Recreational Real Estate: It’s In Demand, But What Is It?

The Urban Land Institute is holding its Fall Meeting this week in Chicago, and as part of the meeting, the ULI asked members to come up with the ‘next big idea’. Members could post their idea on the ULI’s website, and other members could vote on the next biggest thing in real estate.

I posted an idea for recreational real estate. The post is here. Out of 114 ideas posted, my idea had the fifth most interest.

The interesting thing is that, although I spent about 15 minutes preparing the post, it really resonated with the ULI members. It really took about 15 minutes - I took an interest of mine, wrote some text, added a picture, and posted it. I did not think it was particularly well written or detailed. I just wanted to see if other people had a similar interest in the same idea.

And they did.

So, my questions are – What does ‘recreational real estate’ mean to people? What is the level an type of demand for it by the general public? And, how is it being incorporated into real estate development?

I have spoken to many experts around the country on ski, bike, and hiking trail development, ski areas, hunting and equestrian facilities, and trophy landscape properties for fishing. All of these lands sound terrific.

The issue with these lands is that they generally are further away from urban and suburban areas than is convenient for the workout before or after work, and sometimes even the weekend day.

It would be interesting to see if developers and planners are seeing a demand for recreational real estate (beyond the traditional golf course community) and, if so, how they are responding in their projects closer to metropolitan areas.

There appears to be a great demand for new recreational opportunities. The questions are the specific: what, why, and where?