2026 Yachts & Jets Market

Around half our business has a touch point with the Middle East, whether that is a GCCclient, or an owner who resides in the region. Dubai and the surrounding area have seensuch an influx of wealth and trade in recent times that it has come as something of ashock to see the turbulence in that market.

Irina Gotlib, our resident attorney in Dubai, tells me that she is safe and happy, and clientsare saying much the same. Existing business is continuing as usual, but enquiries fromthe region are slightly reduced.

Unsurprisingly, we have seen a slowdown in enquiries from the region but, as I told theSuperyacht Investor conference recently, I am not concerned for the long haul. The regionwill either settle down, or, in my view, prospective owners will grow tired of waiting. Muchlike we saw with COVID, there will be a pause for a number of weeks, before the marketreturns with a surge. The yachting sector was hit harder than the aviation sector, becauseprivate aircraft remain utility purchases and, arguably, have even greater value whencommercial airline travel is disrupted.

Similarly, the US market seems to be tougher, but as I keep repeating, the volume oftransactions in North America is so high that there is a long, long way to fall before themarket
experiences real ‘problems‘. In the past few weeks, our Fort Lauderdale officeonboarded at least one new aircraft/yacht client per day, which is pretty good for abusiness of our size.
More than ever, though, it is important to distinguish between the aviation and superyacht sectors.
The aviation sector is resilient and seems to be continuing with a ‘business as usual’mentality. We have not seen the rate of transactions slow, or valuations fall noticeably,across all cabin sizes. Customers who are fortunate enough to be offered delivery slots for new aircraft are losing them because they don’t move fast enough, and demandremains high. This is the trend we are seeing in Europe, the Middle East and the US.

In the yachting sector, a distinction should be made between Europe/Middle East and the US.

In my view, offers on yachts in Europe are not being made as freely as theywere. However, offers to buy at sensible (that is, not high, but not very low) prices arebeing accepted, and those transactions are completing successfully. Good faith offers bycommitted purchasers are being accepted, even if they are below the price an ownerwants to achieve, but we are not seeing any fire sale pricing.

Having said that, it is possible to find good deals in the market on new, production vesselsat the smaller end of the luxury yacht market, and for larger superyachts over 5 years old. To put it another way, if it is small or old, it is proving difficult to sell. This does not applyto pedigree, European-built superyachts less than 3 years old. We are seeing yachts whichwere launched within the past year being sold for significant price premiums over andabove the original build cost, because shipyard prices have increased so much in recenttimes. It is easy to justify paying more than the original owner, when the yacht has onlyone season of cruising and it is still €X million less than a new boat, which will take threeyears to arrive.

James Jaffa
Managing Partner