Buying or chartering a yacht: where the bill really lands

The question of buying versus chartering is usually posed as a price question. It is a question of availability. An owned yacht is not the more expensive charter boat but a different good: always ready instead of negotiated per date, with one's own crew instead of a new one every week.

This article lays the figures open: purchase prices by length, the running costs behind the 10-per-cent rule, depreciation, charter VAT by country and the German tax consequences. Each figure carries its source; where only industry conventions exist, that is stated.

Whoever spends less than about two months a year on the water — the most frequently cited owner presence in crew surveys (SuperyachtNews/The Crew Report, survey 2014) — buys no saving with an owned yacht. They buy availability — and pay for it twelve months a year.

What a yacht costs

The broker Moran Yacht & Ship publishes typical prices for pre-owned yachts in its 2026 cost guide; new builds lie 20 to 50 per cent above:

• ✦24–30 m. 1 to 8 million US dollars (pre-owned)
• ✦40–50 m. 12 to 35 million dollars pre-owned
• ✦50–70 m. 25 to 80 million dollars pre-owned
• ✦70–90 m. 60 to 180 million dollars
• ✦90 m and above. 150 to over 600 million dollars

For new builds the rule of thumb circulates that a fully custom build costs around one million US dollars per metre of length (Ocean Independence, 2026). It is an industry convention, not primary statistics — serviceable as an order of magnitude, not as a calculation. Documented asking prices: a 44 m Benetti new build stood at around 33 million dollars in 2026, a 60 m Amels at 74 million euros, a pre-owned 95 m Lürssen at 149 million euros (Boat International / YachtWorld, retrieved 2026). Yards such as Feadship and Lürssen hold their market value 15 to 30 per cent above the category average, according to Moran.

The 10-per-cent rule and what lies behind it

The best-known rule of thumb of the market reads: running costs amount to around 10 per cent of the purchase price per year. It is an industry convention without official statistics — and the brokers themselves differentiate it further: Moran Yacht & Ship cites realistic ranges of 8 to 20 per cent depending on use in 2026, Fraser Yachts 10 to 15 per cent. For a 20-million-euro yacht that means 2 to 3 million euros a year, whether you are on board or not.

For a 50-metre yacht Moran calculates 2.7 to 5.4 million dollars annually:

• ✦Crew. 1.2 to 1.8 million dollars a year — 30 to 40 per cent of running costs
• ✦Fuel (8–12 weeks of use). 300,000 to 600,000 dollars
• ✦Insurance. 200,000 to 400,000 dollars (0.5 to 2 per cent of value)
• ✦Berth. 200,000 to 500,000 dollars
• ✦Maintenance and refit. 500,000 to 1.5 million dollars
• ✦Management. 150,000 to 300,000 dollars

The crew, at 30 to 40 per cent of running costs, is the largest block (Moran 2026): eight to fifteen heads at this size, 40,000 to over 150,000 euros per head and year depending on role (Fraser 2026). Added to this are refit intervals every five to seven years, the costs of which Fraser 2026 describes as "often running into the millions", and berths, which have become a market of their own in the Mediterranean: an annual berth in Monaco lies, depending on size, at amounts from around 25,000 euros up to above 100,000 euros, and purchase prices for berths in Antibes reach 2.8 to 4.5 million euros (Monaco Property Mag and Burgess, respectively 2026).

What the same week costs when chartering

For comparison, the charter side. For the Mediterranean in high season Ocean Independence (2026) quotes weekly base rates of roughly 79,000 to 107,000 euros at 30 metres and 131,000 to 350,000 euros at 50 metres; Moran quotes 50,000 to 100,000 dollars and 150,000 to 250,000 dollars for the same sizes. Peak values in the Fraser charter list 2026 reach 1.5 million euros per week.

The base rate is again only the beginning. As set out in our article on yacht charter in the Mediterranean, the APA of roughly 35 per cent is added, the VAT of the country of commencement and the crew gratuity of 5 to 15 per cent. The weekly rate is a base price, not a final sum — on both sides of the ledger.

VAT by country of commencement

Where the charter begins determines the rate. The figures published by Ocean Independence (as of November 2025) and IYC (May 2026):

• ✦France incl. Monaco: 20 per cent, with a proportional reduction for time outside European waters.
• ✦Italy: 22 per cent; the former 6.6-per-cent scheme has been abolished.
• ✦Spain: 21 per cent, without reduction for international waters.
• ✦Greece: nominally 24 per cent, effectively 5.2 to 13 per cent depending on conditions (IYC 2026).
• ✦Croatia: 13 per cent where the charter starts there, pro rata.
• ✦Malta: 12 per cent under the reduced regime since 1 January 2024 (LN 231/2023).

Whoever buys privately and imports pays VAT on import once — the yacht then counts as "VAT paid" and moves freely in EU waters. Those not resident in the EU can use temporary importation for up to 18 months. In the United Kingdom the temporary admission period was extended to 24 months in July 2025 (Berthon/PKF Francis Clark, 2026). This classification replaces no tax advice in the individual case.

Flag state and structure

At around 40 metres and above, three registers dominate: the Cayman Islands, the Marshall Islands and Malta (Affinity 2026; Ocean Independence 2026). The choice of flag state is not a prestige question; it decides over approval, taxation and charter capability. These structures belong in the hands of a tax adviser and yacht manager, not in a journal — this article states the factual situation, not structuring advice.

Depreciation: the quiet second purchase price

Brokers calculate with around 10 per cent loss of value in the first year and 6 to 8 per cent annually thereafter — cumulatively 40 to 50 per cent over five years (Ocean Independence 2026). These are broker estimates, not official statistics. The steepest loss lies in the first five years (Moran 2026); as an example Moran cites a yacht bought in 2019 for 15 million dollars that today, depending on care, is valued at 7 to 12 million — an order of magnitude illustrating the range of the rule, not a price quotation.

The market itself remains active: in the first half of 2026, 326 yachts of 24 metres and above changed owners according to Northrop & Johnson (−8 per cent year on year) at a total volume of 3.51 billion dollars (+15 per cent). Yachts of 5 to 9 years trade most actively; the most difficult cohort lies at 25 to 29 years, where refit costs dominate the negotiations.

Depreciation accrues whether you spend 2 weeks on board or 20. It is the price of ownership, not of use.

Chartering out: a contribution to costs, not a return

Placing one's own yacht into charter reduces own costs. By how much depends on weekly rate, utilisation and running costs. Boat International works through three examples in April 2025: a 48 metre motor yacht lands at a surplus of around 17,000 euros with its charter weeks — the rare exception. A 47 metre sailing yacht remains at minus 444,000 euros, an 85 metre motor yacht at minus 430,000 euros per year.

Hence the classification by Fraser (2025): charter is an opportunity to help offset operating costs — not a way to make money. And on resale, realism: according to Northrop & Johnson (Q2 2026 report), 2,157 yachts were listed publicly on the market, about 17 per cent of the global fleet — the resale is a process of months, not weeks.

On the German tax position, chartering feeds back: if income is earned with an asset in even one calendar year, the speculation period of § 23 of the Income Tax Act for a later sale extends from one year to ten — gains from the sale would then be subject to income tax. Whether and how a charter operation is to be classified belongs in the hands of your tax adviser.

Where the threshold lies

The break-even calculation for yachts is less crisp than for the private jet, because the intensity of use is of a different kind: months instead of hours. A crew has no "minimum charge" — it has salaries that run in winter too. A berth has no "empty legs" — it runs twelve months.

The market knows no precise break-even figure. What is documented is the density of use: in a crew survey by SuperyachtNews/The Crew Report (survey 2014, more than 1,000 answers), the most frequent answer was that the owner spends two to three months a year on board. According to brokers (Ocean Independence 2026), an owned yacht becomes attractive when three things coincide: use of this order of magnitude, a geographically stable route, and a household that carries crew and berth even out of season. In the US market for smaller yachts, the broker Vital Charters (2026) names a threshold of roughly 8 to 16 weeks of use a year — a broker estimate from a different segment, cited here for its order of magnitude.

Chartering fits when use remains in individual weeks, routes vary, and discretion is better kept with a vetted operator than with one's own crew. How the cost of a charter week is really composed is set out in our article on yacht charter in the Mediterranean. The same decision in the sky is treated in the article owning vs chartering a private jet.

Frequently asked questions

The quiet route to a decision

The decision begins not with the purchase price but with the usage profile: how many weeks, which waters, how settled is the crew structure already? Whoever holds that profile in writing also recognises which of the two structures fits them.

The Allocation1 sells neither yachts nor berths and charges no commission on any mandate. We structure your requirement and present it exclusively to vetted service providers. You are welcome to request an invitation.

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