Disney's Golden Oak is Attracting Year Round Residents

Inside  the entrance to Walt Disney World, near the Fort Wilderness Campground, is a guard house and gate that marks the entrance to a little known housing community on Disney World property.  

That’s right a community of luxury homes are being built just three miles from the Magic Kingdom theme park. Golden Oak is a community of around 400 homes. Some fully finished and some still under construction. The land was the site of a former Disney golf course.  

Different from the town of Celebration that was developed by Disney engineers in the ‘90’s, this development requires homeowners to drive well onto the Disney World property to access the front gate to this private housing community.  

The community was originally marketed to wealthy world travelers as a vacation resort community, but lately it has been catching the eye of those who intend to live in these luxury homes year round. Families that originally intended to purchase a Golden Oak home as a vacation residence are now finding themselves as permanent Disney dwellers.  

Disney opened sales to homes in Golden Oak in 2010 and the first home owners moved in around a year after. Disney has sold over 115 lots in an impressive rate of about two or three homes a month. Over one tenth of the homes in Golden Oak have been completed.   The smallest home in Golden Oak is currently a spacious 3,110 square feet and the largest home in Golden Oak is still under construction. This home is planned to be a palatial 14,642 square feet including seven bedrooms and eleven bathrooms. Sticker prices are just as high as the square footage in these homes ranging from $1.8 million to $5.8 million.  

There are strict guidelines that the seven luxury builders selected by Disney must follow for Golden Oak, but owners have more freedom with the interior design choices for their newly constructed homes, including Disney-Themed décor. Some home owners are Disney fanatics and it reflects with the entire interior of the home decorated in Disney style while other home owners just love the neighborhood and go for a more subtle interior design. One bedroom in a Golden Oak home is decorated to the nines with a “Frozen” movie theme including glowing ice crystal chandelier and glass encased Elsa dress. Other homes simply sport hidden Mickeys in the architecture.  

Community amenities of course are abundant in this Disney neighborhood. They include a community clubhouse known as Summerhouse offering a party venue with available Disney party planners, restaurant, fitness center, courtyard with fountains and garden, swimming pool, cocktail lounge, concierge service and more. Of course residents have annual membership passes to the Disney World Resort Parks and private shuttle services to the main gates. All of these amenities come with an annual fee of $15,000.  

Though Golden Oak may seem like a playground for the who’s who’s or top tier of bread winners in the world, the residents say of their neighbors it is a group of hard working and down to earth people who realize they are just fortunate to have what they do. It ‘s a good group of people making Golden Oak an even more desirable place to live. There is no comparison of success just a genuine interest in getting to know each other as people.  

The best way to get more information on purchasing a home in Golden Oak is to contact a local buyer’s agent experienced in luxury real estate.