Brokerage report: Q3 sales propel 2026 towards highest value year on record

A rebound from last year in the 40- to 50-metre segment and three confidential deals above 70 metres have carried cumulative sales value figures well beyond last year’s record third quarter. But even without new build sales, the brokerage market surged past 2025’s figures for the same period, paired with a restrained seller’s market in the larger segments. By BOATPro projections, the industry is on course for the third best-performing year on record, with a flurry of high-value sales expected by industry experts as 2026 comes to a close.

Exclusive figures from BOATPro show that 125 yachts of 24 metres and above were sold between July and September 2026, with a combined value of €2.352 billion. 

This represents a 39 per cent increase in the number of sales and a 43 per cent rise in total value compared with the same period last year, when 90 yachts changed hands for €1.65 billion. The Q3 2025 total was itself a record, boosted by the sale of Feadship’s 118.8-metre Breakthrough.

Despite the increase in transaction value, the average sale value held relatively level at €18.8 million, suggesting that the quarter's growth was driven primarily by an increase in transaction volumes rather than a significant rise in average prices. 

Naturally, the topline figure rests heavily on a handful of very large transactions, some of whose prices remain confidential. Three yachts above 70 metres changed hands during the quarter, against two a year earlier: Lürssen’s Project Elusive and 125-metre Project M, both understood to have been signed earlier in the year and announced during the quarter, and an Amels 80.

All three however are new builds and none of their prices have been disclosed, making it difficult to quantify their contribution to the quarter's overall value.

Growth was not confined to the larger end of the market. Sales were up in every size band below 50 metres, including a healthy pre-owned brokerage market. In terms of resale figures, just over €1.04 billion was generated across 112 sales in Q3 2026 for an average value of €9.3 million and an average LOA of 34.7 metres. 

In Q3 2025 - once you strip back the anomaly of Breakthrough technically being classed as a resale - the secondary market totalled around €573.6 million across 68 transactions for an average of around €8.4 million. That’s a total value increase of 81 per cent across the resale market.

40- to 50-metre sales nearly triple

The effects of the conflict in Iran on market conditions have all but dissipated, according to industry experts. Speaking with BOATPro, Will Christie, CEO of Christie Yachts, explained that buyers have moved on. “Uncertainty is the killer. Our market is very much dictated by sentiment,” he said. “As soon as people see anything which brings even an element of uncertainty to their lives, they put the brakes on buying a boat. But after a while, either the situation gets resolved, or they get used to it. And I think that’s what’s happened now.”

“What we’ve seen since, and continue to see, is very significant demand over certain size brackets,” Henry Smith, partner at Cecil Wright, told BOATPro. “I think if you’re looking sub 500 tons, then it’s a bit of a buyer’s market. But certainly, north of 1,000 tons for pedigree boats, it’s a seller’s market. And you go north of that, and it really is a seller’s market. There’s almost no inventory, and we’ve got buyers coming out of our ears for these big boats.”

The quarter’s standout performer, due to its rebound from last year's figures, was the 40- to 50-metre segment, which recorded 22 sales in Q3 2026, up from just eight in the same period last year. The aggregate value of those sales alone was just under €313.8 million.

Supply in the segment has also improved. A total of 37 yachts between 40 and 50 metres came to market during the quarter, against 29 in Q3 2025, suggesting that more owners are now bringing boats to market to meet sustained buyer demand.

The smaller end of the market also continued to grow, with sales of yachts between 24 and 30 metres rising from 33 to 49, while the 30- to 40-metre segment increased from 35 to 40 sales. Above 50 metres, activity was steady, with 11 sales between 50 and 70 metres against 12 a year earlier.

Pricing firmed across most segments too, as the average asking price per GT for yachts sold between 24 and 30 metres rose from €25,000 to €35,000, and from €35,000 to €46,000 for those between 50 and 70 metres.

Smith cautioned against reading too much into rising prices, however. “When we sold Hampshire (now Anshin) earlier in the year, we sold her net to the owner what we paid for her in 2018,” he said. “We are seeing values go up, but it’s kind of a false statement. To say the value has gone up means the figure has gone up. It doesn’t mean that the money has the same buying power it did five years ago.”

Most expensive sales

Among sales with a disclosed price, Amels’ 67.6-metre Neninka was the most valuable of Q3, sold in-house at Burgess in July asking €85 million. That is almost level with the €84 million asking price of Abeking & Rasmussen’s 78.4-metre Amaryllis, the most valuable disclosed sale of Q3 2025.

Neninka was followed by Benetti’s 64.5-metre Seanna, sold in August asking €44 million in a deal between Royal Yacht International and Simpson Marine, and Lürssen’s 60-metre Caipirinha, sold in July asking €39.9 million in a deal with SuperYachtsMonaco and Edmiston.

The 67.5-metre Icon Yachts Loon was the largest disclosed sale of September, sold asking $42.95 million (€37.4 million) by Merle Wood & Associates and IYC, with Camper & Nicholsons introducing the buyer.

Superyacht sales projected to surpass €7 billion

To put Q3 in the context of the year so far, data from BOATPro shows that 444 superyachts of 24 metres and above have been sold so far in 2026 at the time of writing, with a combined value of €6.48 billion and an average sale value of €14.6 million. Indeed, assuming the market maintains its average year-to-date pace, BOATPro projects that the year will close with 535 sales, which would make 2026 the third best-performing year on record by number of sales, behind only 2021 and 2022. Those transactions would bring the total sales value to around €7.8 billion, potentially making it the highest-value year on record.

The year-to-date tally has already overtaken the full-year totals for 2023 and 2024, at 432 and 395 sales respectively, but stands a mere 44 short of the 488 recorded across the whole of 2025. If the market continues on its course, 2026 will finish around 10 per cent ahead of 2025 by volume. It will not approach the 757 sales of 2021, the post-COVID surge that remains the anomalous high point for the brokerage market.

Christie puts part of that down to the sheer size of today’s fleet. “Every year more and more boats are built, so there’s probably going to be more movement on the secondary market as well, and there are also a lot more brokers in the world than there used to be,” he said.

Feadship’s 100-metre Moonrise is comfortably the year’s most valuable disclosed sale. She sold in June asking €325 million, with Burgess as central agent and Edmiston representing the buyer. Delivered in 2020, Moonrise was listed for resale for the first time on 7 January 2026.

The 107-metre Benetti Mar was the year’s second-largest disclosed sale, also in June, asking €195 million with Edmiston and Benetti. Like Moonrise, she was delivered in 2020 and was on the brokerage market for the first time.

The year’s third nine-figure deal came in January, when Mirage sold asking €165 million with Burgess and Y.CO. Neninka and Anshin completed the top five; the latter sold in May with Cecil Wright & Partners, each asking €85 million. The ranking covers disclosed prices only.

Supply tightens in Q3 as buyers absorb inventory

While sales accelerated in Q3, the flow of new listed yachts slowed as 178 yachts joined the market during Q3 2026, down 18 per cent from 218 in Q3 2025, with a combined asking value of €2.61 billion and an average of €14.7 million.

The new inventory was also slightly younger and smaller than last year, with an average age of 14 years and five months against 16 years, and an average of 342GT against 376GT. The listings fell most notably between 30 and 40 metres, from 79 to 57, and between 50 and 70 metres, from 25 to 17.

The most expensive new listing was Lürssen’s 95.2-metre Whisper, the former Kismet, listed with Christie Yachts asking €149 million. She was followed by Lürssen’s 72.55-metre Coral Ocean, asking €99 million with Ahoy Club, and Royal Hakvoort’s 63.7-metre explorer Scout, asking €95 million with Fraser Yachts.

Also joining the market were Nobiskrug’s 73.5-metre Lady Vera, asking €85 million with Bluewater, and Feadship’s 70-metre Joy, asking €77.5 million with Cecil Wright & Partners. Six yachts above 70 metres were listed during the quarter, one fewer than last year.

What is interesting is the pricing. Whisper was listed at an asking of €149 million three years ago and is listed for the same price again. Christie explained that the owner has sunk significant sums into upgrading the vessel, which in part justifies the price tag. Coral Ocean, which comes to market after an extensive refit, makes a similar case. It is, mostly, however, down to the sheer lack of quality yachts in that segment available for sale. And that is affecting the entire market.

"At the top end, we are seeing a lot of owners going to shipyards and building their first boat,” Christie said. “It’s amazing. But I’m seeing fewer people building their own new big boats in that size range because when they see the price, they just can’t believe how much it has increased. Someone who bought a boat for €150 million a few years ago and is now in the market for another one, perhaps 100 metres or more, goes back to the same shipyard and gets quoted about two and a half times what they paid for their original boat. Those owners will just keep their current boat.”

According to Christie, building a yacht like Whisper today would cost around €375 million, at roughly €120,000 per GT before owner’s supplies, design fees and project management.

“So, we think it’s a really good price because we know the alternative is to buy a new one,” Christie said of Whisper’s asking price. “The alternative is waiting four to five years in Germany to build another one of these boats at well over double the price. So, for us, we feel the value has held firm. We don’t see any depreciation from where he bought her because of those conditions.”

Smith, whose firm sold the yacht when she last changed hands as Kismet, says she went for close to what her owner paid to build her. “If you own a pedigree yacht that’s in good order, that’s less than 10 years old, you are in the driving seat,” he added.

The secondary market has yet to fully reflect how far new-build prices have risen and few boats have sold for more than they originally cost to build, but that could all change. 

“In the near to mid future, owners of pedigree yachts delivered between 2021 and 2025 will sell for more than their contract price almost without exception, provided the layout is not too unconventional," Smith continued. "The bigger obstacle is persuading them to sell at all. The common response you get from owners is, 'I want a boat. So if you sell mine, what am I going to have instead?' People don’t want to let go of their boats.”

Price drops ease in number but constrain the market

Price reductions eased slightly over the quarter with 232 price drops during Q3 2026, removing €199.2 million from the market, compared with 240 drops worth €215.7 million a year earlier.

And this is where owners at the top end appear to be holding firm, as yachts between 50 and 70 metres saw eight reductions during the quarter, down from 19, and only two yachts above 70 metres were cut, against five a year earlier. The heaviest drops came at the smaller end, where yachts between 24 and 30 metres were reduced by an average of 10 per cent.

The largest reduction was on Boardwalk V, which dropped €14 million in September and is now asking €135 million with Burgess and Y.CO and a total of €30 million below her asking price when she first came to market a year ago. Another notable slash was Oceanco’s 90-metre Luna, which was cut by €10 million in July and is now asking €208 million with Large Yacht Co.

There is a split among owners that comes down to whether they value their yacht against today’s replacement cost, while others anchor to pre-inflation pricing. Here, condition matters as much as length and age and both Smith and Christie argue that the yachts left sitting on the market are there for one reason. “You’ve still got boats out there which have been listed for a seemingly weirdly long time, but then they’re just not realistically priced,” Smith said. “What stops the boat selling? The price.”

He also warned pricing could become harder for sellers in the smaller segments if the current market conditions continue. Production yachts of around 35 metres that cost 11 million to 12 million a few years ago now ask 18 million to 20 million with options and as build-cost inflation levels off, today’s buyers may not enjoy the same cushion.

Future outlook

Q3 2026 has been a quarter defined by volume rather than headline value, as underneath, it is characterised by a booming secondary brokerage market. Even with the confidential new builds stripped out, the resale market grew sharply, and demand for quality yachts is now running ahead of supply in the mid-size and larger segments. The result is a market split by size, where below 500GT, buyers still hold the cards. Meanwhile, above 1,000GT, pedigree yachts in good condition are holding, and in some cases growing, their value.

The market is poised for a strong end to the year, especially with bonus depreciation as a very real consideration for Americans, where most of the buying power remains. Both Christie and Smith predict a “flurry of deals closing in the next few weeks.” But at the top end, the outlook rests on inventory.

The data used in this article was taken from BOATPro, the world's leading superyacht market intelligence platform, which delivers real-time, accurate and reliable data. To access our pioneering fleet tracker, brokerage market insight, reports and much more book a demo with the BOATPro team.

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