Boat prices falling alongside house prices?

[ZuidWester]

Okay we're not looking at a crash in house prices, but prices are no longer rising. So how is this affecting/will this affect boat prices, given that a lot of finance for buying boats etc. has come from re-mortgaging in the recent past.
Can we expect boat prices to drop? Buy/sell now or wait?


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[GeorgeP]

It's about 70p to €1 at the moment, so BenJenBavs will remain high. On the other hand the $ has crashed so imported Legends might go down.

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[Sea Devil]

I am selling my boat and have been interviewing Brokers -trying to decide if to do it only on my website or pay 6-10% for someone else to do the advertising -

some yacht brokers are saying the drop in the house price (advance) confidence has slowed the market a lot. Much harder to sell new boats as people do not want to add to their mortgage and this has a knock on effect on 2nd hand ones - they are suggesting a boat like mine will devalue 2 - 5 grand.... I'll find out..

<hr width=100% size=1>If you have time please visit my web site -
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.michaelbriant.com/sailing>http://www.michaelbriant.com/sailing</A>

 

[AndrewB]

You can make a case that when houses and/or mortgages are cheap, people have more spare cash for a boat so pushing up demand for boats.

But unlike houses, the price of boats tends to follow supply rather than demand, and there has never been a consistent relationship between the two. Over the time I've been a boat owner, prices of boats have steadily fallen in relation to houses. In 1970, a typical new fully equipped 28' sailing yacht would have cost about the same as a small 3-bed semi in my part of the world. Now you could get a new 45' AWB in exchange for a similar house.

There have been some blips. Boat prices shot up briefly in the late 1970's as a result of the oil crisis and a period of high demand. They fell more quickly than usual in real terms during the years following the implementation of the RCD in 1998 and the rise of the volume producers, but that is now at an end. What will happen in the immediate future is anyone's guess.

 

[Koeketiene]

Obsession

Personally, I don't get this house / boat price obsession thing.

There are only two times you know how much your boat / house is worth:

1. The day you buy her / it.
As long as you live in it / sail it, that's exactly what it's worth.
2. The day you sell her / it.

It's all these movers & shakers trading up and down that send the market into a frenzy and lead to people having inflated believes of disposable income.

They should advertise: A house / boat is for life, not just for X-Mas.

Get the best you can afford & stick with it for God's sake


<hr width=100% size=1>Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.

 

[AlexL]

I doubt it.
There is a valid argument that with alot of people remortgaging their property has caused a lot of cash to be in the market but most boat manufacturers are not manufacturing to full capacity so even with loads of buyers there would not be a restriction in supply, so supply and demand would not have a massive effect, although perhaps dealers would not have to discount very much to sell boats.
However this 'property boom' and associated consumer spending boom has only really been in the UK, whereas most boat manufacturers have europwide if not worldwide markets.
Exchange rates and material costs will have a far greater effect on boat prices and all raw materials have risen markedly recently, due to the high oil prices and a worldwide shortage of lots of metals due to china's boom, so if anything prices will rise shortly. Exchange rates will do whatever exchange rates will do, and if you can predict that then you can pay for a couple of boats with the profits from playing the currency markets!
The caveat to all this however is that with the consumer boom coming to a rapid end and property prices falling then any money you have should have a greater purchasing power on everything - including boats and boat bits.


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[doca]

Re: Obsession

I go along with Yanita big time. I got my house and my boat to enjoy them. It's what life means to me, enjoy it now and don't be worrying if the value of your purchases are going up or down. It smacks of the "are we having fun yet ?" syndrome. We'll be dead for long enough !

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[Colvic Watson]

Re: Obsession

Value is such a relative thing, considering that we all pay more for our boats than we planned - "wow look, for 2k more/20k more I could get the..."

<hr width=100% size=1>Are we nearly there yet?