The state of the US superyacht market – Superyacht Investor 2018

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According to Bob Denison, CEO of Denison Yachting, if there was a Trump Bump, it was small.

This was the sentiment across the board. Delegates and speakers at Superyacht Investor thought that the election of the 45th US president did very little to boost yacht sales in 2017.

However, some remain hopeful. Jim Simpson from the First Republic Bank is expecting a Trump Bump to come soon, correlated with the rise of young billionaires in the US looking to spend their hard-earned cash on a luxury yacht.

Whilst the US is doing well, shipyards have declined dramatically over the past 10 years, with only two or three notable superyacht builders left. The two speakers agree this is a shame, but there are conversations around bringing the yards back – according to Simpson.

On the transaction side, the core Florida market is still strong. Out of all the superyachts measuring over 50 metres that were sold last year, 46% of them were sold in Florida. Denison also said that the Pacific North West, Vancouver and Seattle are definitely emerging as solid yacht markets.

The US has a higher percentage of people under 35 years old boating right now than ever before. However, the number of boats that class is buying is small. Instead, these people are chartering, going on friend’s yacht or entering fractional ownership schemes so it is not reflected in sales figures.

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