Boat Sales Market Update – December 2024

2024 has been one of those years where it’s hard to keep up with world events and their knock-on impacts to consumer behaviour. In the UK we have had a

17 December 2024

2024 has been one of those years where it’s hard to keep up with world events and their knock-on impacts to consumer behaviour. In the UK we have had a General Election unexpectedly announced earlier than people thought, a subsequent change in government and then an unnecessarily long run up to a Budget, rumours of which certainly knocked consumer and business confidence. The impact of what was announced will take some time to filter through.

The new boat market has also had to contend with the end of the post-Covid price bubble where brokers were running out of stock to a complete 180-degree reversal in a very short period where they now have too much stock.

This volatility in supply and demand has left an increased gap between new and used boat prices and the new boat slowdown has probably contributed to a strengthened used boat marketplace. All year we have been selling used boats, albeit at reduced prices to the Covid highs of 2021 & 2022. Particularly strong has been sailing yachts up to about £60,000. Boats from the well-known production names up to 40’ have all been selling well but there is a noticeable trend for boats that need minimal immediate work/money being spent all selling quicker. It shows the importance in a slow market for spending a bit of money up front before the boat goes on the market to get the best possible price and to sell in good time. We are particularly good at this aspect of the job in terms of market preparation because of the experience in the team and having a steady turnover of boats to see the results first hand.

The weakest area of the market is undoubtedly power boats of all shapes and sizes. We have had some recent success with some excellent Nimbuses (Nimbii?) but the sports boat/day boat sector is very slow. Patience is the name of the game for these sellers unfortunately. The temptation is to just continuously reduce asking prices but our belief is that it is a demand problem rather than overvalued boats. Right now, the usual powerboat buyer is holding back any major spending decisions. However, we have recently seen more activity in the higher value boats so it is potentially the lower end of the market that is the worst affected. It remains to be seen whether a phenomenon of people wanting to spend their retirement funds on themselves instead of handing them over to the Treasury starts to materialise.

As alluded to above, new boat sales are slow. You can find some excellent, relatively new boats for a sizeable discount on its brand new equivalent and this is proving too hard to turn down for many buyers. Jeanneau though have seen a recent increase in sales over Q3/Q4 so there is optimism for 2025 that the economic volatility caused by Covid lockdowns and subsequent inflation is finally behind us and the market will settle down again.