The purchase price of a yacht and associated initial expense are your entry ticket to ownership. Crewing, maintaining, repairing and using your yacht is an expensive pastime and you need to be willing to spend what is necessary to keep the resale value as high as possible. Unfortunately, very few yachts appreciate in value over time and when the decision comes to sell, owners are often disappointed to hear that their yacht is seldom worth what they have spent on it since day one plus the brokers commission, maybe some profit and a little room to negotiate an offer…

In order to ascertain the value of a yacht in the sales market at any given time, the most fair method in my opinion is to quantify the general condition of the yacht through a personal visit by an experienced broker and maybe a surveyor, taking into consideration as many aspects of its condition as possible, obtaining references from the owner and captain or senior crew and then to compare these details with the asking prices of other yachts of a similar pedigree, age and condition which are for sale at the time of the evaluation. Recent sales of similar yachts may give an approximate indication of the likely selling price but this information is very rarely available or made public.

If the reason for valuing the yacht is to offer it for sale, then it will depend on how keen an owner is to sell, as to how high or low the asking price is set. Normally setting an asking price too high compared to similar yachts for sale, will not encourage many inspections or offers unless the yacht is highly desirable and is in excellent condition, or a potential buyer simply falls in love and  wants the yacht at any cost, which does happen sometimes.

There is a lot of information available nowadays on yachts and their specifications, and even refit history on specialised websites. One such company with many years’ experience in the commercial shipping market has even taken on the task of producing valuations for yachts for use by financial institutions and entities who would otherwise have difficult access to reliable yachts values.

Ultimately though, it is the market which gives a yacht its real value at the point of sale when a buyer and a seller finally agree on a price, the broker is in agreement and a sale can be completed.