Used Prices cooling?

Mr Googler

Mr Googler

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Being boatless....I’ve been keeping an eye on a few boats and the market in general.

Noticed today boats.co.uk have dropped the asking on quite a few different boats. Not by small amounts either. One is by £420K.

What does everyone think will happen in the next 6 months?
 
Which boat? It could have been over priced to begin with.

I am med based and I would imagine that Uk buyers are thin on the ground. We cant get there, and when we will be allowed in is questionable.

My perception ( and others may differ) is that if you are going to have a big boat you are not that likely to want to keep it in the Uk as the weather is not reliable enough - and on my limited UK experience marinas are not that set up in general for larger boats.

I suspect that like the housing market some of the euphoria has gone away.
 
Mr Googler said:
Being boatless....I’ve been keeping an eye on a few boats and the market in general.

Noticed today boats.co.uk have dropped the asking on quite a few different boats. Not by small amounts either. One is by £420K.

What does everyone think will happen in the next 6 months?
Click to expand...
I was talking to a yacht broker last week, it appears that a lot are talking about a crash in the EU boat market and a lesser one in the UK, being bolstered by the fact we can no long roam europe looking for second hand boats - so Brokers see this as good sign, and it may well support the UK market.

Many of the smaller yachts that were bought in haste this year - will have owners realising the cost of running them and seek to off load them starting soon. It will be interesting.

Talk about stress in the Euro is nothing new but this might be the combinations of events which finally bring its demise. That would be particularly uncomfortable for the UK as a close "partner". But it has always been forecast - it just needs a combinations of events to do it. I cannot see a more stressful series than we are going through now. Germany is beginning to wake up to how much they have already lent and the pressure already on mutualisation - with the EU emergency funding program - which is a mutualised loan... The Germans will wake up soon - but then they have benefited for years from it.
 
There has always been a lot of Irish buyers for UK boats as there was no duty or VAT and there was a good selection of boats, English speaking brokers, easy access for viewings and reasonable haulage costs to get them home. With Brexit it now means that an Irish buyer will have to pay up to 30% extra. That’s why a load of boats have been brought from the UK to Ireland in the last year. The hauliers were flat out bringing boats over. So I guess the Irish buyers will now be going to Holland, Germany or France to buy their boats. I’m sure the chandlers and equipment suppliers will also notice it.
 
I suspect that many of the new ‘Covid’ boat owners will seek to sell once the realities of ownership kick in and foreign travel begins to re-emerge but any impact upon prices may be mitigated by stock availability (lots of boats have gone to the EU over recent years) and buyers options in terms of buying in the EU being restricted. We looked to Holland in our search as it is close with a fantastic number of boats but it would no longer be an option due to the VAT implications.

At the moment there are still low levels of stock in local Brokerages and I think it is a little soon for any consistent downturn in the U.K. boat market. Lockdown will obviously affect sales and there may be examples of lower prices where people need to shift a boat but this is usually a quiet time of year for sales so I think it will be the spring before any real indications begin to emerge.
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Mr Googler said:
Being boatless....I’ve been keeping an eye on a few boats and the market in general.

Noticed today boats.co.uk have dropped the asking on quite a few different boats. Not by small amounts either. One is by £420K.

What does everyone think will happen in the next 6 months?
Click to expand...

Didn't you have a Sunsseker just a few days ago?

The season will have cooled the manic boat buying of 2020 considerably. What happens comes spring is anyone's guess. If we are in for another summer of restrictions, I suspect they will go up again. If travel restrictions are lifted I suspect they may drop back to normal levels. One fly in the ointment for buyers, but a bonus for sellers, is that lots of used boats have been sold overseas in the last couple of years. They can't come back without VAT, so are probably, on the whole, gone forever. The UK stock is what we have so I think prices will be a little higher once things return to normal due to lack of good stock.
 
CLB said:
Didn't you have a Sunsseker just a few days ago?

The season will have cooled the manic boat buying of 2020 considerably. What happens comes spring is anyone's guess. If we are in for another summer of restrictions, I suspect they will go up again. If travel restrictions are lifted I suspect they may drop back to normal levels. One fly in the ointment for buyers, but a bonus for sellers, is that lots of used boats have been sold overseas in the last couple of years. They can't come back without VAT, so are probably, on the whole, gone forever. The UK stock is what we have so I think prices will be a little higher once things return to normal due to lack of good stock.
Click to expand...

went in September
 
I keep my sailing boat in Essex marina while the boat is in the water and drove past their stock fairly regularly. I understand they sold shed loads during the season but those ones look to me like they are a bit sticky and of course it's now lockdown again, in the winter and no one can come and see them.

My guess would be that if next summer returns to normal then a lot of boats sold last year will hit the market again.
 
I’ve just done a little dig on their website

176 boats for sale

take out sold or under offer.... 90 boats for sale

UK only.....57

take out tenders, jet skis and seabobs..... 46 actual boats for sale. Not much!
 
At our local marina brokerage there is nothing much available and some prices look a bit on the high side . Good luck to the if they can sell used boats at inflated prices.
 
MartynG said:
At our local marina brokerage there is nothing much available and some prices look a bit on the high side . Good luck to the if they can sell used boats at inflated prices.
Click to expand...

Well that is exactly what happened after the first lockdown was lifted but we will see if this persists when we emerge from the current lockdown.

It is, perhaps, relevant to note that prices softened during the years following the 2008 crash and that prior to that used boats tended to hold their value in terms of pounds, shillings and pennies - it was not unreasonable to expect to sell at around what you paid after several years of ownership. In fact, some boats increased in value over the years - we used to own a Broom Ocean 37 that probably cost less in £££ when new than what it traded for when we bought and sold.

When you take into account the costs of comparable new boats now there is an argument, which I have heard many Brokers put forward, that the softening of prices post 2008 meant that used boats were not achieving prices that they probably should. We might think that they would say that but there may be something in it.

Ultimately it is down to market forces - the value of a boat is what the seller is prepared to accept and the buyer prepared to pay. We have bought reasonably well in conducive circumstances and less well in a buoyant market.
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Decent well kept modern mid range boats (50-150K) were selling well even during previous lock downs, with a number of arrivals and departures on our moorings.
Seems to have come to a halt recently if only due to winter.
However a number of older/neglected less desirable vessels are being forced onto the market, Initially most are very optimistically priced.
The caveat, many of these boats have not seen the owner or moved for a long time, let alone had any money spent on them.
If you are in the market for this sort of boat, now could be a good time to buy, could get you something bigger and more substantial for your money just caveat emptor on the mechanics etc.
Your offer could be the only one out there.
 
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