Current boat buyers behaviour

[MapisM]

I just came across this brief article on the a.m. subject.
It's specifically related to performance boats, but I'd be interested to hear your views also for the rest of the boating industry.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I just came across this brief article on the a.m. subject.
It's specifically related to performance boats, but I'd be interested to hear your views also for the rest of the boating industry.

My view is that there are still plenty of buyers out there who would be thinking about buying new boats. Firstly, if you have cash, you're earning a lousy interest rate on it and if you invest it in the market, you could lose a lot of it so a boat doesn't seem like such a lousy investment. On the other hand, if you dont have a load of spare cash, borrowing money to buy a boat is not a bad deal either because of those low interest rates. However, the difference between thinking about buying a new boat and doing it is another matter and I still dont see many people out there with sufficient confidence in the future of their jobs or their businesses to go out and spend a load of money on buying a new boat. The evidence of this is that most boat builders are still struggling to get sales, even those with a currency advantage like the Brit builders. IMHO, this wont change any time soon. With most govts cutting back sharply on spending, the Euro in trouble and markets tumbling, this doesn't sound like a sustained economic recovery to me and if there's one thing that boat builders need, it's a stable global economy to encourage buyers to spend their cash on what is, after all, a completely discretionary luxury purchase

 

[Bassplayer]

My recent experiences showed that the market is very flat. "The owner is very keen to sell" was mentioned on every enquiry. You see the same boats for sale for months. I negotiated the price down by 40% on the boat I bought - even though the price was reduced before I looked. It all seems at odds with the recent article in MBM that was saying that there is a shortage of good secondhand boats. Don't know where they have been looking.....

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

My recent experiences showed that the market is very flat. "The owner is very keen to sell" was mentioned on every enquiry. You see the same boats for sale for months. I negotiated the price down by 40% on the boat I bought - even though the price was reduced before I looked. It all seems at odds with the recent article in MBM that was saying that there is a shortage of good secondhand boats. Don't know where they have been looking.....

Yup, I thought the MBM comment was *******s too but you'd expect the industry to talk up the market come what may. FWIW, I think there's reasonable activity at the lower end of the market. If you've got a popular sub 30 footer in A1 condition, you should sell it fairly easily but I think the 40ft+ market is still poor. But you would expect this in a recession anyway; punters feel more confident buying a cheaper boat than an expensive one.
This so called flood (more like a trickle IMHO) of foreign buyers in the UK market will dry up soon too. Sterling is strengthening against the Euro by the day and this particular market will be killed stone dead soon

 

[jfm]

My recent experiences showed that the market is very flat. "The owner is very keen to sell" was mentioned on every enquiry. You see the same boats for sale for months. I negotiated the price down by 40% on the boat I bought - even though the price was reduced before I looked. It all seems at odds with the recent article in MBM that was saying that there is a shortage of good secondhand boats. Don't know where they have been looking.....

There are buyers out there though. I had the first viewing on my boat a month ago, about 3 days after Essex Boatyards listed it. The first people to view it made an offer about 7% below the (very high) asking price, and I accepted and they paid a deposit within a week. Completion is this week, if all goes to plan

On my new boat I was offered an attractive deal because the builder had a cancelled order. Plainly they didn't have a huge list of potential customers to call and offer the build slot to. I guess the dealer network rang perhaps 10 "likely customer" people, because I know some of them and they called me and said "Have you been offered this boat". I dithered for 3-4 weeks, so I risked another would-be customer buying the slot but it didn't happen, so there isn't a massive pile of people in the new boat market at that size/price level

 

[Nick_H]

This so called flood (more like a trickle IMHO) of foreign buyers in the UK market will dry up soon too. Sterling is strengthening against the Euro by the day and this particular market will be killed stone dead soon

At the Princess open day the guy selling brokerage boats told me 90% of his calls, and most of his sales, are now from outside the UK. For Princess it seems to be mostly Northern Europe, but that's no great surprise as the boats are highly regarded there. The situation may change if the pound strengthens of course, which seems likley, but then i've been spectacularly unsuccessful at predicting it so far!

 

[aquapower]

Top quality and sensibly priced boats seem to sell straight away, its the over priced not so good boats that have been for sale for months/years and will remain for sale untill owners can offer them at market value, I agree there is a shortage of certain models and when they become available the are snapped up straight away.
Theres a lot of boats for sale now which owners dont realy want to sell but are having to and as they dont want to lose money they think you will get back what was paid when buying it.

 

[EugeneR]

they think you will get back what was paid when buying it.

What's wrong with that? I've sold both my previous boats for more than I paid for it Admittedly, I bought low and maintained them in absolutely perfect condition.

I agree with your point, though.