The issue with it is, as far as I am aware, you can not tell how long a boat has been listed for sale and quite often what a broker suggests listing a boat for is more to do with what they think you want to hear than the price the boat will actually achieve. I was hoping to hear from anyone with first hand experiences.
If you think about it that can't really be true over the long term otherwise nobody would buy a used boat in the UK! Yes there was a period in the late 90's when Sterling was riding high against the Euro and there were some bargains to be had in Europe and a similar thing seems to be happening now as Sterling is stronger again (although nowhere near as strong as it was in the late 90's) and of course Europe is in an economic mess. I think the other factor is that British built boats sell best in Britain and Med built boats sell best in the Med simply because British brands are more recognised in the UK and vice versa some Med brands are better known in the Med. So it would be easier to sell a Sealine in the UK than Europe and easier to sell an Italian brand like Ferretti in the Med rather than the UK
Yup maybe some buyers prefer to buy in the UK to minimise their perceived risk but many don't including some on this forum. I myself bought 2 boats abroad and imported them into the UK in the late '90s and since I've been boating in the Med all 4 of the boats we've had out there have been purchased there. Buying abroad need not be risky providing you follow some basic rules. In any case, your proposition works both ways. For every UK buyer who doesn't want to buy a boat from the Med, there is a Med based buyer who doesn't want to buy from the UK so actually there is no basic economic reason why the 2 markets should have different prices. I go back to what I said about British brands. No question that British brands like Princess/Fairline/Sealine are more attractive to British buyers than Med buyers so those brands are likely to sell better on the UK market than the Med market which may well cause price discrepancies. But, by the same token, there are Med brands which wouldn't sell in the UK; I would have to give away my Ferretti to sell it in the UK even though Ferretti is a well recognised brand in the Med
