Narrowboat prices increase or decrease?!!

[James H]

Have narrowboat prices increased or decreased over the last 5/10 years???

And is it likely that if I buy a narrowboat now that it will hold its value?! Or do you think prices could drop? Or increase?!

And why?!?!?!?!

Thanks ?

Edited December 11, 2019 by James H
Change to new to boating!

[mrsmelly]

Buy new and lose thousands at first. Buy sensible priced second hand in good nick and usualy sell for a slight or sometimes significant increase. If we ever Brexit you will lose all your money, boat prices and property prices will drop over ninety percent 

[Tony Brooks]

If you buy the correct second hand boat, look after it well and its right for the market when you come to to sell you are likely to get the same or more pounds back than what you paid for it but inflation would mean that you have lost purchasing power.

[Athy]

Welcome to CWDF, James.

   My impression is that new prices have risen steeply over the last decade - ten years ago you could still get a basic narrowboat for £1,000 a foot, now boats at £1,500 per foot are described as "budget" or "entry level". Second-hand prices have risen accordingly. But a boat will still depreciate for a number of years until it eventually reaches rock bottom. Some astute people do manage to buy a second-hand boat, keep it for a year or two and sell it for as much as - or even a bit more than - they paid for it, but they ar e the exceptions which prove the rule.

   As for "Why?": because the boat gets older, tattier, bits wear out and so on. Even carefully maintained craft tend gradually to reduce in value.

[Alan de Enfield]

23 minutes ago, James H said:

Have narrowboat prices increased or decreased over the last 5/10 years???

And is it likely that if I buy a narrowboat now that it will hold its value?! Or do you think prices could drop? Or increase?!

And why?!?!?!?!

Thanks ?

If you buy a new one it will lose 25%+ in its 1st year and further depreciation in years 2, 3, 4 & 5, after that its price will start to stabilise at (probably) around 50% of its 'new price'.

 

Buy a GOOD second hand boat.

 

We sold our NB 4 years ago, it has since been used as a marina based liveaboard and never moved, never even had the engine started, the inside has been painted 'London White' and lots of 'modern décor' (hanging 'dream catchers etc etc.) It has not been blacked for 5 years (it was blacked the year before we sold it)

We bought it for £30k and two years later we sold it for £35k.

It has just sold for £35k

 

Had it been well maintained and decorated I reckon she could have got over £40k for it.

 

A quality boat well maintained will always (at least) hold its value and should increase. Over the last 30+ years of boating (and 18 boats) I have only lost money on one of them. I have recouped any 'investment' ie in painting, new covers, improved fittings etc' but have not included running costs (licence, insurance, fuel, blacking etc)

Edited December 11, 2019 by Alan de Enfield

[Detling]

As suggested  a good second hand boat properly maintained will just about hold it's price, but properly maintained requires spending a few thousand per year on average on engine oils and filters, blacking, anodes, painting, many of which involve having the boat taken out of the water which is not cheap. The damp environment tends to accelerate soft furnishing deterioration as well. 

 

A boat is not like a house, despite all the effort of good blacking and good paint maintenance by the time a boat is 30 years old there will be, spots at least, of significant rust which can be very expensive to fix, this is reflected in the price of 30 year old boats, versus a 10 year old boat whose steel is probably be 'sound enough' for a few more seasons.  Engines also deteriorate, some faster than others, but eventually they will all require a big chunk spending.

[The Dreamer]

3 hours ago, James H said:

And why?!?!?!?!

So we know that the large hire fleets build their own boat, and thus effectively put them into their fleet at cost price.  Ten years, or so, later they sell them on for about the price they built them for.  This tells us that in the first decade of a new boat’s life you are paying the builders profit!  If you start looking at ten to twenty year old bots on Apollo-Duck, and compare similar quality of build and finish, you will see not much difference in price, telling us that you might only loose the cost of interest/inflation.  After that prices drop off until they reach “project” value.

 

In short buy a ten year old boat and sell it after eight years, and the cost of ownership will be low. The cost of maintaining it, however, might outstrip the benefit.  But that’s a whole different story...

[Beetlejuice]

New is now like scene tax as boating gets more popular.

 

Used is good if you find five minute fad people who payed too much hated it and are now selling cheap.

 

Used can be a minefield of prices and rotten hulls buyer beware yet still bargains are to be found.

 

Boats like everything else in rip orf Britain(Due to over population) are rising in price.

 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Beetlejuice

[nbfiresprite]

Buy in the autumn for the best price when demand is low, Spring is the best time for selling when demand is high.

[nikvah]

8 hours ago, James H said:

Have narrowboat prices increased or decreased over the last 5/10 years???

And is it likely that if I buy a narrowboat now that it will hold its value?! Or do you think prices could drop? Or increase?!

And why?!?!?!?!

Thanks ?

Both

Yes. Yes.Yes.

Because it is not a house but more like a car.

Dim problem.?

[MtB]

8 hours ago, James H said:

Have narrowboat prices increased or decreased over the last 5/10 years???

And is it likely that if I buy a narrowboat now that it will hold its value?! Or do you think prices could drop? Or increase?!

And why?!?!?!?!

Thanks ?

 

Wrong question.

 

Focus on how much it costs to own a NB. £3k a year mooring, £1k a year licence, £2K  a year fuel, £2k a year repairs and maintenance, £10k per decade extraordinary expenses....

 

Appreciation or depreciation is background noise compared to the big expenses. 

 

 

 

 

[DandV]

How much you get on selling your boat is very dependant on how well you looked after the boat while you had it.

Keep up maintaining the paint and varnish inside and out. Touch up scrapes and rust blisters sooner rather then later.

Keep the boat and appliances clean.

Keep the bathroom and kitchen really clean.  Dirt here is a real turnoff.

Repair any leaking windows, and keep the drain channels clear. 

Attend to any leaks around roof mushrooms and any other deckhouse penetration.

Keep up with the scheduled maintenance of the running gear and keep good records of all the work done.

The good thing is that most maintenance tasks costs are modest except in the time you need to spend doing them.

 

A boat presented for sale that looks as if it has been loved will fetch a much higher price then anything let go

 

[blackrose]

Forget about appreciation or depreciation, a boat isn't a sound financial investment. The property market mindset just doesn't work when it comes to boats.

[DandV]

3 hours ago, blackrose said:

Forget about appreciation or depreciation, a boat isn't a sound financial investment. The property market mindset just doesn't work when it comes to boats.

Our narrowboat was a thoroughly sound financial investment.

There was no other way we could have that standard of accommodation and transport whilst having five glorious six month summer holidays moving around England for such a modest overall cost.

[Athy]

3 hours ago, blackrose said:

Forget about appreciation or depreciation, a boat isn't a sound financial investment.

In most cases, no, but it can be. Have a look at the recent '30 foot narrowboat for sale' thread for an example of a boat which has just sold for probably more money than it cost to buy new.

[matty40s]

12 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

Buy in the autumn for the best price when demand is low, Spring is the best time for selling when demand is high.

There is NO low season any more. 

 

A couple of flat weeks around Christmas and that is all.

[roland elsdon]

Ive not failed to loose money on a boat yet.

on paper i have made money but when you factor in repairs and inflation you loose. End of.

 

However ive had a wonderful time , far better than spending money on other faster depreciating liabilities like new cars, clothes tvs or any of that stuff.

[JamesFrance]

Initial depreciation is not always so high, I think it depends on the size of boat and the standard of finish and quality of components.   The Aintree Beetle I bought over 2 years ago, second hand but unused, for close to it's original price, I sold a year ago for more than it cost to build.   A price increase certainly helped but talk of 25% immediate loss was far from my experience.   I have recently ordered another new one with a different layout having returned to live near Nantwich.   The previous 70ft tug I had built by the late Steve Hudson in 1999, I sold after 4 years with a drop of £8000 and very little maintenance cost, had she been shorter she would have lost less.

.

[cuthound]

Old Springers (which were very much budget boats) made in the 70's and 80's regularly sell for more than they cost when new.

 

However when you take inflation into account, (let alone the costbof maintaining a boat over 40-50 years) you can see thst thry are not an investment.

 

 

[Jim Batty]

Boat prices in around 2009 were low because no one was buying them. Then over the next few years they started rising and returned to previous levels by around 2013. Then sort of starting in 2014 interest in boats really started picking up, especially for live aboard purposes, so secondhand prices (as well as new) started rising to follow suit. A couple of commercial people told me last summer that they thought prices had peaked, at least for the moment. But some of the bigger marina brokers still can't get enough secondhand boats to sell ... and even advertise for them. So the resale value of your boat seems to not only depend on how well you take care of it (along Mike's lines in post 11), but also on when you buy a boat within these economic and social cycles or fluctuations. Let's see what happens while Brexit is being negotiated.

 

Oh, when buying second hand, look for boats with hulls put together by well respected builders/steelworkers. These will always hold their value over ones of lesser quality. You can always renew or replace the fit out of a well-built older boat and own the pride of the cut. But a low-grade hull, even with gold taps and teak interior, will always be viewed as a bit of a skip ... and valued accordingly.

[Athy]

1 minute ago, Jim Batty said:

 

 

Oh, when buying second hand, look for boats with hulls put together by well respected builders/steelworkers. These will always hold their value over ones of lesser quality. You can always renew or replace the fit out of a well-built older boat and own the pride of the cut. But a low-grade hull, even with gold taps and teak interior, will always be viewed as a bit of a skip ... and valued accordingly.

Good advice, of course - but it's likely that James, shopping for his first boat, won't know which they are.

[Jim Batty]

Ah well, research is everything isn't it? I think there's a couple of threads on this forum discussing who's the best boat builder!

[Jess--]

We bought our 45 footer (23/4 year old stenson hull) in 2015 and sold it again in 2019 (as a 28/9 year old) for around 23% more than we paid for it, we probably could have pushed a bit more and got around 30% more but to be honest it was time for the boat to go as we simply weren't getting the use out of it.

 

Overall once mooring, licenses, fuel, blacking, maintenance and all other costs were worked out and weighed against the profit of the sale the 4 years of ownership cost around £6000