On our website page covering the logistics of selling your brokerage sailing yacht we tackled the often awkward questions of ‘How much will my boat sell for and how quickly will it be sold?’. Our answer to these is simply that there is no definite answer. However, there are statistics out there which can help to give an impression on the general health of the brokerage sailing market and a hint as to what might be selling, for how much and how long it might take.
One of the leading sources of such data comes from Yachtworld who publish regular market intelligence through their quarterly ‘Market Index’ reports. Yachtworld offers arguably one of the largest single resources of brokerage yachts for sale worldwide, so it could be considered that it presents one of the largest single samples on which to draw numbers.
As Grabau International focusses mainly on sailing yachts, we will choose to ignore motor yachts in our calculations (although they are freely available for analysis). We will also concentrate on the European brokerage market, rather than the global market (although once again, figures for the US market are available). Finally, we will also look only at brokerage sailing yachts in the 36-79ft (11-24m) bracket as this most closely reflects our own target market.
Before we continue, we must insert the caveat that the data supplied by Yachtworld is very much down to the accuracy of information provided by the individual brokerage houses listing using the Yachtworld website to promote their brokerage listing. Duplicate listings and inaccurate eventual sale prices will inevitably serve to skew the figures, but the general trends should nonetheless show through.
The good news is that the number of brokerage sailing yachts finding owners in the first quarter of 2015 compared with Q1 of 2014 rose by 10%. Average values continued to drop slightly although the smaller 36-45ft (11m<14m) bracket bucked the trend with an increase in average value. In respect of the average time taken for a brokerage sailing yacht to find a buyer, Yachtworld tells us that this has stretched by 13% over Q1 2014 to 393 days.
Breaking these figures down into more defined sectors:-
The 36-45ft (11<14m) sector saw a 13% increase in the number of brokerage sailing yachts reported to have been sold with 483 yachts as opposed to 425 yachts in the 1st quarter of 2014. The average value of yachts sold in this sector also climbed by 11% to Euro 132,712.
In the 46-55ft (14<17m) sector, a 27% increase in number of brokerage sailing yachts sold was reported with 191 yachts finding new owners against the same period in the previous year. The average value however decreased by 3% to Euro 230,366.
The larger 56-79ft (17<24m) sector saw average values decrease by 17% to Euro 566,942, but as with the two smaller sectors, the number of brokerage sailing yachts sold compared to the first quarter of 2014 increased, in this case by 34%.
As to what brands buyers are choosing, there is perhaps little surprise to see Beneteau, Jeanneau and Bavaria make up the top three with 864 brokerage yacht sales collectively across the 2014 period. The evergreen blue water favourite Hallberg Rassy continues to features strongly in No.7 slot with 87 brokerage examples finding happy new owners.
Demand in quality performance yachts continues to grow, and it is great to see brands such as X-Yachts coming in at No.10 with 55 brokerage examples sold and J-Boats just behind in 11th with 53 brokerage yachts sold.
Interestingly Nauticat with their highly-acclaimed pilot-saloon yachts featured within the top 20 with 29 brokerage examples finding new custodians, as did Southerly with their British-built lift-keel cruisers notching up a very respectable 22 ownership changes. This offers a pleasing indication that demand remains consistent across most niches of the sailing yacht market.
To summarise, there are more yachts being sold than there were last year, but values have slipped slightly and owners should expect it to take just a little longer before a sale is achieved. As mentioned elsewhere on our website, the value of a yacht will ultimately dictated by the market, and demand affected not only by both internal but also external factors which sadly fall outside of the control of us mortal yacht brokers (Although we would strongly argue that a great solution to a stable and confident global economy is continued investment in yachting).
The Grabau International mission is therefore quite simple. We aim to target our brokerage listings accurately and effectively within their respective markets, to achieve the best possible sale figure for our clients and to do all possible to ensure the yacht finds her new custodian as quickly as possible.
All data referred to in this article is sourced from Yachtworld’s Q1 2015 Market Index which in turn is derived from SoldBoats.com, the proprietary database of Yachtworld member brokerages.
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