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Have second hand narrowboat prices reached their peak?


talltales

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I am beginning to sense a certain amount of desperation in the air when it comes to some of the prices being asked for a second hand narrowboats, especially those for sale privately in various Facebook groups over the last couple of months. As we now into autumn and as those memories of inflated Summer prices fade as quick as the light is fading from our days, there is perhaps a growing realization that we are heading towards the prospect of a chilly winter indeed (in more ways than one) Made all the more colder after that disastrous mini budget last Friday, of which its repercussions are likely to put pay to any recreational boating for even the most affluent middle class home owner in the months and years to come. I say this because I have just come back from the midlands where I have spent a couple of days going from broker to broker and have begun to see the word "reduced" more times in two days than I have seen since starting my search almost a year ago.
So are these coming months the right time for someone, someone like me, who has been looking to transition permanently onto a liveaboard, the right time to be looking to buy? It was common sense that made me wait, well that and finding a boat with the perfect layout and headroom for a giant, this also should be factored into the equation ;) but I am just feeling a little more confident that prices on good boats are beginning to resemble "prices" again and look less like phone numbers on bits of summer driftwood. What do you think?
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If not for being 6ft 7 in height, I'd have bought three times over ;) as when I attend a viewing of boat with extra headroom I am intrigued to also look at boats for sale, regardless of headroom, that are around my budget, and even though I am forced to look down when walking inside, I am still able to see they are indeed lovely. As it happens, out of the eight boats I have looked at, four had the headroom I needed but two of them I would have had to widen the door to get inside ;) I'm not just tall, but built like a second row rugby player. 

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1 minute ago, talltales said:

If not for being 6ft 7 in height, I'd have bought three times over ;) as when I attend a viewing of boat with extra headroom I am intrigued to also look at boats for sale, regardless of headroom, that are around my budget, and even though I am forced to look down when walking inside, I am still able to see they are indeed lovely. As it happens, out of the eight boats I have looked at, four had the headroom I needed but two of them I would have had to widen the door to get inside ;) I'm not just tall, but built like a second row rugby player. 

I have a drandson who is 6ft 7 in. Furthermore even though he is only a baby of 21 I am pleased to say he always refers to his height as such, and not in some foreign measurement equivalent  :D.

He used to come on our boat fairly often and just about managed. Look for something built  like a Hudson with a 15 mil baseplate, ours had a small gap with just a few engineering bricks for trim between baseplate and deck. If the baseplate is heavy and not much ballast etc there is a chance of more headroom.

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11 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I have a drandson who is 6ft 7 in. Furthermore even though he is only a baby of 21 I am pleased to say he always refers to his height as such, and not in some foreign measurement equivalent  :D.

He used to come on our boat fairly often and just about managed. Look for something built  like a Hudson with a 15 mil baseplate, ours had a small gap with just a few engineering bricks for trim between baseplate and deck. If the baseplate is heavy and not much ballast etc there is a chance of more headroom.

Lol, so "some foreign measurement equivalent" 6ft 7 is just a hair over 200cm, luckily I'm bold up top so will happily call it 200cm ;) Cheers for the advice.  

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As they are expecting house prices to drop between 10 and 30 percent over the next year unless something significant changes, I suspect boat prices will follow suit, as they are really luxury items for most of us.

Advice above as to buying when you spot something you like rather than waiting endlessly is good - you don't get these years back. Mind you, I hope you can pay cash, as getting a loan could prove tricky!

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The pound has fallen in value against the Euro and Dollar so  that puts even more pressure on activities at home rather than abroad .

 

I would say new and  used boat, motorhome , caravan prices are not going to drop anytime soon .

If anything prices will increase further due to inflation .

Folks with money to spare may prefer to spend on goods rather than see their savings diminish through inflation.

So buy quick before the price goes up.

Just speculation on my part . I may be proven wrong. The world has definitely gone mad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I would guess that boats suitable for living on will maintain their price.There may be a short period of panic selling due to increased living costs, but living on a boat may well become attractive to people who have not thought about it before.A mortgage for now is even more unafforable than before.

Small boats, cruisers, day boats and leisure craft may well become luxuries who's expense can no longer be justified  so I would expect their prices to drop.

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5 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

 

Small boats, cruisers, day boats and leisure craft may well become luxuries who's expense can no longer be justified  so I would expect their prices to drop.

Opposite view to me but maybe one of us will prove to be correct 😀

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Like everything else the price of boats is driven by availability and demand. Over a period of time they will always rise, everything does. There are peaks and troughs but to say that they have reached the peak is misleading.

As less can afford houses or get mortgages there will be a demand for boats to live on.

The folk with pleasure boats and restricted income may have to reign in there spending and sell the craft off. If selling and needing the cash they will be willing to reduce prices.

But this is traditionally the season when prices dip, no point in the pleasure buyers buying in Autumn when they will not use it in Winter.

With more boats being built and less being scrapped there is a rising availability of craft but not all across the market, top and bottom ends are inflated by demand.

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2 hours ago, robtheplod said:

I thought that in Autumn prices always dropped as people sold off after the season, with them picking up in the Spring as the hunters come out from hibernation... :)

Not the last couple of autumns 

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3 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

As they are expecting house prices to drop between 10 and 30 percent over the next year unless something significant changes, I suspect boat prices will follow suit, as they are really luxury items for most of us.

Advice above as to buying when you spot something you like rather than waiting endlessly is good - you don't get these years back. Mind you, I hope you can pay cash, as getting a loan could prove tricky!

They have been expecting house prices to drop since 2020. 

 

It hasn't happened yet.

 

If there is a drop, I personally don't see it being much.

3 hours ago, MartynG said:

The pound has fallen in value against the Euro and Dollar so  that puts even more pressure on activities at home rather than abroad .

 

I would say new and  used boat, motorhome , caravan prices are not going to drop anytime soon .

If anything prices will increase further due to inflation .

Folks with money to spare may prefer to spend on goods rather than see their savings diminish through inflation.

So buy quick before the price goes up.

Just speculation on my part . I may be proven wrong. The world has definitely gone mad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the pound low you can expect plenty of foreign interest in boats which are suitable for foreign markets.

 

Your own boat for example. 

 

Not so much for narrowboats which are a very British idiocy. 

2 hours ago, robtheplod said:

I thought that in Autumn prices always dropped as people sold off after the season, with them picking up in the Spring as the hunters come out from hibernation... :)

We sold our boat mid winter for more than asking price 🤔

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7 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

They have been expecting house prices to drop since 2020. for the last 20 years.

 

It hasn't happened yet.

 

If there is a drop, I personally don't see it being much.

 

FTFY 😉

 

house_prices.jpg

Edited by IanD
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21 minutes ago, IanD said:

FTFY 😉

 

I've been taking part in the vociferous house price crash debate on line since about 1997, 25 years ago. After several years of angry debate on forums and usenet the website housepricecrash.co.uk sprang up as a forum for all the property bears to reassure each other that from then on in, the only way would be down. Domain registered way back in 2003. 

 

https://www.whois.com/whois/housepricecrash.co.uk

 

I also know of someone who sold his four bed detached freehold house in Westbourne Grove (a really good bit of London) for £300k in 1997 confident he would buy it back again six months later 'after the crash' for £150k. Its prolly worth about £3m today. 

 

 

Edited by MtB
Add a bit.
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I hear lots of comments about boat price reductions in Autumn and I suspect that may be the case in the past. However if home owners are forced out of bricks and mortar by high interest rates many will surely look to downsize into statics and boats so I wouldnt expect to see significant reductions in the future. We are both retired/ semi-retired on moderate pensions but dont feel the need to sell up. 

BTW I was told that boats built by Pinders offer more than the usual headroom - hope that helps.

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11 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

Can somebody provide a picture of a narrowboat with a clerestory to round off this topic?  I'm assuming this provides some extra headroom.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mVfvaDCz71I/UWc1rstZ8ZI/AAAAAAAARuo/ld6EkOdMOSE/s1600/IMG_2498.JPG

 

spacer.png

Edited by Midnight
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20 hours ago, talltales said:

If not for being 6ft 7 in height, I'd have bought three times over ;) as when I attend a viewing of boat with extra headroom I am intrigued to also look at boats for sale, regardless of headroom, that are around my budget, and even though I am forced to look down when walking inside, I am still able to see they are indeed lovely. As it happens, out of the eight boats I have looked at, four had the headroom I needed but two of them I would have had to widen the door to get inside ;) I'm not just tall, but built like a second row rugby player. 

Wilton have a boat listed at 6 foot 8 headroom, 39,950.

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1 hour ago, Midnight said:

I knew that this would be posted, you beat me to it.

Sadly now sold on, no idea where it is now or if the piano is still aboard.  This was taken on its Middlewich mooring, a lovely old boat.

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2 hours ago, Mike Hurley said:

Wilton have a boat listed at 6 foot 8 headroom, 39,950.

Cor blimey, that's a lot of headroom and boat for the price! Thanks for alerting me to it! Ideally its a 50ft max for me though. I've actually put an offer in on a boat today, that I saw in Brauntson Marina on Thursday, it said it had 6ft 6 but it was actually 6ft 7 https://braunstonmarina.co.uk/boat-details/nb-two-jays/ if its not accepted, then I will possibly take a trip to Wilton. Cheers

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2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I knew that this would be posted, you beat me to it.

Sadly now sold on, no idea where it is now or if the piano is still aboard.  This was taken on its Middlewich mooring, a lovely old boat.

 

She went past me, heading south on the Coventry in July. Haven't seen her since.

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