Saint Helena Island, South Carolina

Tiered ADR data shows the market-wide average of $501.24/night rising to $502.77 for entire-home listings, $583.09 for professionally-managed listings (about 16% above average), and $786.07 for the luxury tier (about 57% above average). Revenue held nearly flat year over year (up 0.16%) even as ADR fell 4.42%, implying an occupancy or booking-mix offset not fully captured in the occupancy figure alone (which itself was down 1.25 points). At $10,088/month in average revenue ($121,061 annualized) against a typical home value of $483,270, that computes to a gross STR revenue yield of about 25.1% before expenses, permits, taxes, and management. For-sale inventory is thin at just 60 homes, against a $654,667 median list price, well above the typical home value figure, suggesting active listings skew toward larger or waterfront properties. The defining investment constraint here is regulatory: nearly all of Saint Helena Island sits in the T2Rural district under the county’s Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO), reaffirmed by Beaufort County Council in May 2023, where STRs require discretionary, case-by-case special-use approval rather than a by-right permit, and the CPO explicitly bans golf courses, gated communities, and resort-style development to protect Gullah/Geechee land and culture. STRs are permitted by-right only in scarce C4/C5 mixed-use center districts. That regulatory friction is reflected in the market’s regulation score of 56.6 out of 100, the lowest of the markets processed in this batch, and investors should expect a slower, discretionary approval process rather than a routine permit.