This page contains referral links. If your purchase closes through a broker we have introduced you to, we receive a one-time referral fee paid by the broker, not by you. Referral fees are typically $50,000 to $500,000 on a closed sale. We have not adjusted our editorial coverage for referral economics. Full breakdown on our how-we-make-money page.
The yacht brokerage market in 2026 has roughly 4,200 yachts publicly listed for sale at $2M and up, across a long tail of brokerages and a short list of major houses. We index the ones that matter, by builder, by length, by price band, and by region. Asking prices range from $2M for a 25m pre-owned production motor yacht to over $300M for a one-off newbuild on quiet resale. Final sale price is rarely the asking price. The gap is the editorial work.
The brokerage market is the part of yachting where the most money changes hands and the editorial layer is the thinnest. YachtWorld has the largest listing inventory but no opinion. The major brokerages (Burgess, Edmiston, Camper and Nicholsons, Fraser, Northrop and Johnson, IYC) each carry 100 to 500 listings, but each will only show you their own. Boat International reviews new builds at launch but rarely the secondhand market most buyers actually shop. We sit in the gap.
How the listing layer is built
We aggregate listings across the brokers we have direct feed agreements with, plus the open YachtWorld feed, and then layer the editorial work on top of the raw listing. Each yacht-for-sale page is structured the same way:
- Header: name, builder, LOA, year, refit, asking price as of the listing date, the listing broker, days on market.
- Spec block: beam, draft, GT, classification status, guest capacity, cabin configuration, crew count, current captain status (in place, between, vacant), engine make and hours.
- Ownership and refit history where known. Build year is rarely a clean signal. A 2008 Feadship refit in 2023 is a different yacht from a 2008 Feadship that has not been touched.
- Comparables block: three to five recent sales of similar yachts in the same band, with the sale price where it has been reported.
- Asking price history. Price drops are a stronger signal than any broker pitch. We log every change.
- Verdict: in range, above range, or below range. Three labels.
- Charter-income note. Yachts that have a documented charter program retain materially more of their cost base. We flag the program status.
The data is refreshed at least every 30 days for every page, and weekly for any yacht with a recent listing change.
What we list and what we do not
Yachts have to clear three filters to appear in our index.
The first filter is price floor. We do not cover yachts under $2M asking. The buyer audience for smaller production yachts is well served by YachtWorld and the regional brokers. Our editorial value-add is concentrated above the $2M line and especially above $10M, where the broker work matters more.
The second filter is documentation. A yacht needs a published surveyor report option, a verifiable build and refit history, and an MCA or equivalent classification path. Yachts that flunk basic documentation are flagged or excluded, regardless of how good the broker thinks they look on YachtWorld.
The third filter is brokerage. We only carry listings from brokerages we are willing to work with. That list is published in our brokers pillar. Two named brokerages are on our active passed-on list as of 2026-04 for reasons documented in their reviews.
Browse paths
The four primary entry routes into the brokerage index:
- By size. Most buyers arrive with a target length, usually 30m, 40m, 50m, or 80m. The cost of ownership ramps non-linearly across these brackets. See yachts for sale 50m and up.
- By builder. Builder is the strongest single proxy for build quality, refit cadence, and resale liquidity. Feadship and Lürssen retain value differently than Benetti or Sanlorenzo, which retain differently again from Heesen or Oceanco. See Feadship for sale and Lürssen for sale.
- By price band. Four bands, calibrated to where buyer-side broker behaviour changes: $2M to $5M, $5M to $15M, $15M to $50M, and $50M and up.
- By region. The eastern Mediterranean, western Mediterranean, Caribbean, and US East Coast each have different inspection logistics. Buying a yacht physically located in Saint Maarten is a different timeline than buying one wintering in Genoa.
What changes the price
A serious buyer needs to understand five things that move the price from asking to closed. We cover each in dedicated guides, but a sentence each:
- Refit recency. Anything past 8 years without major refit is a future capital project. The buyer is pricing the refit, not the yacht.
- Charter income history. A yacht with $1M of documented annual charter income is a different financial asset from one without.
- Crew continuity. A yacht with a captain who has run her for five years and is staying through transition is worth more.
- Flag and classification. MCA versus Marshall Islands versus Cayman is a serious operating-cost decision, not paperwork. See yacht flag state and yacht MCA compliance.
- Survey results. Pre-purchase survey, sea trial, and engine surveys can move price 10 to 25 percent on a contested yacht.
How we work with brokers
We carry referral arrangements with most of the brokerages listed in our index. The referral fee is paid on a closed sale, by the brokerage, and is a small fraction of the brokerage's own commission. We disclose the referral on every yacht page that carries the link. We do not negotiate higher rankings for higher referral rates. Brokerages that have asked us to do so are named in the relevant broker review with the request and our response. Our editorial defence against this is simple: rankings move with broker quality, not with referral economics, and the contracts allow either side to walk if rankings cross-contaminate.
If you have not chartered the yacht yet
A common path through the site for buyers is to charter a similar yacht first. The economics on first-time buyers who have never chartered a 50m yacht are not good. The chartering experience surfaces what works and what does not in a way no brochure can replicate. The charter pillar and the charter vs buy comparison are the right starting points if you are at that stage.