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Hello and Brokers


MichaelG

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2 hours ago, cuthound said:

Whilst I agree with most of the above, I disagree with the section I have highlighted.

The current sellers market has lasted for three years now, and is driven by:

1. Several boatbuilders have retired, died or gone bust,  meaning fewer new narrowboats bring built.

2. More new widebeams are now being built than narrowboats. 

3. More people than ever are buying narrowboats, driven by high housing prices, several canal related TV programmes and low interest rates/easy access to pension  funds.

Together these factors have created the "perfect storm" for rising demand and thus high prices, and I don't see anything on the horizon to change that. Indeed if the economy ever picks up,  I think it will drive prices even higher.

Yes, perfectly valid points but I just don't believe the current situation is sustainable, sooner or later demand, and finance, will dry up and there are signs that it's starting to happen.  I've spoken to a few brokers recently who say serious buyers of higher end boats are reducing in number, and a shell builder I know vaguely, tells me he couldn't build them fast enough until this year but things have definitely hardened up in 2017.  Yes this is all highly anecdotal but I wouldn't enter the market as a first time buyer just at the moment.  

We are also due a nice long hard winter...

 

   

 

Edited by Neil2
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On 05/10/2017 at 22:59, Athy said:

Whence did you get that statistic? It sounds unlikely.

 

Somebody mentioned this a few months ago. The crane at their yard is lifting in new boats every week and all of them are widebeams, apparently IIRC. 

On 05/10/2017 at 19:29, cuthound said:

Together these factors have created the "perfect storm" for rising demand and thus high prices, and I don't see anything on the horizon to change that.

 

I do. When the economy eventually tanks due to the impact of us shooting ourselves in the foot by leaving the EU, the boat market will crumble.

I think this will happen in about five years.

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5 hours ago, The Grumpy Triker said:

Hi Michael,

You sound far better prepared than I was recently, although I started looking in February and then ermmm....found the wrong broker, but then found a great team at Swanley Bridge Marina.

Some basic comments:

- It is a sellers market and all prices are inflated....I don't see that changing anytime soon so you may need to have to be prepared for a quick response....so plenty of preparation time.

- On both boats I negotiated an 'In the Water' or 'Pre-Survey' price, & in both instances there was a valid reason for renegotiation. One broker refused to negotiate due to 'Ts&Cs' then, under what advice I couldn't comment, the seller refused to negotiate further. On the second boat the seller took an obstinate stance and played on the 'Sellers Market' status, despite there being about £2,000 of unsuspected work. Due to personal reasons I caved in, much against gut feel, and £5,000 later I now have a boat ready to make my own....no doubt with additional work to do, but she is mine and now the journey starts :D

I will be live-aboard from day 1 but the message I have is - Sellers Market = 1 negotiation or be prepared to walk away.

i wish you good luck and with a far healthier budget than mine you should do well :cheers:

 

Hi, thanks for the comments and advice. I have seen some brokers Ts&Cs do seem to make the prospect of any post survey negotiation unlikely if you have already negotiated a pre survey reduction on the price. Oh and the best of luck with your boat too Grumpy Triker.

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3 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Talking to a couple of Boatbuilders at Crick.

The high volume Boatbuilders are selling more new widebeams than narrow.

That's remarkable. Does this perhaps indicate that more people nowadays are buying a boat as a home rather than as a leisure craft? I realise that some people cruise extensively in their wide boats but I suspect that quite a few of these craft do not often move far.

 

I didn't think we had any "volume boatbuilders" with the possible exception of Collingwood.

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Collingwood are the biggest, Aintree and Thorne also knockout a few and I'm sure there must be others.

Still if CRT get their way and licence widebeams in a way that can identify them it will be possible to track the percentage of wide to narrow beam boats.

Edited by cuthound
To add the last sentance.
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19 minutes ago, Athy said:

That's remarkable. Does this perhaps indicate that more people nowadays are buying a boat as a home rather than as a leisure craft? I realise that some people cruise extensively in their wide boats but I suspect that quite a few of these craft do not often move far.

 

I didn't think we had any "volume boatbuilders" with the possible exception of Collingwood.

Again, just anecdotal but all the brokers I've spoken to this year concur that's the main factor stoking demand.  

Anyone  who spends a fair amount of time cruising the whole network will know the genuine "leisure" boater is almost an endangered species these days.   

The widebeam phenomenon is no surprise really, given that the main drawback of living on a narrowboat is it's girth.  I suspect there are lots of us who could live happily on a wide boat but never a narrrow one.   

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8 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I do. When the economy eventually tanks due to the impact of us shooting ourselves in the foot by leaving the EU, the boat market will crumble.

I think this will happen in about five years.

Yes, that is certainly a possibility. However i suspect that we will get the softest Brexit possible, but certainly that will come at a high cost, both financially and politically.

Not sure if this should also be posted in the Brexit thread :unsure:

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