Brokerage · Where to buy
Yachts for sale
The same yacht, bought in two different ports, is not the same asset. Tax position, flag, berth, refit access and the depth of the resale market all move with the postcode. Here is how the sixteen main markets differ.
- Markets covered
- 16
- Pricing
- Not currently published
- Survey window
- 10 – 21 days
- Deposit
- 10% in escrow
Sixteen markets, sixteen tax positions
Monaco
Where the market talks to itself. A berth here is an asset in its own right, and September sets the calendar.
Athens
Buy where the charter demand is. The one Mediterranean market where yield genuinely drives the purchase decision.
Fort Lauderdale & Miami
The deepest brokerage market on earth, no VAT, and a Florida tax cap that European buyers consistently misread.
Cannes & Antibes
Buy where the people who fix them live. Below forty metres this is a more efficient market than Monaco.
Dubai
Berths available, new-build heavy, five per cent VAT and a resale market that is still being built.
Palma & Ibiza
The refit capital of the Mediterranean. If you will own in Europe below forty metres, start here.
Split
Where charter management programmes are sold. Do the arithmetic before the brochure does it for you.
Nassau
Where American deals close and hurricane insurance decides the budget.
Naples & Amalfi
Italian building at the doorstep, and a berth that can be worth more than a refit.
Bodrum
A building coast. Excellent value in steel and composite, and a wooden hull that asks more of you than most buyers expect.
Göcek
An owner's base rather than a market. Eight-month season, cheap berths, and almost nobody selling.
Dubrovnik
A small market with a river berth. Good place to keep a boat, poor place to shop for one.
Hong Kong
No VAT, no import duty, and the scarcest berths on earth. Here the mooring can cost more than the boat.
Singapore
A registry, a management base and berths you can book. The boat lives somewhere else.
Sydney
A domestic market on the far side of the world. Import duty, GST, and very few comparables.
Istanbul
Where Turkish yachting is financed and brokered. The boats themselves are four hundred miles away.
Why the market changes what you own
A yacht is a movable asset with an immovable set of consequences. The hull is identical wherever you buy it; the tax position, the flag options, the berth, the refit access and the depth of the eventual resale market are not, and together they matter more to the total cost of ownership than the purchase price does.
The clearest illustration is tax. A yacht bought in Fort Lauderdale sits in a market with no VAT and a state sales-tax cap; the same yacht bought in Italy carries a VAT position that follows her around the European Union for the rest of her life. Hong Kong charges neither VAT nor import duty and has almost no berths. Spain has a matriculation tax with a commercial exemption that is worth understanding properly before, not after.
None of this argues for buying in the cheapest jurisdiction. It argues for deciding where the yacht will actually live and be used first, and buying into that reality rather than against it.
The three documents that decide the risk
Surveys get the attention. In practice, most transactions that go badly wrong do so on paperwork rather than on machinery, and the same three items are responsible almost every time.
- Evidence of VAT or import status. Not an assertion, not a broker’s summary — the actual documentary trail. A yacht with clean evidenced status is worth materially more than an identical yacht without it.
- Flag, class and registry history. Including any gaps. A period out of class on a commercial vessel is a question that needs a written answer.
- The berth. Where a berth forms part of the value — Monaco, Hong Kong, Naples — establish exactly what instrument is being conveyed and whether it survives the change of ownership.
Ask for all three before commissioning the survey rather than after, because a problem in any of them changes the decision, and finding out early costs a phone call rather than a lift.
How a purchase runs, anywhere
The shape is consistent across every market on this list, even where the local practice differs in detail.
| Stage | Typical duration | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Search and shortlist | 4–12 weeks | Clarity of brief |
| Offer and escrow | Days | 10% to a client account |
| Survey and sea trial | 10–21 days | Yard availability |
| Renegotiation | 1–2 weeks | The survey list |
| Closing | Days | Deletion certificate timing |
Brokerage commission is customarily paid by the seller, at around eight to ten per cent, and split where two houses are involved. As a buyer you do not pay it directly — but you should establish who represents whom at the outset. A broker acting for the seller is not your adviser, however helpful they are being, and the good ones will say so unprompted.
Questions
As a headline price, the United States, because the market is the deepest and there is no VAT. Whether it stays cheapest depends entirely on where you intend to keep her: importing a US-bought yacht into the European Union brings a VAT charge that erases the difference, and then some.
Used, in almost every case, and particularly for a first yacht. The depreciation on the first three years of a new build is the single largest cost in yacht ownership, and a well-maintained boat with a recent refit presents better than a new one that has chartered hard.
Yes, appointed by you, from outside the seller’s orbit, and paid for by you. This is not a place to economise. The difference between an adequate surveyor and a good one is routinely worth many times the fee, and it is the only genuinely independent opinion in the transaction.
Ten per cent of capital value annually is the conventional planning figure and a reasonable place to start. It is lower in Greece and Turkey, higher on the French Riviera, and it assumes a yacht kept in full commission with permanent crew. A boat used eight weeks a year and laid up the rest costs considerably less.
The markets at a glance
| Market | Character | Tax headline | Berths | Resale depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monaco | Superyacht, off-market | EU customs, French VAT | Scarce | Strong |
| Athens | Charter-yield driven | EU VAT; Greek licence | Good | Moderate |
| Fort Lauderdale & Miami | Largest brokerage market | No VAT; state tax capped | Good | Deepest in the world |
| Cannes & Antibes | Service-led, brokerage dense | French VAT | Constrained | Strong |
| Dubai | Fast-growing, new build | 5% VAT; free-zone options | Good | Thin but rising |
| Palma & Ibiza | Refit capital of the Med | Spanish matriculation tax | Good | Strong |
| Split | Charter fleet turnover | Croatian VAT; EU | Good | Moderate |
| Nassau | Offshore closings | No VAT; duty on import | Moderate | Thin |
| Naples & Amalfi | Italian yards nearby | Italian VAT; lease schemes | Very scarce | Moderate |
| Bodrum | Gulet and new build | Turkish VAT; free zones | Good | Regional |
| Göcek | Owner-user market | Turkish VAT | Good | Thin |
| Dubrovnik | Small, charter-linked | Croatian VAT; EU | Moderate | Thin |
| Hong Kong | Ownership hub, free port | No VAT or import duty | Extremely scarce | Strong regionally |
| Singapore | Regional base, management | GST on import; schemes | Moderate | Moderate |
| Sydney | Domestic, SRV charter rules | GST 10% plus duty | Moderate | Domestic |
| Istanbul | Finance and commercial hub | Turkish VAT | Good | Regional |