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 Dominic Millman, a senior broker who has worked at brokerage firm Burgess since 2003; a company which has had a strong year including the sales of superyachts Lady E (ex: Lady S) and the 110-metre Jubilee, which took place in July and November respectively and with Jubilee being the biggest superyacht sale of 2018. 
In 2017, 284 30+ metre used yachts were sold. Similarly, in 2018, around 280 (to be confirmed) used yachts were sold. How does your sentiment of the market compare? Do you see that the market is stable or growing?
The large yacht market closely mirrors the global economic situation. Overall the market is currently stable, but particular sectors, such as yachts between 65 and 80 metres, especially for newer, established quality yachts, are comparatively strong with yachts selling relatively quickly and at good levels.
Have you seen a shift in clients in the past year? For example, in nationality, age, gender or occupation - or any other observations you have noticed.
The broad distribution of buyers is unchanged, although there are a few more younger owners of larger vessels than before – particularly in the US. Asia was strong for Burgess in 2018, but it might be too soon to say that this will become an established market
Reductions in price have been used a lot in the past to raise awareness and generate enquiries in a complex and competitive market. Pricing appears to have become slightly more stable and the reductions in the market limited to those yachts originally listed at strong prices bending towards the market. Most yachts achieve a good proportion of their asking prices, particularly with new and nearly yachts – there is much more variance the older and perhaps the less established the builder.
So much depends on global political and economic factors although broadly speaking we expect growth across all sectors to be positive. I am looking forward to another successful year, Burgess has had three excellent consecutive years in the sales market which makes for an exciting year ahead.
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