The trend, or should we rather say the phenomenon, began in May/June 2020. Water sports were booming like never before. A boat or yacht, no matter what size, seemed to be the ideal asset for many people in a pandemic that no one knew at the time how long it would last. It was bought, sometimes it seemed as if there was no tomorrow. Not only dealers of new boats did good business, the second-hand market also emptied quite quickly – even so-called “building sites” often found the next lover. And if you buy, then of course you insure. 

Specialised brokers like BAVARIA AG therefore receive a lot of information; in a way, we are a barometer of the industry. If we had initially thought that the hype would die down after a few weeks, or at most months, we were proven wrong. The fourth quarter of 2020 was one of the best ever for some brokers, followed by an even better first quarter of 2021.

After the initial euphoria, however, there was talk of the first supply bottlenecks. The blockade of the Suez Canal, the closure of some Chinese ports, the semiconductor issue and the huge demand came together and created a situation we last saw before the Lehman crash. The market became a seller’s market. Shipyards of large formats, i.e. yachts over 24 metres in length, report delivery times into the year 2025. For a long time now, people have been buying faster than in previous years, and yachts that have just been delivered are immediately put up for sale again.

For some owners, the yacht is no longer an investment in their own quality of life, but a pure investment. “With good contacts inside the shipyard, it is possible to avoid long delivery times,” a broker friend told me in confidence. But the market is already quite crazy, he said. The best indication of this is provided by the boat shows, if you watch them carefully.

At the Cannes Yachting Festival in particular, I discovered brands that I had never heard of before, that had virtually mushroomed. I discovered at least five new addresses, most of them without any boat-building history and most likely triggered by the enormous demand, which is not closed to anyone who knows something about the scene. This is another situation we last saw in the mid-2000s. The brands came in 2004/05 and immediately disappeared again after 2008. 

How long will this go on, I’m sure I’m not the only one asking myself. How long will clients, some of them perhaps already of advanced age, wait to take delivery of a yacht? One, two or three years? Certainly not four or five years. Will they accept price increases of ten or even twenty percent, as they are being discussed or already implemented at some addresses?

Or will this melange cause customers to turn away, to invest in other areas that are more accessible and more available? One thing above all is certain: anyone who, like me, has been observing this industry for almost two decades knows that it takes a wave-like development. And so – in my opinion – in 12, 24 or not until 36 months, beautiful brokerage yachts will come onto the market at reasonable prices. 

And for those who are now urgently looking, I would like to once again recommend our marketplace on the BAVARIA website. There, dealers, brokers and private sellers list their offers, which are constantly updated by us as a pure service. Happy hunting!

Sandra Ahrabian

Vorstandsvorsitzende BAVARIA AG