If you buy a resale home in Heritage Bay in 2026, your closing statement will show a $13,500 resale capital contribution, plus a $250 estoppel fee, both charged when title transfers. In 2025 the same line was $10,000. That is a 35% increase in one year. The community's total annual assessment rose about 6% over the same period.
Buyers comparing golf communities tend to compare monthly carrying costs. In Naples, the faster-moving cost is the one you pay once to join, and the reason has more to do with waitlists at the private clubs down the road than with anything inside the gates.
The two numbers on Heritage Bay's fee schedule
Heritage Bay is a bundled community. Its membership page says buying a home there automatically makes you a member of Heritage Bay Golf & Country Club, with no equity or deposit required, and that "the value of the home includes the value of your country club membership."
So you pay for membership in three places: in the purchase price, in the annual assessment and in the capital contribution at closing. Here is how the published owner-member figures moved between the club's 2025 and 2026 schedules:
| Heritage Bay owner-member charge | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating dues | $6,578 | $6,981 | +6.1% |
| Reserve dues | $2,055 | $2,188 | +6.5% |
| Cable and internet | $1,009 | $1,047 | +3.8% |
| Total annual assessment | $9,642 | $10,216 | +6.0% |
| Food and beverage minimum | $1,000 | $1,000 | none |
| Resale capital contribution at title transfer | $10,000 | $13,500 | +35% |
The 2026 schedule also lists new capital dues at $0. Existing owners saw a routine increase this year, and the larger increase landed on whoever buys next. A $3,500 jump at closing is easy to miss when the buyer's spreadsheet is built around monthly costs.
Heritage Bay also restricts the other route in. Its 2026 non-resident golf membership is open to renewing members only. If you live outside the community, you cannot join it as a new golf member. To get golf at Heritage Bay, you buy a home there.
Why the entry price can outrun the dues
The pricing pressure comes from the clubs where membership is sold separately from the house. Naples Daily News reported on Sept. 16, 2026 that 84% of Collier County's traditional golf facilities are tied to private clubs or communities, against a 28% national average, according to the National Golf Foundation. The same story said a report by RVI Planning + Landscape Architecture in Bonita Springs put these Naples-area clubs at these waits and initiation fees:
- Naples National Golf Club: 10 to 15 years, $400,000
- Club Pelican Bay: 8 to 10 years, $250,000
- Island Country Club: 5 to 7 years, $250,000
- Royal Poinciana Golf Club: 5 to 7 years, $300,000
- Kinsale Golf Club: 3 to 7 years, $500,000
- Hole in the Wall Golf Club: 3 years, $170,000
- Grey Oaks Country Club: 2 to 4 years, $300,000
- Hideout Golf Club: 1 year, $250,000
- Old Collier Golf Club: 1 to 2 years, $1 million
At most of these clubs, membership costs both money and years. A buyer who will not wait 8 to 10 years for Club Pelican Bay looks for golf that is available now, and a bundled community provides it the day the deed records. When waits are measured in years, a bundled club can raise the price of entry with little risk of losing buyers, because the next option takes years. In 2026, Heritage Bay raised its entry charge and not much else.
Initiation fees are rising at the private clubs as well. Naples Daily News put Kinsale's initiation fee at $450,000 in April 2025, and the September 2026 list shows $500,000.
Treviso Bay collects the same charge twice
TPC Treviso Bay in East Naples also bundles golf with the home, but its charges are split between two associations. The 2026 annual fee sheet lists a $7,420 yearly Master Association charge and a $5,350 yearly Golf Association charge. The golf charge breaks down into $3,850 in dues, $1,400 in reserves and $100 in capital. There is also a $750 annual food minimum due by December 31. Single-family homes add lawn care, which ranges from $1,998 in Via Veneto Villas to $4,022 in Peninsula.
These resale fees are collected at closing:
- Master capital contribution: $7,500
- Golf club capital contribution: $7,500
- Resale application: $50
- Rookery Bay: $250
- Estoppel: $299, or $418 for a rush
The total is $15,599 at a standard estoppel rate. Most of it is the two capital contributions. A buyer comparing Treviso Bay with Heritage Bay should add up both associations on each side, then add the closing charges, before deciding which community costs less to own. Calling one "the HOA fee" understates what you will pay.
Grey Oaks sells you a place in line
At non-bundled clubs, owning the house does not make you a golf member. What it gets you is a better position to become one.
Grey Oaks Country Club's membership guide shows how this works. Since June 1, 2014, every new property owner on the Grey Oaks East Campus has been required to buy at least a Sports Membership at closing. Golf is a separate upgrade with its own waitlist, and the guide ranks applicants in this order:
Resident Sport Member, Resident Non-Equity Golf Waitlist, Non-Resident Sport Member, Non-Resident Non-Equity Golf Waitlist.
Two other rules in the guide matter for timing. The Full Golf Membership price is the price in effect when you are placed on the Non-Equity Golf Joining Waitlist, so joining the waitlist early locks in the fee. A waitlist member who reaches the top can pass once and move to the bottom. A member who declines a second time is moved to a Sports Membership with no refund of initiation fees. The guide also says all fees are subject to change without notice. Naples Daily News listed the Grey Oaks initiation fee at $300,000 with a 2 to 4 year wait in September 2026.
Owning a home at Grey Oaks moves you up the list. Golf still requires an initiation fee and a wait, and the waitlist rules decide what you pay.
The Country Club of Naples shows the same pressure. Its Active Golf membership is at capacity, with an informal limit of up to 325, and its Golf-in-Waiting category is also full. Social-Awaiting-Golf is the category with openings, and the club gives pricing only through its membership staff.
New supply arrives slowly
On Sept. 22, 2026, Collier County commissioners unanimously approved an upscale 18-hole private course on the 169-acre former citrus grove at 341 Sabal Palm Road in East Naples, Gulfshore Business reported. Approval came after nine months, without the 10 proposed guest cottages, and with the clubhouse capped at 10,000 square feet. The next step was review by the Florida Department of Commerce.
In Estero, the former Old Corkscrew Golf Club is being converted into a private club called Pandion. Naples Daily News reported that nearly 60 of its 280 memberships had sold and that the initiation fee was rising. Pandion's own site gives a target opening of Nov. 1, 2027.
A course that still needed state review in late September and a club about a year from its target opening will not shorten an 8 to 10 year wait at Club Pelican Bay.
What to get in writing before you make an offer
These requests apply whichever model you choose:
- The current fee schedule, plus the prior year's. Comparing the two years shows whether the increases are landing on dues or on the closing contribution, as they did at Heritage Bay.
- Every charge collected at closing, by association. Treviso Bay's two $7,500 contributions sit under two separate associations.
- Whether outside membership is closed. If it is, as at Heritage Bay, buying a home is the only way in.
- At non-bundled clubs, the waitlist rules. Ask about resident priority, when the price is locked, and what happens if you decline an upgrade.
- The estoppel timeline. Treviso Bay charges more for a rush estoppel, and Heritage Bay charges its estoppel fee only on title transfer.
This post is general information, not legal or financial advice. Association and club documents govern what you will owe, so confirm the details for your purchase with your attorney, title company or lender.
A short FAQ
Is a bundled community's capital contribution the same as an initiation fee? Heritage Bay calls its charge a resale capital contribution, collected with transfer of title, and says no equity or deposit is required. The private clubs on the RVI list charge initiation fees in the $170,000 to $1 million range.
Can I rent out a bundled home and pass the membership to my tenant? Heritage Bay's 2026 schedule lists a $600 fee to transfer a membership to an approved tenant.
Are all of these fees fixed for 2026? The current figures here come from each club's or association's own 2026 schedule or from Naples Daily News reporting in September 2026. The 2025 figures appear only as a comparison. Fee schedules change from year to year, as Heritage Bay's did between 2025 and 2026.
If you are weighing a bundled community against a waitlist club, Lindsey Moffat can lay out the current fee schedules side by side for the homes you are considering, including the closing charges, before you write an offer. Let's Connect.
