Some pandemic-era yacht owners are returning to land.
Richard Allen, chief operating officer of Hong Kong yacht company Simpson Marine, said the epidemic has led to a “significant surge” in yacht sales.
“We’ve seen a lot of people who have had their boats for two years and now kind of want to go out and travel,” he told CNBC. “Talking to other people in the industry over the past few months, we’ve found that… Brokerage activity has increased.”
Paolo Casani, chief executive of Monaco yachting company Camper & Nicholsons, said this was to be expected.
“As a global industry, we will sell more than double the number of yachts (in 2021) we did in 2019,” he told CNBC. When that happens, “they will start to enter the market in a few years.”
Second-hand market prices
Cassani said that although yacht sales have declined since 2021, enthusiasm for yachts remains high.
“The industry will be back to 2019,” he said. “We have to differentiate between brokerage and new construction because the demand for new construction is still quite high.”
As more yachts enter the brokerage market, prices, while down from pandemic-era highs, are down slightly, he said.
“Prices are still quite high,” he said. “There is still a gap between demand and supply … but we do believe there will still be a reduction in 2024.”
Asia yacht growth ‘lower than expected’
But some yacht buyers in Asia are not selling and are, in fact, buying larger vessels, Allen said.
“Some people actually really enjoy the boating lifestyle and have upgraded … to a bigger boat,” he said.
Asia, a continent of growing wealth and home to numerous island nations, many of which bask in year-round warmth, has long been seen as the next frontier in global yachting growth.
Cassani and Allen spoke to CNBC on April 26 while attending the second annual Singapore Yachting Festival, and they agreed that the yachting market on the African continent is growing.
But Cassani said the pace was “lower than expected” due to a variety of reasons, including culture, lifestyle and lack of infrastructure.
“But we still believe that Asia has great potential,” he said.
Allen said the district’s disparate and cumbersome “rules and regulations” are hampering progress.
“We need to make it easier for ships to move between the areas,” he said. “In one country, you might be able to sail a certain size boat, but in another country you can’t. So these things are – shall we say, red tape.”
He said complex visa requirements for foreign crews were a problem, as were import taxes, which could reach 40 percent in some markets.
“We need to do a lot of lobbying with the government to make it easier to import ships,” Allen said. “There are a lot of lobbying groups like ICOMIA… who are working more with different dealers to give a voice to the government.”
The International Council of Marine Industries Associations (ICOMIA) hosted a two-day conference ahead of the Singapore Yachting Festival to address issues facing the industry, from sustainable advancement to a lack of marina infrastructure in high-potential countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In addition to purchasing and chartering flights
Simpson Marine estimates the global offshore leisure market will reach $46.5 billion by 2027, which it says will benefit local economies by creating jobs and tourism revenue.
“The yachting industry employs thousands of people to build boats, support boats and service all the components,” Allen said. “This is… a great industry that deserves to be embraced by all countries.”
Newer forms of ownership have made yachting more affordable, opening up the industry to more people. He said one model that was particularly popular in Australia was fractional ownership or joint ownership, where the owner purchased a portion of the yacht.
Others eschew ownership altogether, opting for the flexible subscription models that are now the norm across many forms of entertainment, from music to television.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth in rowing clubs,” Allen said. “It’s a bit like joining a gym or a golf club. You pay a monthly membership fee and then you can use the boat many days a week. This is very popular for people who don’t want all the hassle of owning a yacht.”
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