Yacht markets
Where you buy determines the tax you pay, the berth you can get and the price you will achieve on resale, often more than the yacht itself does. These market guides cover the buying conditions in each hub.
Yacht markets are local businesses that happen to trade a mobile asset. Fort Lauderdale has depth of inventory and a closing infrastructure that makes transactions fast. Palma and Antibes have refit capacity and crew. Monaco has berths that trade at prices with no relationship to the yacht. Dubai and the Red Sea have new capacity and thin used inventory. The same yacht is a different purchase in each.
The three variables that decide whether a market suits you are inventory depth in your size band, berth availability at your length and beam, and the tax position that follows from buying and keeping the vessel there. Every guide below leads with those before it gets to lifestyle.
If you are choosing between regions rather than within one, start with the comparison pages and the market reports, then come back to the individual guides once the shortlist is down to two or three.
Want this narrowed down to your yacht?
Send a short brief and we will come back with the guides that apply and the specialists who can quote.
United States
The deepest brokerage market in the world, and the fastest closings.
Buying a Boat in Miami: Berths, Export and the Show
What buying in Miami involves: berth scarcity, Government Cut and the export trade, the February show, and why owners often base further north.
Buying a Boat in Annapolis: The Two Shows and the Bay
What buying in Annapolis involves: two October shows a week apart, a shoal-draft Chesapeake fleet, and what show week does to surveyors.
Buying a Boat in Seattle: Moorage, Survey and Season
What buying in the Pacific Northwest involves: moorage waiting lists, freshwater against salt, and a longer season than buyers expect.
Mediterranean
Refit capacity, crew depth and the VAT question that dominates every purchase.
Antibes Yacht Market: Eighteen Berths and a Crew Town
Port Vauban is Europe's largest marina by tonnage, and the eighteen superyacht berths on its Quai des Milliardaires set the top of the Mediterranean market.
Italy Yacht Market: Buying Where the Boats Are Built
Italy builds a large share of the world's motor yachts, and that changes the used market: factory-adjacent service, model depth, local parts.
Ibiza Yacht Market: Anchoring Is a Regulated Act
The Balearics banned anchoring over seagrass in 2018. Red and yellow zones, an official app and patrol boats made Ibiza a permit-shaped market.
Caribbean and Atlantic
Winter cruising grounds, hurricane-season constraints and offshore flag proximity.
Asia-Pacific and rest of world
Smaller markets with specific import, berth and seasonality constraints.
Buying a Boat in Australia: Finance, Cover, Licence
What Australian boat ownership involves: how vessel age caps the loan term, what cyclone zones do to insurance, and state licensing.
Buying a Boat in Canada: Licence, Tax and Winter
What Canadian boat ownership actually involves: the Pleasure Craft Licence, registration, provincial tax on a purchase, winter storage and a short season.
Continue your research
Common questions
For US buyers, South Florida has the deepest inventory and the most efficient closing infrastructure, which usually outweighs a slightly higher asking price. For Mediterranean cruising, buying a VAT-paid yacht already in EU waters avoids an importation event. The best market is the one where the tax position and the berth work, not the one with the lowest asking price.
Substantially. The purchase location affects sales or use tax, VAT status, whether an import event is triggered when you cruise elsewhere, the registry options that are practical, and the depth of survey and closing professionals available. A cheaper yacht in the wrong jurisdiction routinely costs more after tax and delivery.
Asking prices in Florida are frequently lower for comparable US-built vessels, and the market is more liquid. But a yacht bought in the US and taken to the EU faces VAT at 17% to 27% on importation, which usually erases the difference. Compare landed cost in the cruising region, never asking price alone.
Ask marinas in writing for availability by LOA, beam, draft and power requirement, and ask specifically about liveaboard status and waiting lists. In Fort Lauderdale, Palma, Monaco and parts of California, a berth at your length may simply not exist, and that constraint should shape the yacht you buy rather than being solved afterwards.
Which market fits your plan?
Tell us your budget, target size and where you want to cruise. We will come back with the markets that work for that combination, and the tax position in each.