One of the biggest problems facing the superyacht market over the next three to five years is price: the gap between what sellers want for their yachts and what buyers are prepared to pay. That is the verdict of Edmund Beckett, naval architect and senior partner at Burgess, in Marine Industry News on 10.09.2026, in the middle of Cannes Yachting Festival week. Regulation, sustainability and the talent pipeline, he says, are not the main challenge.
Beckett has been at Burgess since 2013, first as a new-build project manager, then as head of new-build sales, and since 2024 as a senior partner. Burgess is the brokerage that sold the 89-metre Here Comes the Sun and three Amels 80s in a single fifteen-week run earlier this year, and it has belonged to Ancient, a US private-equity firm, since November 2025.
Sellers price against the cost of building a new one
Owners know what it would cost to replace their yacht today, and that number has gone up sharply. Supply-chain costs, materials and the growing complexity of the boats have all pushed new-build prices higher. So an owner selling a yacht looks at the replacement bill and refuses to let the resale price drift far below it.
Edmund Beckett, senior partner, Burgess:“Many sellers are cognisant of the replacement costs for their yachts and are keen to keep the resale price of their yachts in touch with the rebuild costs, which can drive a wedge between buyer and seller expectations.
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The buyer works off the market. Two yardsticks, each internally consistent, and that is what makes the gap hard to close.
The pressure is worst in custom construction. Wages in the yards have risen, luxury interior outfitting has become more expensive, and shipyards and suppliers are trying to hold prices at a level clients will still accept. A custom project is also sold before anyone knows what it will cost. "At the start of a custom yacht project a shipyard will not know their precise construction costs and the project duration will run over three+ years," Beckett says.
Our May review of the brokerage market found that more than seven in ten of Ocean Independence's 80 first-quarter sales of 30 metres and over closed only after at least one price cut, and the yachts that sold had been listed for a median of 392 days. Northrop and Johnson's half-year report reads the same way from the other side: 326 pre-owned sales in the first half of 2026, down eight per cent on last year, and 3.51 billion dollars in value, up fifteen per cent. Fewer boats changing hands, with the value concentrated in the largest deals.
The client now arrives with an opinion from a chatbot
Beckett's second point lands on his own profession. Artificial intelligence has changed how owners gather information, and the industry is not talking about it enough.
Edmund Beckett, senior partner, Burgess:“Everyone in the industry, including owners, are far more educated and informed than five years ago and have AI at their fingertips, meaning keeping relevance and "expert advisor" status is more challenging than ever.
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Owners and their families can now research a yacht, a yard or a market in an evening. Many clients, Beckett says, arrive at the first meeting with firmly established views. The broker who used to be the source of information now has to argue with it.
His answer is that advisors will have to prove they offer something the client cannot get alone, even when the client is convinced they can. "With the growing reliance on AI, the industry needs to demonstrate that they can offer clients something that they cannot get (although they believe they can get) themselves," he says. In practice that means adding value, opening doors and reducing risk.
A senior partner at one of the world's largest superyacht brokerages is saying in public that two of the biggest threats to his business are a seller who believes their own valuation and a client who believes their own research.
Sustainability is progressing without the noise
On sustainability Beckett is calmer than most of the conference circuit. Regulation, he says, is moving at a manageable pace, and yachting is not leading it. Alternative fuels are becoming feasible for new builds, but they eat onboard space and the shoreside infrastructure to supply them barely exists.
The progress he rates is happening where nobody writes press releases: hull forms designed for cruising efficiency, more efficient onboard equipment, glass that cuts heating and cooling loads, better air-conditioning, and coatings that release fewer volatile organic compounds, reflect more heat and need repainting less often. All of it stays out of sight, and the result shows up as lower fuel burn and running costs.
The scarce hire is the generalist
The industry talks constantly about recruitment problems. Beckett does not think there is a shortage of people. What he sees is unrealistic expectations among some newcomers, and often no barrier to entry at all for anyone who wants to call themselves a yacht advisor or owner's representative.
The scarce skill is breadth. As the industry has grown, specialists have multiplied, and professionals who can advise across the whole cycle of ownership, construction and operation have become harder to find. That is where Burgess sees the gap.
New builds cost more, so used yachts are priced higher, so deals take longer. Buyers arrive better informed and less willing to defer. The advisor in the middle has to justify a fee to a client who has already asked the question elsewhere. Beckett's remedy is to be right about the things a client cannot check.
