VesselsValue: 40 metre superyachts value has dropped 4.6% YoY
VesselsValue has revealed that 40 metre production yachts with a displacement hull form have dropped by 4.6% to USD $10.67m in value in this month compared to August 2019. Production yachts at 30 metres with planning hull form have dropped by 1.4% to USD $4.22m, whilst the smallest devaluation has come in the 60 metre hulls with a drop of 0.5% to USD $46.88m.
“The next year is going to be very interesting. There are many conflicting factors at play that could influence the future of the superyacht industry as a result of this unique year,” Sam Tucker, head of superyachts, VesselsValue, told Superyacht Investor.
Lack of sale and purchase activity earlier this year could have delayed a lot of deals until this Autumn. So the next few months could be very liquid according to Tucker. However, this is moderated by the fact that all boat shows have been cancelled or postponed and these are usually good catalysts for activity.
“Overall demand could increase because superyachts have proved to be the perfect vehicle for isolation and quarantine and therefore a perfect ‘safe ’and worry free vacation platform,” said Tucker.
However, this is counterbalanced by the possibility that overall demand could decrease because many charterers and owners have cancelled trips due to travel restrictions. “They may be thinking ‘Why am I paying all this money for this boat when I can’t even use it?’ which may put them off chartering or owning in the future.”
Emerging from lockdown, the main trend VesselsValue has noticed is that the sale and purchase market and vessel utilisation has been picking up in the past two months. Despite a reduction in both figures earlier this year, this July saw almost as many deals completed as last July, and so far in August the numbers have exceeded 2019. In terms of utilisation we’re within 1% of last August. The market is quite stable so we haven’t seen any significant new trends emerging in terms of pricing strategy.
Are people still purchasing yachts? “Yes absolutely, the levels of liquidity have been down but we’re seeing a recovery. Values typically remain stable. There have certainly been some bargain deals but certainly not enough to create a new precedent in the market, and not enough to provide our model statistical evidence to lower values.”
To see if some vessel types are performing better than others Superyacht Investor asked VesselsValue to analyse its data. Using fixed age analysis, which takes hypothetical vessels and fixes their age to remove effects of depreciation. VesselsValue set the age at five years and kept this constant, comparing the value on the 25th August 2020 vs 25th August 2019:
- 30 meter production yacht with planning hull form has dropped by 1.4% to USD 4.22 mil
- 40 meter production yacht with displacement hull form has dropped by 4.6% to USD 10.67 mil
- 60 meter custom yacht with displacement hull form has dropped by 0.5% to USD 46.88 mil.
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