Beyond 'super': unique yacht design with Burgess
40-50m success story
Published 09 June 2025
Brokerage sales in 2024 may have been sluggish, but the 40-50m sector is looking energised. Off the back of a strong finish to 2024, we saw an equally impressive start to 2025, with these two quarters matching the entire sales output for 2023.
The fleet has been reliable for a long time, with around 30 boats metronomically coming to market per quarter. What changed in Q4 ‘24 and Q1 ‘25 was the sales figures, doubling previous quarters and matching New to Market (NTM) figures.
With overall sales fleet numbers rising steadily, sales in 2024 keeping pace with the surge in 2022, and new build coming back strongly after a slight dip in 2023, the 40-50m market is clearly in a good place. We speak to broker Thibault Roi about the sector and why it is proving so popular.
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Why is the 40-50m sector outperforming the market?
I see 40-50m as being a ‘people’ vessel while still being a large yacht. What do I mean by that? It’s a vessel that remains private and personal but offers a lot. That’s important for people moving to a crewed yacht from owner operation. I think around 10 crew keep things personal; you know everyone’s names. It also keeps costs down, with crew being a big part of a yacht’s operational budget. It is a popular charter sector too, so owners have the opportunity to off-set costs.
At this size you usually still sit below 500GT. Beyond that things can escalate quickly, yachts get a lot bigger and so does the crew, running costs, access to certain marinas and administration, everything changes.
From 30m to 40m or 45m, it is an easy move – same crew culture, same regulations, but you win a lot more boat.
How much more boat?
Well, volume between 35m and 45m can be noticeably higher, going from say 260GT to 450GT, but even a 40m yacht will feel bigger across the interior and decks.
For me, the area around 499GT is one of the sweet spots in yachting. You gain some great features like a beach club,five big cabins including a main deck owner's cabin, a tri-deck design with a sun deck and so on. These are all large yacht features in a very manageable form.
Is this a blip?
Not at all. Before Covid, we were alreadyseeing some excellent semi-custom yachts driving sales, so this is about long-term, solid growth.
Of course, we could see some variables in the short-term, with a number of geopolitical events to consider and the remains of the post-Covid turbulence, but that longer-term market strength won’t change.
So, the future looks…?
It looks great. We will see a good number of new build yachts coming to market as shipyard capacity adjusts after Covid. These spec-builds present buyers with high-quality yachts and relatively short wait time.
There are more shipyards entering the 40-50m market and more models coming through. In Italy, we see the traditional players increasing model lines and new yards coming in. Plus we have some very good Turkish and non-EU yards now with high-value propositions. And, of course, Northern-Europe continues to build superb vessels in this category. The result is a larger choice for buyers, with many different designs, capabilities, and purchase prices.
There is clearly a yacht forevery buyer in this size range. Our job is to guide clients through the options, to perfectly match the yacht with their specific requirements – either new or second-hand.
Three sales, five days
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