Boats Group (Boats Group), a division of Dominion Enterprises, has released new European sold boat data in its latest YachtWorld Market Index for the fourth quarter of 2014. The report shows significant variations between European countries but a very positive picture for Europe as a whole, with cumulative yacht brokerage sales and total sales rising by double-digit percentages in 2014.
The latest edition is now available for download here. With its extended range of data and commentary, the YachtWorld Market Index provides a deeper insight into the nuances of the U.S. and European markets. As usual, the data for the report was derived from Soldboats.com, the proprietary database in which both U.S. and European members of YachtWorld record their sales.
YachtWorld Editorial Director John Burnham commented: “It was very interesting putting together this report for fourth-quarter 2014 and seeing the cumulative data for the year as a whole. Because of the significant variations within different U.S. regions and European countries throughout last year, we decided to provide a range of additional data for this annual-report edition. We included a breakdown of eight different regions of the U.S. and Canada. In Europe, for the first time we split out the six main markets – the U.K., Spain, France, Netherlands, Italy and Germany – which together accounted for approximately 89% of all boats reported sold by YachtWorld members in Europe as a whole.”
Strong sales in December capped a solid fourth quarter for European yacht brokers, with sales up 21% in the quarter and 10% for 2014 as a whole. The U.K. was a big player in these figures, with 50% of the reported 2014 transactions representing boats sold in the U.K. Spain ranked second in European brokerage sales with 11% of total boats sold, followed by France and the Netherlands which both had 9%. France also had the highest total value of sales at €412 million – up from €340 million in 2013, and Italy remained second in total sales value with €351 million, up from €282 million in 2013.
YachtWorld Brand Manager Sarah Simmons added: “The extra country by country breakdown of data in this latest edition of the YachtWorld Market Index gives the industry insight into the market conditions in specific countries and builds a picture of how the industry is performing across the continent as a whole. We’ll continue to look at ways of extending the range of data the report provides to our customers, while offering the most detailed quarterly insights on the U.S. and European yacht brokerage markets.”