By Aidan Sowa · October 2026 · St Simons Island, GeorgiaIn the only sense the evidence can measure, yes. The land under an older St Simons Island home already carries most of the property value, and the forces documented in the island research push that share higher over time. Older homes in the sample averaged 23.1 percent of the price of new construction on a comparable lot, which means more than three quarters of the finished value sits in the land (Frontier Capitals, 2026). On a barrier island, buildable land is finite, the stock of large lots does not grow, and every finished sale in the $1,100,000 to $1,900,000 range reaffirms what a good lot can support (Redfin, 2026). The older structure on that lot, meanwhile, ages, costs more to insure and drifts further from current building standards each year.
One caution belongs at the front of this report. The source material does not publish a lot premium percentage or a year by year series for land values on the island, so this report does not claim a measured annual increase. It answers by method, from the documented ratio, the finished price range, the residual illustration and the lot facts in county records, and it states that limit plainly. What the method shows is a direction, not a ticker: finished prices set the ceiling, lot size decides how much of that ceiling a parcel can reach, and the standing house is valued as a shrinking fraction of the whole. Readers who want the underlying lot size mechanics can start with how much lot size affects property values in St Simons Island, where the same sample is read from the valuation side.
For owners of large lots, the practical question is narrower than the headline. It is not whether land is valuable in the abstract. It is whether the land under their house is now worth more than the house and land together would bring from a household buyer, and whether waiting strengthens or weakens that position. The sections below take those questions in order, using only the documented island figures.
Key Findings
- Older homes in the sample averaged 23.1 percent of new build prices on comparable lots, so land carries over three quarters of finished value (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Builders acquired 9 of 17 sampled older homes, showing that land driven buying is the dominant pattern for this stock (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- On ordinary sized parcels, buyers have paid $1,100,000 to $1,900,000 for newly built houses, with distance to the beach or marsh and parcel area driving the spread (Redfin, 2026).
- The sample minimum lot was 6,098 square feet, and larger lots support larger finished homes and stronger residuals than lots near that floor (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- No lot premium percentage or land value time series is published in the source material, so the trend is established by method from the documented figures rather than quoted as a statistic.
Why does lot size matter more on an island than the house does?
Because scarcity compounds. On the mainland, a builder who cannot use one parcel can look at the next street, the next subdivision or the next tract. On St Simons Island, the island is the market: the Village at the south end, mid-island and the Beachfront Blocks are fixed geographies, the marsh edge does not move, and the number of large, buildable lots under older homes only falls as each one is redeveloped. Demographic data for Glynn County frames the demand side of that fixed supply, a county population living with an island inside it whose land cannot expand (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). When demand for finished island homes persists against a shrinking pool of candidate lots, the price pressure lands on the lots that remain, and larger lots feel it first because they offer builders the most options.
Size converts directly into finished value. A larger lot can hold a larger home, guest space, parking and a yard proportioned to a seven figure finished price, while a lot near the 6,098 square foot sample minimum caps the finished size no matter how strong the location is. The link between parcel dimensions and that capacity is a matter of record: lot dimensions and flood zone designations are held by the county assessor, and they are the first facts a builder checks (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026). The worked residual makes the conversion visible. A $1,500,000 finished sale, minus roughly $620,000 in construction costs and a margin near 20 percent, leaves $550,000 to $650,000 for land before site preparation. Raise the finished price a lot can support, as a larger lot does, and the residual rises with it. Shrink the finished price, and the land reading falls even if the house on it is charming.
That is why the comparison in the analysis of island lot values against mainland values matters to large lot owners even when they never intend to leave the island. Island land is priced by island scarcity. Importing mainland expectations, in either direction, misreads the asset. The house can be compared with other houses in many places. The lot can only be compared with other island lots, and there are fewer of them every year.
What is happening to the house side of the comparison?
The house side is standing still at best. A ranch home or cottage built in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s does not gain systems, elevation or code compliance by being well kept, and buyers price that honestly. The research renovation illustration is the clearest documented measure: a $75,000 update on a 1968 cottage might lift the price by $50,000 to $65,000 for a live in buyer, a partial recovery, and returns $0 where the buyer acquires the lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Even successful spending recovers less than it costs, which means the house side of a large lot property cannot renovate its way ahead of the land side. It can only slow the rate at which the land share grows.
Insurance pushes in the same direction. Flood insurance pricing under the federal Risk Rating 2.0 methodology and elevation certificate requirements penalises low, older construction in ways that follow the house year after year (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026). A household buyer for the existing home inherits that insurance profile. A builder selling the finished replacement sells an elevated, compliant profile instead. Each repricing therefore widens the practical gap between what the lot is worth to a builder and what the house is worth to live in, without anything visible changing on the street.
Price index data for coastal Georgia gives the wider frame: finished and newer homes set the comparables that pull values (Federal Housing Finance Agency, 2026), while older stock is valued against them at a discount that the sample measured at 23.1 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Valuation platforms reflect the same pull, blending nearby finished sales into estimates for older homes in ways that can make a house look as if it is keeping pace when the gain actually belongs to its lot (Zillow, 2026). Owners who separate the two, using recorded sales for houses and the residual method for land, see the true movement: the lot appreciating as a share, the house holding or slipping.
How can an owner tell whether the lot has passed the house?
Use three documented checks. First, the ratio check: take the realistic finished price for a new home on that lot from recent comparable sales, and apply the sample relationship. If the land residual from that finished price approaches or exceeds what household buyers would pay for the whole property, the lot has effectively passed the house. Second, the capacity check: confirm from parcel records whether the lot size, measured against the 6,098 square foot sample minimum, and the flood position allow a finished home at the stronger end of the range, since capacity is what converts size into money (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026). Third, the ceiling check: read the explanation of the maximum price a builder can pay and still make a profit, because that ceiling, not enthusiasm, is what a large lot can actually collect.
Parcel and permit records add detail to all three checks. Recorded parcel information shows dimensions and history that a platform estimate never carries (Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026). Permit and tree protection review then decides how fully the size can be used, because a large lot divided by protected live oaks into awkward fragments may build like a smaller one (Glynn County Community Development, 2026). National building permit statistics remind owners that this review is a standard gate for new construction everywhere, not an island eccentricity (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026). A large lot with a clean envelope is the asset the headline describes. A large lot with a constrained envelope is a smaller asset wearing a larger number, and the checks above are how an owner tells the difference before a buyer does it for them.
The trend question also has a timing edge that owners in difficulty should not miss. A strong land position can be spent quickly when circumstances require it: the discussion of whether a house can be sold during pre foreclosure shows how a sale is run against a lender deadline, and a lot whose value sits in the land is exactly the kind of property a builder can price and close on inside the direct 7 to 21 day clock. Land value, unlike a hoped for household premium, does not need a season of showings to be realised.
Does waiting make a large lot worth more, or just cost more?
Waiting bets on finished prices. If finished island prices rise, residuals rise, and a large lot reading rises with them, which is the honest case for patience. The documented costs of that bet are concrete. Carrying an older island home through three to six months of market time runs $15,000 to $35,000 in mortgage or equity cost, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance, with wind and flood insurance well above mainland levels. A year of waiting multiplies that ledger, and it adds hurricane exposure on a structure the eventual buyer intends to replace. The bet also assumes the house side does not slip in the interval through a roof event, a system failure or an insurance change, any of which would widen the land share by shrinking the house rather than by growing the lot.
The research season finding is relevant here. Builder bids rest on finished prices, construction costs and lot availability, not on seasonal foot traffic, and builders buy year round. An owner waiting for a better land market is therefore not waiting for builder attention, which already exists. The owner is waiting for finished prices to move enough to outweigh a year of carrying costs and risk. For some large lots near the Beachfront Blocks or the Marsh-View Corridors, where finished prices are strongest, that bet can be rational. For an interior mid-island lot whose finished ceiling is set by the middle of the range, the same bet is harder to defend on the documented numbers. The companion study of how lot size affects what builders pay gives owners the size side of that calculation in fuller detail.
What does selling the land value directly involve?
It involves the five documented benefits, applied to a property whose value is mostly land. Frontier Capitals operates in a wholesale role, purchasing from owners themselves while also channeling off market properties toward builders. Privacy comes first: zero showings, zero open houses, no public marketing period and no public record until the deed transfers, so a large lot changes hands without the street watching a long listing. Flexible closing follows: 7 to 21 days when speed matters, or months out with a leaseback when an owner needs time to leave a long held property, against 60 to 120 plus days for a listed older home.
No commission is charged, sparing the typical 5 to 6 percent, or $27,500 to $33,000 on the $550,000 worked example used in the island research. No seller closing costs are charged, sparing a further 1 to 2 percent, so the combined saving runs $33,000 to $44,000 on that example. No inspections or repairs are required, removing the $10,000 to $25,000 repair credits older island homes routinely face, and the sale proceeds as is, which for a land value property is the natural form: the buyer is purchasing the lot, performs no structural inspection and has no reason to negotiate over a house that the price barely credits. Proof of funds and recorded deeds remain available for verification, so an owner can confirm the buyer closes in its own name before relying on the land reading in any plan.
Methodology and limitations
This report is based on the sample of 17 older homes built in 1980 or earlier in 31522, 9 acquired by builders, and on the finished sales range and residual illustration compiled with that sample (Frontier Capitals, 2026; Redfin, 2026). The source material publishes no lot premium percentage, no separate land price index and no year by year land value series for the island, and this report invents none of them. The conclusion that large lots are gaining on the houses on them is drawn by method from the 23.1 percent ratio, the fixed supply of island land, the finished price range and the documented behaviour of renovation returns and insurance pricing. Individual lots will differ with size, envelope, flood position and tree cover, and an owner specific answer requires the parcel records for that lot.
Conclusion
Large residential lots on St Simons Island are becoming more valuable than the older homes on them in the sense that matters to an owner: the land share of total value, already over three quarters at the sample ratio, is the share that finished prices, scarcity and insurance economics keep pushing upward, while the house share is capped by age and by renovation returns that recover less than they cost (Frontier Capitals, 2026). That does not make every large lot a fortune or every older home worthless. It makes the lot the asset to price carefully, with county records and the residual method, before any decision to list, renovate or wait.
Owners who want the land and house values of a specific large lot separated and priced can telephone Frontier Capitals at 401-219-4207 or email [email protected].
If the land under your house were listed on its own tomorrow, would it draw more interest than the house drew in its best year?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a published percentage for how much more a large lot is worth?
No. The source material publishes no lot premium percentage for the island, and this report does not invent one. It works from the documented ratio of 23.1 percent, the finished range of $1,100,000 to $1,900,000 and the residual illustration (Frontier Capitals, 2026; Redfin, 2026).
Why does island land keep gaining on the houses on it?
Buildable island land is finite and the pool of large lots under older homes shrinks with each redevelopment, while finished prices set a high ceiling for what a good lot can support (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The house, by contrast, ages and carries rising insurance friction, so its share of the total tends to fall.
Does a large lot always beat a small lot on price?
Not automatically. Lot dimensions and flood zone designations from county records decide the buildable capacity, and tree and permit review decides how fully that capacity can be used (Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026; Glynn County Community Development, 2026). A large but constrained lot can build and price like a smaller one.
Can renovating the house reverse the trend for one property?
On the documented illustration, no. A $75,000 update might add $50,000 to $65,000 for a live in buyer and $0 for a lot buyer, so spending recovers less than it costs (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A genuinely updated home with modern systems can still win a household premium, but it does not change the land arithmetic underneath it.
How should an owner measure the split between land and house value?
Apply the three checks in this report: the sample ratio against a realistic finished price, the capacity check from parcel and flood records, and the builder ceiling from the residual method (Frontier Capitals, 2026; Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026). Together they show whether the lot has passed the house at a specific address.
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Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 17 homes sampled in 31522, 9 acquired by builders, average older home price 23.1 percent of new build. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 31522, St. Simons Island GA. Market data.
- Zillow, 2026. Home values and recently sold, 31522. Market data.
- Glynn County Board of Assessors, 2026. Parcel records, flood zone designations, and lot dimensions for St Simons Island. Official record.
- Glynn County Tax Assessor, 2026. Parcel and permit records, St. Simons Island GA. Official record.
- Glynn County Community Development, 2026. Building permit and tree protection requirements for St Simons Island. Official record.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2026. National Flood Insurance Program: Risk Rating 2.0 methodology and elevation certificate requirements. Government data.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency, 2026. House Price Index data for coastal Georgia markets. Government data.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2026. New residential construction and building permit statistics. Government data.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2025. Demographic data, Glynn County, Georgia. Government data.