as a golf course community, Deerfield’s residential lots were positioned around fairways, creating the backyard views, wooded privacy screens, and generous spacing between homes that still define the neighborhood’s character today.
The golf course is closed, but its legacy shapes every street. Mature trees — some decades old — line the roads and frame the yards. Former fairway views give many homes a sense of open space and depth behind them that newer subdivisions built on cleared flat land cannot replicate. The Deerfield Plantation POA (Property Owners Association) has maintained the landscaping standards across the community, and the description most agents and residents reach for — “tranquil, despite the size” — reflects a land-planning choice made at development that time has validated.
The community is gated, with controlled access providing a residential security and privacy layer that buyers from more security-conscious markets appreciate. Multiple pools and tennis court facilities are distributed throughout the community — the scale of Deerfield means amenities are clustered in sub-community zones rather than one central facility, keeping them walkable from most addresses. Extremely low HOA fees are a consistent selling point; some sections, including portions of Deerfield Phase 1, carry no HOA requirement at all.
The golf course landscape without the golf course cost. The scenic views, tree-lined lots, and open green spaces that were designed for a golf community are still there. The maintenance cost of an active course — which would be passed to residents through elevated HOA fees — is not. For buyers who want the aesthetic of a golf community at the price of an established residential neighborhood, Deerfield is one of the few places on the Grand Strand where that trade-off is available.
Efficiency Condos to
Custom Brick Estates — Same Address.
Deerfield’s 1,600 acres contain more product diversity than most buyers expect from a single community name. Understanding the tiers before you search prevents the kind of confusion that comes from seeing a $99K listing and a $534K listing under the same “Deerfield” label.
Golf Colony at Deerfield
Golf Colony Resort is the condo section inside Deerfield’s 1,600-acre footprint — efficiency units, 1BR, and 2BR condos ranging from approximately 600 to 1,200 square feet. Prices run from about $99K for an efficiency penthouse to $240K for a renovated 2BR/2BA end unit. Short-term and long-term rentals both permitted — the section is popular with investors, vacation home buyers, and seasonal residents looking for the lowest-possible acquisition cost for a Surfside Beach foothold. Pool and tennis court on-site. Low HOA covers water, sewer, basic cable, landscaping, and pool access. Furnished, turnkey units are common and priced accordingly.
Deerfield Condo Communities
Beyond Golf Colony, Deerfield contains several additional condo and townhome-style communities — Cross Gate at Deerfield, Buck Hill subdivision (privately gated with patios), and Plantation Golf Villas. These typically run 2BR/2BA, 800–1,200 sq ft, with screened porches and golf course or wooded views. Low HOA fees covering internet, cable, water, sewer, trash, landscaping, tennis, pickleball, pool access, and pest control are commonly reported in this price band — a comprehensive coverage set that significantly reduces total ownership cost. Ideal for primary residence, vacation, or long-term rental.
Deerfield Single-Family — Established Homes
The core of Deerfield’s single-family market — 3- and 4-bedroom homes ranging from approximately 1,400 to 2,800 sq ft, most on lots with mature tree cover and wooded or former-fairway backyard views. Many were built in the late 1980s through early 2000s; character and architectural variety are higher than newer subdivisions built to uniform spec. Several streets within Deerfield Phase 1 have no HOA at all, a rare feature within a gated community at this beach proximity. Some homes offer in-ground pools, Carolina rooms, and screened porches.
Deerfield Links & Newer Builds
The premium tier within Deerfield includes large custom all-brick homes — up to 3,300+ sq ft, 3–4BR plus bonus rooms and 3.5 baths — as well as a newer construction segment with homes built 2021–2023 by local builders who have won WMBF News and Sun News Best Home Builder awards four consecutive years. Deerfield Links offers semi-detached homes where residents golf-cart to the beach. New construction floor plans include Sewee, Topsail, Awendaw, and Hatteras models — open concept, LVP floors, quartz countertops, gas ovens, 2-car garages. Both the established custom homes and the new builds sit within the same gated Deerfield address.
New construction is actively ongoing within Deerfield. A local builder — four-time consecutive winner of the Grand Strand’s Best Home Builder award — has been completing new homes within Deerfield Plantation with delivery timelines of a few months from the time of purchase. For buyers who want new construction quality within an established, gated, wooded community one mile from the beach, this is a combination that is essentially unavailable anywhere else in Surfside Beach at this price point.
Between Two Highways.
Golf Cart to Everything That Matters.
Deerfield’s position between Highway 17 Business and Highway 17 Bypass sounds like an in-between location. In practice, it’s a best-of-both position — accessible from both directions, one mile to the beach, and minutes from every commercial corridor in the Surfside–Myrtle Beach corridor.
The beach proximity is the headline: one mile from the Atlantic Ocean means a genuine golf cart ride rather than a car trip. From most Deerfield addresses, the ride to the Surfside Beach pier, the beach access points, and the downtown Surfside dining and retail corridor is short enough that residents who own golf carts use them as a primary mode for beach trips. The Surfside pier — the only fully concrete fishing pier on the East Coast, reopened March 2024 — is within that golf cart radius. So is Fuller Park, the farmers market, and the seven public parks that make Surfside Beach the civic-oriented town it is.
One Mile to the Ocean
Golf cart distance to Surfside Beach access points, the pier, and the downtown restaurant and retail corridor. Residents routinely use golf carts rather than cars for beach trips — a daily-use proximity that compounds significantly for full-time and part-time residents.
Two Highway Entries
Entrances from both Hwy 17 Business and Hwy 17 Bypass mean Deerfield residents never fight for a single bottleneck exit. Access to the beach, to Myrtle Beach, to Market Common, and to Murrells Inlet is clean from either entrance depending on the destination.
Mature Wooded Lots
Golf course development created the shaded, tree-lined character that still defines Deerfield streets. Privacy between homes is higher than newer subdivisions. Backyard views — formerly onto fairways, now onto preserved greenery — have the open, natural depth that costs money to create from scratch.
Multiple Pools & Tennis Courts
Distributed throughout the 1,600-acre community so that most addresses are within a short walk of at least one pool and court facility. Not a single central amenity requiring a golf cart — a scale-appropriate distribution that makes daily use genuinely convenient.
Gated Community
Controlled access provides a security and privacy layer meaningful for full-time residents and valuable for vacation home owners who are away for extended periods. For buyers coming from gated-community environments in the Northeast, this is a baseline expectation that Deerfield meets at a price point where most Grand Strand gated communities do not.
Minutes from Market Common
Market Common — with its walkable shopping, dining, movie theater, Emmens Preserve, and Grand Park — is minutes from Deerfield’s northern edge. Residents who want urban-village convenience without paying Market Common prices for their residence have this option, and many Deerfield buyers factor it into their decision.
The broader corridor context: Myrtle Beach International Airport is approximately 15 minutes north. Grand Strand Medical Center is within close reach for medical access. Murrells Inlet’s Marsh Walk — the waterfront dining district with live music and fresh seafood — is a short drive south. Brookgreen Gardens is accessible for day trips. Deerfield’s position makes it a genuinely central address for everything the lower Grand Strand offers, not just the beach.
What “Extremely Low HOA Fees”
Actually Means Over 10 Years.
The HOA fee conversation deserves more specificity than most listings give it. In Deerfield, “extremely low” means something concrete when compared to what buyers find in neighboring communities at similar price points. Here’s the comparison buyers consistently find when they do the math:
- Gated community with controlled access
- Mature, maintained landscaping throughout
- Pool and tennis court access
- Golf course landscape views at no course-maintenance cost
- One mile to Surfside Beach and the pier
- Some sections: $0/month HOA — zero ongoing fee obligation
- Total 10-year HOA cost in no-HOA sections: $0
- Most gated Surfside/Myrtle Beach communities: $150–$450/month
- At $200/month: $24,000 over 10 years
- At $338/month (e.g., Tuscany townhomes): $40,560 over 10 years
- At $312/month (e.g., Carillon): $37,440 over 10 years
- Fees typically rise 3–5% annually
- Special assessments possible on top of base fees
The Golf Colony condo section has its own HOA that covers meaningful services — water, sewer, cable, internet, landscaping, pool, tennis, pickleball, and pest control — at a rate multiple agents and listing descriptions describe as very low. For a vacation condo buyer, having those services included in a low monthly fee vs. paying each separately is a meaningful simplification of ownership costs. For single-family home buyers in no-HOA Deerfield sections, the savings compound to five figures over a typical ownership period — capital that stays in the buyer’s pocket rather than going to a management company.
Always confirm HOA status for the specific street and phase. Deerfield’s multiple sections and phases have different HOA structures — some have no HOA, some have a master POA fee, some have sub-association fees on top of the master. The Deerfield Plantation POA website and your listing agent are the authoritative sources for any specific address. Don’t assume the HOA structure of one street applies to another within the larger Deerfield footprint.
The Widest Price Range
of Any Surfside Beach Community.
Deerfield’s scale creates a price range that spans more than any comparable Surfside Beach neighborhood. Per active CCAR MLS and Redfin data, the community currently shows inventory from under $100K (efficiency condos) to over $534K (custom brick homes), with most of the single-family market trading in the $250K–$400K band and condos ranging from $99K to $240K. This range is not noise — it reflects genuinely different products within the same 1,600-acre footprint.
Active Market Snapshot
Golf Colony efficiencies
market range
listing price (Redfin)
Sources: Redfin Deerfield Plantation neighborhood data · CCAR MLS active and sold listings 2024–2026 · CRG Homes Deerfield community profile · Century 21 The Harrelson Group Deerfield listings · Jake Lee Real Estate Golf Colony at Deerfield data · Innovate Listings Deerfield Plantation · Lightman Group Deerfield community profile · Abe Safa Team Deerfield market analysis. Deerfield Plantation sits within the broader Surfside Beach market, which showed a median sale price of $526K in June 2025 per Redfin — Deerfield’s price points are meaningfully below the Surfside median, making it the value access point for buyers who want the Surfside zip code and lifestyle at lower acquisition cost.
The investor math for Golf Colony condos is frequently the driver for that segment: a furnished 2BR/2BA unit at $180K–$230K in a short-term-rental-permitted community one mile from Surfside Beach, with HOA covering the utility and maintenance overhead, can generate rental income that meaningfully offsets carrying costs. Buyers approaching this as an investment rather than a primary residence consistently shortlist Golf Colony against other beachside condo options and find the value proposition compelling — particularly compared to higher-priced condo buildings closer to the ocean that carry higher regime fees and more restrictive rental policies.
The no-HOA single-family homes are the community’s most undervalued segment. A 3–4BR home in gated Deerfield, on a wooded mature lot, one mile from Surfside Beach, with no monthly HOA obligation, is a combination buyers from HOA-heavy Northeast markets genuinely struggle to find. These homes trade in the $250K–$375K range and rarely stay on the market long once buyers who understand the no-HOA value calculate their 10-year total cost of ownership against comparable homes in fee-bearing communities.
Surfside Beach’s Best-Rated Schools —
Deerfield’s Kids Are in That Pipeline.
Deerfield Plantation sits within the same Surfside Beach school attendance zone as the broader community — which means access to the same St. James High School (#2 in the Myrtle Beach area) that makes Surfside Beach so competitive for family buyers.
Lakewood Elementary School
Niche grade A. Ranked #3–4 in the Myrtle Beach area among public elementary schools. 880 students, 14–15:1 student-teacher ratio. Parent reviews highlight engaged teachers and programming that makes students genuinely want to come to school. Part of Horry County Schools, which earned “Excellent” or “Good” state ratings for 38 of 57 schools in 2025.
St. James Intermediate / Middle
The St. James feeder pipeline runs from elementary through high school, providing curriculum continuity across grades 4–12 within the same school family. St. James Intermediate (Niche A, #3 Best Elementary in Myrtle Beach Area by Niche) feeds directly into the middle and high school levels. Students entering this pipeline are better prepared for St. James High’s academic environment.
St. James High School
Niche A-minus. #2 Best Public High School in the Myrtle Beach Area by Niche. #35 in South Carolina. 1,880 students, 18:1 student-teacher ratio. Strong academics, AP courses, NJROTC, athletics across multiple varsity programs, and arts and music programs. Student reviews consistently cite academic rigor and college preparedness as the school’s defining strengths.
Deerfield buyers get the same school pipeline as the rest of Surfside Beach — including St. James High’s #2 Myrtle Beach area ranking — at significantly lower acquisition and ongoing carrying costs than many other Surfside Beach communities. For families who are school-research-first buyers, the combination of the school quality and Deerfield’s price-to-location ratio is one of the most compelling in the entire Grand Strand market.
Value-Oriented.
Versatile Enough for Almost Every Buyer Type.
Deerfield’s scale and product diversity make it one of the few communities on the Grand Strand that genuinely serves multiple buyer profiles rather than one specific type. The unifying thread is value orientation — buyers who have done the math and found that Deerfield’s combination of location, landscape, low fees, and price-per-square-foot is difficult to match elsewhere at Surfside Beach’s ocean proximity.
- First-time coastal buyers who want the Surfside zip code without Surfside’s premium oceanfront prices — Deerfield’s Golf Colony section offers the lowest-cost entry to a Surfside Beach address with short-term rental permission, pooland-tennis amenities, and golf-cart beach access. This is where buyers who cannot yet afford a $500K home but are certain about the Surfside lifestyle begin
- Investment buyers targeting the vacation rental market — furnished Golf Colony condos at $180K–$230K with low HOA fees, short-term rental permission, and a Surfside Beach address generate rental income that competes well against higher-acquisition-cost properties closer to the ocean. The math frequently works better here than in more expensive alternatives
- Primary residence buyers who want a gated neighborhood, mature landscaping, and low fees — the no-HOA single-family sections of Deerfield are genuinely rare for a gated community one mile from the ocean. Buyers who have been searching for this combination in the Northeast and finding it either unavailable or unaffordable consistently respond strongly to what Deerfield offers
- Family buyers for whom St. James High is the school target — accessing a #2-ranked Myrtle Beach area high school in a gated, established neighborhood at prices below most of Surfside Beach is a combination that school-research-first buyers identify quickly and pursue seriously
- New construction buyers who want an established community, not a fresh development — the active new builds within Deerfield’s existing 1,600-acre footprint offer a rare combination: new-construction quality within a mature, wooded, established neighborhood. The streets have trees. The community has history. The house is brand new
- Retirees and downsizers who want low maintenance without giving up space or privacy — Deerfield’s mature lots, wooded privacy, gated community character, and proximity to the beach and to Market Common check every box on the active adult coastal relocation list, at prices that leave room in the budget for what comes after the purchase
- Buyers who want proximity to both the beach and Murrells Inlet’s Marsh Walk — Deerfield’s southern position in Surfside Beach puts it closer to Murrells Inlet than almost any other Surfside community. The Marsh Walk’s waterfront dining, live music, and fresh seafood are a short drive south — a lifestyle bonus that full-time Deerfield residents use regularly
Who Deerfield is probably not for: Buyers who want oceanfront or second-row beach proximity — Deerfield is one mile from the ocean, not adjacent to it, and that mile is not walkable (though it is golf-cart-able). Buyers who need a brand-new community with uniform construction standards and a single centralized amenity complex will find Deerfield’s variety and age range disorienting. And buyers who equate HOA fees with community quality — who interpret “low HOA” as meaning the community is poorly maintained — will need to visit to recalibrate: Deerfield’s maintenance standards reflect the POA’s attention to landscaping, not neglect. Drive through it before you judge it from a fee schedule.
“One mile to the ocean in golf cart friendly community. Close to everything but quiet.” — CCAR MLS listing description, Deerfield Plantation
Thinking About Deerfield?
Let’s Find the Right
Section, Tier, and Budget Fit.
Golf Colony condos, established single-family homes, new construction, no-HOA sections, Deerfield Links semi-detached homes — the 1,600-acre community has more variety than most buyers realize going in. We’ll walk you through all of it clearly and help you find what actually fits.
Evangeline Raiskaya Ramos
Relocation Specialist · Keller Williams Innovate South
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