Boats Group (Boats Group), a division of Dominion Enterprises, has included a special report analysing the state of the Spanish boat market in its latest YachtWorld Market Index for third-quarter 2014. While the report reveals a mixed picture for Spain, there are many positive indicators for one of Europe’s most influential boating markets.
YachtWorld now operates closely with Spain’s market-leading marine portal, Cosas de Barcos, which was acquired by Boats Group in February. The latest edition of the Index was unveiled at the Barcelona Boat Show to help showcase the group’s strengthening Spanish connections. 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 Market Index contributor Rupert Holmes said: “It was fascinating to work on this special Spanish report, and it revealed a range of contrasting messages about what Spanish brokerages have experienced so far in 2014. While the number of boats sold dropped by 4% through the first nine months of the year, the total value of those sales increased by 13% to €171 million. Although a large chunk of this improvement can be attributed to a strengthening superyacht sector, average prices also increased across most other size ranges.”
Along with a multitude of data on the number and value of boats sold in Spain, the Index also included insights from brokers on the ground such as Javier Candela of Marina Estrella, which has 20 offices across the country. “We have seen the brokerage market recovering 15-20% this year, with increased sales in all size ranges,” he said, “but it remains an odd situation, and the market is so low that the price must be right for a boat to sell.”
The resilient pricing trend might also be partly due to a change in the typical customer base for Spanish brokerages. Before the economic downturn, native Spaniards accounted for the overwhelming majority of the country’s boat sales, but this year brokers have reported seeing a growing number of buyers from Scandinavia, Germany and, for the first time, northern Africa, particularly Algeria and Morocco. While African buyers would usually be looking for a boat smaller than 45 feet to base in their home country, northern Europeans might be looking for a 40-60 foot boat to keep in Spain or for a small trailerable vessel.
Nicolas Alfin, general manager of Cosas de Barcos, commented: “This year’s Barcelona Boat Show had its highest attendance in many years, and there is no doubt that we have seen some positive signs in the Spanish market over the summer season. Feedback from brokers suggests an improvement in sales and leads in recent months. At Cosas de Barcos, we have experienced solid growth since becoming part of the Boats Group group in February, almost doubling our number of boats for sale in Spain and seeing a 24% increase in our number of registered dealership customers. As a result, we are moving into larger offices and hiring additional team members to support our customers, so we feel very positive about the future of the Spanish market.”