How much does a padel court cost to build?

An uncovered padel court costs £67,000–£74,000 per court to build, and £146,000–£166,000 per court with a canopy over it. The median UK padel court then takes £117,672 a year in court-hire revenue — measured, not modelled, across 427 clubs.

What it costs to build

Delivered project costs — what real UK projects were invoiced, not supplier list prices — published by the LTA in its 2025 padel court construction guidance. Cost per court falls as you build more, because the groundworks spread across a bigger slab.

Cost line
1 court
2 courts
3 courts
4 courts
Courts with lights
£36,000
£70,000
£100,000
£128,000
Ring beam, base, ducting & drainage
£35,000
£78,000
£110,000
£140,000
Court total
£71,000
£148,000
£210,000
£268,000
Canopyadditional, if you cover them
£95,000
£170,000
£248,000
£316,000
Covered total
£166,000
£318,000
£458,000
£584,000
Per court, covered
£166,000
£159,000
£152,667
£146,000
What these figures exclude. VAT and professional fees, land purchase or lease, planning, any outer play area, and fully enclosed indoor halls — the canopy line covers open or partly open structures only. A real project budget needs all of those on top.

What a padel court actually earns

Court-hire revenue for every UK club we track with enough booking history to be reliable — 427 clubs, measured from live booking data rather than surveyed or modelled. The spread is the point: the gap between a quiet court and a busy one is far wider than the gap in what they cost to build.

Annual gross booking value per court
Bottom 10%
£63,154
Lower quarter
£89,478
Median
£117,672
Upper quarter
£161,022
Top 10%
£206,362

Court hire only. Median occupancy across these clubs is 68%, at a median £32 per hour.

Club size
Clubs
Lower quarter
Median
Upper quarter
1–3 courts
237
£79,968
£103,428
£135,984
4–5 courts
108
£100,281
£138,714
£175,680
6–8 courts
61
£114,792
£146,304
£178,176
9+ courts
21
£101,544
£128,136
£184,236

Putting the two together

A four-court uncovered build costs £268,000 — £67,000 a court — against a median £117,672 a year in court-hire revenue per court. Covered, the same four courts cost £584,000.

We are not going to turn that into a payback period. Gross booking value is revenue, not profit. Staff, rent, utilities, booking-platform commission and maintenance all sit between the two, and they vary enough by site that a single national figure would be worse than no figure. What the numbers above do support is a sanity check on a business plan — and a view of how wide the gap is between a court that works and one that doesn't.

Running costs

Two figures the LTA publishes: LED floodlighting runs at roughly £1 per court per hour, and the recommended sinking fund is £1,500 per court per year for surface, lamp and column replacement, with resurfacing planned every five years. Canopy membranes have a 15-year design life and frames 20 years. Staff, rent, utilities and platform commission sit on top and are site-specific.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to build a padel court in the UK?
An uncovered padel court costs £67,000–£74,000 per court to build: £71,000 for a single court, £268,000 for four. Adding a canopy takes it to £146,000–£166,000 per court. These are delivered project costs published by the LTA in 2025 and exclude VAT, professional fees, land and planning.
How much does a padel court earn per year?
The median UK padel court takes £117,672 a year in gross booking value from court hire, measured across 427 clubs. The middle half of the market runs between £89,478 and £161,022 per court. This is revenue, not profit, and excludes coaching, membership and food and beverage.
What does the LTA cost figure exclude?
The LTA figures are ex VAT and fees. They exclude land purchase or lease, planning and professional fees, any outer play area, and fully enclosed indoor halls — the canopy figures cover open or partly open structures only.
What are the running costs of a padel court?
LED floodlighting runs at approximately £1 per court per hour. The LTA recommends a sinking fund of £1,500 per court per year for surface, lamp and column replacement, with resurfacing planned every five years. Staff, rent, utilities and booking-platform commission sit on top and vary by site.

Working out whether a site stacks up?

The Padel Club Planner models demand, competition and catchment for any UK location, and the UK market report tracks how the whole market is moving.

Researched and published by Playskan Insights · How we calculate these figures

Data last updated