Ranking- The world's 15 most expensive marinas

by Sail-World Cruising on 4 May 2011 You think your marina berth is too expensive, or you wish they weren't so expensive so you could afford one? Read this article and you'll realise just how cheap your local marina berths are!

The first surprising piece of news is that the three most expensive marinas in the world do not include the most famed of all luxury yachting destinations, Monaco-Monte Carlo. No, they are all located in Italy.

This is one of the findings to emerge from a ranking list recently compiled by compiled by Engel & Völkers, a real estate-turned-yacht-brokerage firm.

They have now produced a league table for the first time ranking the 15 most expensive marinas in the world.

The mooring fees charged for a 55-metre superyacht during the high season was the variable used to form the basis for the ranking list, which is headed by the Marina Grande on Capri.

Renting a berth for a 55-metre superyacht here costs 2,585 euros per day during the high season. This is followed by Porto Cervo on Sardinia with daily rates of 2,574 euros, then the Marina di Portofino on the Amalfi coast with rates amounting to 2,100 euros.

In addition to the location and services that a marina has to offer, there is one pricing factor that has a particularly strong impact on the high fees. Iñigo Nicholson, Licence Partner of Engel & Völkers Yachting Madrid and Marbella, regards a scarce supply of berths as being the most significant price driver: 'Yacht berths in exclusive locations are an extremely rare and highly sought-after commodity. In a similar way to real estate, high demand for a very limited number of spaces leads to a soaring inflation of prices.'

The industry specialist is not surprised therefore that Capri makes the top spot of the ranking list of the highest priced moorings for ‘floating homes’. After all, the hilly isle off the Amalfi coast only has ten yacht berths available that are large enough to accommodate the superyachts listed by Engel & Völkers.

Just behind the Italian frontrunners, in fourth place on the ranking list, is Puerto José Banus in Marbella on the Costa del Sol, where yacht owners pay 2.069 euros per day. In fifth place, at 1.643 euros per day, is the Balearic marina of Ibiza Magna. In comparison with Capri, yacht owners only pay around half of the daily mooring fee (1.356 euros) in France’s most expensive marina – Port de Saint-Tropez, which comes in sixth place.

This is no indication that the exclusive holiday domicile on the Côte d’Azur is any less popular. But Port de Saint-Tropez does offer no less than 30 yacht moorings in the size category surveyed by Engel & Völkers. Seventh place is occupied by the marina Port Camille Rayon in Golfe Juan, also located in the south of France. In the small coastal resort between Antibes and Cannes, owners of a 55-metre superyacht can expect to pay 1.100 euros per day. In Barcelona, the equivalent rate is slightly lower in price, costing 1.084 euros per day at the Marina Port Vell in the Spanish city.

Croatia more expensive than Monaco:
Marinas in Eastern Europe offer yacht berths at significantly cheaper rates compared to the Italian leaders in the ranking list. The ACI Marina in the Croatian resort of Split comes in ninth place at a rate of 1.001 euros per day. It is followed in tenth place by the only marina located outside Europe to make the list: The Yacht Haven Grande on the island of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, where owners pay a daily mooring fee of 889 euros. Port Hercules in Monaco holds eleventh place at 888 euros, closely followed by two Turkish marinas: Satur Marina Kalamis in Istanbul with a daily rate of 882 euros and Satur Marina Çesme in Izmir at 743 euros per day. The Italian Porto San Rocco on the Adriatic coast comes in fourteenth place at 720 euros per day, while Port de la Plaisance de Bonifacio on Corsica rounds off the ‘list of the best’ compiled by Engel & Völkers, coming in fifteenth place with a daily rate of 690 euros.

'Many yacht owners are surprised that Capri is more expensive than Porto Cervo, and that Puerto Banus charges higher prices than Monaco,' says Harry Peralta, Managing Director at Engel & Völkers Marbella. 'Having the right budget is not enough though for anyone wishing to moor their yacht in these scarce berths during the high season. Most importantly, they also need to have booked months in advance,' adds Mr. Peralta, reflecting the advice he gives clients.

However prices for the few available berths can fluctuate greatly, depending on the size of the yacht and on seasonal events. While Monte Carlo is eclipsed by many other harbours for price of berths, during the annual Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo for instance, mooring fees soar to unprecedented highs of several thousand euros. In addition, not all large yachts fit into every marina. Superyachts that are more than 70 metres in length, for example, usually have to weigh anchor off the coast.