This month, SuperYacht Times is interviewing a range of industry leaders in the brokerage sector to find out their views on the 2018 superyacht market. Today we hear from Jan-Jaap Minnema who is a senior yacht broker at Fraser Monaco and who has plenty of experience in the Monaco yacht market. Fraser had a number of noteworthy sales in 2018, including the sales of the 73.3-metre Nautilus in March and the 75.5-metre Wheels in August. Fraser rounded off 2018 with a bang as well, selling the 70.2-metre Saint Nicolas in November and the 54.64-metre sailing yacht Marie in December. 
The total market is stable in terms of numbers of yachts sold, but I believe that there are more yachts for sale which stay longer on the market due to different demands. Clients want younger yachts and are also shifting the way they use their yachts. The younger clients want to do more with their yacht than just a mile run between Monaco and St Tropez.
I have not really seen a shift in clients or their nationality. Of course, the booming US market is good but the types of buyers remain the same. We have seen a few large yachts bought by Asian clients. They will form a group of friends or business partners who will finance and use the boat together. That’s something we have never seen done successfully before.
We have seen in the statistics of sold yachts that the average price has gone up while the average age remains the same. That means that prices are getting better for sellers. Having said that, buyers still think they can buy at very low prices, but I think those days are over. Realistic asking prices and smaller negotiation margins is what we will see in the near future.
I see that a lot of money and time is spent to ‘create’ new markets like the expedition and ‘cross-over’ boats. A few units have been sold indeed, but the numbers are still too small to talk about a new trend. It is more the shift in the use of the yachts which dictates this type/style of a yacht than anything else. We also see that clients are asking for younger boats than before (in all sizes).
The upmarket tempo from the US market will slow down a bit. For the brokerage market, any high or low is good, the worst times are when nothing is moving at all. I am looking forward to continuing the pace we have shown for the last few years and sell and purchase many yachts for our clients.
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