A golf club came to us with a question we have heard several times now, phrased slightly differently each time: we have a corner of land doing nothing — is padel worth it?
They ended up with two covered courts, funded over five years rather than paid for out of reserves. Revenue is up since. This is what the decision actually involved, and — the part most articles skip — how to work out whether it stacks up on your own site.
How do you finance a padel court?
Padel courts are normally funded on hire purchase over three to seven years. Where the borrower is a limited company, the agreement is unregulated business lending — assessed on the company’s accounts and trading history rather than under consumer credit rules.
Because hire purchase treats you as acquiring the asset, capital allowances are generally available, and full expensing may apply to new and unused plant and machinery. That is usually the deciding argument for funding rather than paying from reserves.
Golf clubs suit padel particularly well because they already have the three things it needs: spare land, an existing membership, and a clubhouse that captures secondary spend after play.
Why padel keeps landing at golf clubs
Padel needs three things a golf club usually already has: spare land, an existing membership, and a clubhouse that already sells food and drink.
The third matters more than people expect. A booking at a standalone padel centre earns the court fee. The same booking at a club earns the court fee and whatever four players spend afterwards — and the incremental cost of serving them is close to nothing, because the bar is already staffed and the lights are already on.
The land requirement is also smaller than most committees assume — there is a scale plan of it further down — and it is usually ground that generates nothing at all in its current state.
There is a membership argument too. Padel skews younger and more mixed than golf, takes an hour rather than four, and is easy to try. For a club thinking about who its members will be in ten years, that is worth something beyond the court fees.
How much land do two padel courts actually need?
A standard padel court is 20 m × 10 m. Two of them side by side, with a walkway between and a working margin around the outside, comes to roughly 27 m × 24 m — about 650 m², or a sixth of an acre.
That is the single most useful number in this article, because it is usually smaller than people picture. It is about the footprint of an underused practice area, an old tennis court, or a far corner of the car park.
What the UK market actually looks like
- The LTA reports around 860,000 padel players in Britain, with participation roughly tripling since 2023.
- Roughly 1,550 active courts across 559 venues as at April 2026, with some counts putting the total above 1,800.
- The LTA has invested over £6 million in padel development, including £4.5 million toward 80 new courts at 42 venues.
- Government committed at least £2.5 million in 2026/7 toward covered facilities for padel and tennis.
Covered courts matter disproportionately in the UK. An uncovered court loses a meaningful share of the year to weather and daylight; a covered one is bookable in January. That is why this club chose covered despite the higher build cost — the additional hours are what make the five-year maths work.
What it cost, and why they funded it rather than paid for it
Cost varies more than most people expect, and the court itself is often not the largest line. Groundworks and drainage depend entirely on the site. A cover adds substantially. Lighting, fencing, access and any changing provision all sit on top. Two clubs can get quotes that differ considerably for the same nominal specification, which is why a supplier quote for your actual ground is worth more than any figure in an article.
This club funded the build on hire purchase over five years. Two reasons that structure suited them:
The asset outlives the agreement. A padel court has a working life well beyond five years. Paying over five and owning it outright afterwards means the income continues with no further cost attached — a materially different proposition from renting a facility indefinitely.
Reserves are for the roof, not for revenue. They could have paid cash. They decided against it for the reason most trading clubs do: reserves exist for the greenkeeping fleet, the clubhouse roof and the year nobody plans for. Spending them on an asset that generates income over its life, when that asset can be funded over the same period, is usually the wrong way round.
Because the club trades as a limited company, this was an unregulated business agreement rather than a consumer one.
Funding the courts yourself, or letting an operator fund them
This is the comparison most clubs do not realise they are making, and it matters more than the interest rate.
Alongside conventional finance there are revenue-share operators who will fund the build outright — in some cases the whole cost of construction and installation — and take a fee per court hour booked in return, usually over a term of five to ten years. The club puts in little or no capital, takes on no debt, and generally keeps the ancillary spend: bar, coaching, retail.
It is a real option and for some clubs it is the right one. It is also a fundamentally different transaction from borrowing, and the difference does not show up in year one — it shows up in year six.
Funding it yourself
Hire purchase, typically three to seven years
- You own the courts outright at the end
- You keep 100% of court income from the first booking
- Capital allowances are generally available, since you are treated as acquiring the asset
- The cost is fixed and known; it does not rise if the courts do well
- You decide pricing, opening hours, member access and coaching
- You carry the utilisation risk. The payments are due whether the courts are busy or empty
- It is borrowing, and it appears on the balance sheet as such
- Subject to status, affordability and lender approval
Letting an operator fund it
Revenue share, typically five to ten years
- Little or no capital outlay from the club
- No debt taken on, and no lender credit decision to pass
- The operator carries the downside if the courts underperform
- You generally keep the ancillary spend, which for a golf club is a large part of the case
- A share of every booked hour leaves the club for the length of the term
- The better the courts perform, the more the arrangement costs you
- You are not acquiring an asset, so the capital allowances argument generally falls away
- Control over pricing and access is usually shared, and is a matter of contract
How to actually decide
Strip it back and it is a question about confidence, not about finance.
If you are confident the courts will be busy, funding them is almost always cheaper over the full term, because a fixed cost beats a variable one when the variable is tied to your success. The club in this article took that view, and had the membership base to justify it.
If you are not confident, or the club cannot service a new commitment, revenue share transfers a risk you would rather not hold, and paying for that is entirely rational. A club that would otherwise build nothing is better off with courts on someone else’s money than with an empty corner of land.
The arithmetic worth doing before either conversation: take your honest weekly booked-hours estimate, hold it flat, and run it across the full term under both structures. Clubs are often surprised at how early the lines cross.
Our interest in this, stated plainly: we are a credit broker. We are paid if you fund the courts and we are paid nothing if you go down the revenue-share route, so we are not a neutral party and you should not treat us as one. It is set out here because a comparison that only flatters the thing we sell would not be worth reading. If revenue share is the better fit for your club, we would rather tell you that than arrange finance you come to regret.
The tax position, since the club is a limited company
This is where the funding structure earns its keep, and it is the part clubs most often work out too late.
On hire purchase you are treated as acquiring the asset, so capital allowances are generally available. HMRC guidance is that once the asset is in use you can claim for all the payments under the contract, though not the interest element — that is normally deducted as a business expense instead. Under a lease you would not be treated as acquiring it, and you would deduct the rentals instead. Same monthly cost, materially different tax outcome.
Because the borrower is a company, full expensing is also on the table for new and unused plant and machinery, alongside the Annual Investment Allowance of £1 million a year. What actually qualifies on a padel installation depends on how the build is itemised — the court structure, the cover, lighting and groundworks are not all treated identically, and some elements may fall into different pools.
That is a conversation for your accountant, and it is worth having before the order is placed rather than after. We can tell you how the funding structure affects what is available; we cannot tell you what your company can claim.
More detail: capital allowances on plant and machinery and the Annual Investment Allowance.
What happened to revenue
Revenue is up. The useful part is understanding where it comes from, because it is rarely only the court fee.
Padel income tends to arrive in three streams:
- Court hire. Steady rather than spectacular. An off-peak booking in Britain averages around £7 per person per hour in doubles play, and peak hours carry the week.
- Secondary spend. Four players who finish at seven in the evening are standing next to a bar. This is where a club materially outperforms a standalone facility.
- Membership and coaching. Lessons, leagues and social sessions drive utilisation, and utilisation is what actually determines whether the courts pay.
The number that matters is hours booked, not courts owned. Two well-programmed courts will comfortably outperform four that nobody organises play on.
Is it right for every club? Honestly, no
The market is growing very fast, and fast-growing markets attract supply. Sweden went from a few hundred courts to several thousand in around three years, and a significant number of operators there did not survive the correction that followed. The UK is earlier in that curve and different in important ways — but “padel is booming” is not on its own an investment case.
What actually decides it on your site:
- Catchment. How many people live within a twenty-minute drive, and how many courts already serve them? Two courts in an underserved area beat two in a town that has just gained a six-court centre.
- Utilisation, honestly modelled. Build the case on realistic occupancy, not the best week of summer.
- Who runs it. Coaching, leagues and a booking system drive bookings. A court with nobody organising play is an expensive piece of fencing.
- Covered or not. Changes both the build cost and the bookable hours. In most of the UK, covered pays for the difference.
- Members or public. Opening to non-members raises revenue and changes the character of the club. That is a committee decision, not a finance one.
We fund padel courts. We would still rather tell a club the numbers do not work than arrange finance for courts that sit empty — the repayments continue either way.
Thinking about it? Here is what to send
- The supplier quote or specification — courts, cover, lighting, base and groundworks, itemised if possible
- Your last two years of accounts, and how the club is constituted
- A rough view of catchment, and any competing courts nearby
- Whether it will be members-only or open to the public
We will tell you what the funding realistically looks like, how the structure affects the tax position, and whether we think the case stands up. If it does not, we will say so.
Common questions
Can a golf club finance a padel court?
Yes. Padel courts are routinely funded on hire purchase, typically over three to seven years. Where the club trades as a limited company the agreement is usually unregulated business lending, and the lender looks at the company’s accounts, how long it has traded and the strength of the wider operation. A court attached to an established club with an existing membership and clubhouse income generally presents well, because the lender can see where the repayments come from. All finance is subject to status, affordability and lender approval.
How long can you spread the cost of a padel court over?
Terms commonly run from three to seven years. The club described here chose five. A longer term lowers the monthly cost and increases the total interest paid, so the sensible term is usually the period over which the courts are expected to have paid for themselves — not simply the longest available.
Can a golf club claim capital allowances on a padel court?
Where the club trades as a limited company and the courts are bought on hire purchase, it is generally treated as acquiring the asset, so capital allowances may be available. HMRC guidance is that you can claim for the payments under the contract but not the interest element, which is normally deducted as a business expense instead. Full expensing is available to companies on new and unused plant and machinery, and the Annual Investment Allowance covers up to £1 million a year. What qualifies on a padel installation depends on how the build is itemised — the court structure, lighting and groundworks are not all treated the same way — so this needs your accountant rather than a rule of thumb.
Do you need planning permission for a padel court?
Usually yes, and a covered court almost always. Floodlighting tends to attract the most scrutiny, particularly where there are neighbouring properties. Speak to your local planning authority early: on most padel projects planning drives the timescale far more than the finance does.
Is padel a safe investment for a golf club?
It depends on catchment, utilisation and how the courts are run, not on the sport being popular. UK participation has grown very quickly — the LTA reports around 860,000 players, roughly triple 2023 — but fast growth attracts supply, and other markets have seen corrections after a rapid build-out. Treat it as you would any capital project: model utilisation conservatively, look at how many courts already serve your catchment, and be honest about who will organise play once they are built.
Why do padel courts suit golf clubs in particular?
Because a golf club usually already has the three things padel needs: spare land, an existing membership, and a clubhouse that already sells food and drink. The third is the one most often overlooked. A booking at a standalone padel centre earns the court fee. The same booking at a club earns the court fee plus whatever four players spend afterwards, and the incremental cost of serving them is close to nil because the bar is already staffed.
Is it better to finance a padel court or use a revenue-share operator?
It depends on how confident the club is that the courts will be busy. Funding the courts on hire purchase means a fixed, known cost and 100% of court income retained, and capital allowances are generally available because the club is treated as acquiring the asset — but the club carries the utilisation risk and the payments fall due whether the courts are full or empty. A revenue-share operator will fund the build, often in full, in exchange for a fee on every court hour booked over a term of around five to ten years; the club puts in little or no capital and takes on no debt, but a share of the income leaves the club for the length of the term and the arrangement costs more the better the courts perform. As a credit broker we are paid on the funding route and not on revenue share, so treat our view accordingly: the honest answer is that confident clubs are usually better funding, and clubs that cannot carry the risk are usually better sharing.
Talk it through
Tell us what you are looking at and roughly where the club is. One conversation, a named contact, and an honest answer either way.
The outcome described relates to one club and its own circumstances. It is not a projection, a forecast, or an indication of the results any other club would achieve. The agreement described was an unregulated business agreement entered into by a limited company. CW Asset Finance is a credit broker, not a lender, and may receive a commission from the lender that funds your agreement. All finance is subject to status, affordability and lender approval. Nothing on this page is a quote or an offer of finance. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and on legislation that may change — take advice from your accountant before relying on any of it. CW Asset Finance is an Appointed Representative of Rural Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630701).