What do you buy once a penthouse starts to feel ordinary?
At the 35th Monaco Yacht Show, from 23 to 26 September in Port Hercule, the answer was a home that moves. Around 120 superyachts were on display, 43 of them world premieres, and the largest was Oceanco’s Leviathan, yet the project that drew the most talk was not in the water at all. It was Ulyssia, a 323m ship that will carry 122 private residences, sitting at €2 billion.
Think of it as a block of flats with an engine room.
What was on show in Monaco
The yachts themselves were the usual feast. Lürssen brought the 102m Nixie, the largest debut. Sunreef showed its first hundred-foot electric sailing catamaran. Italian yards filled the quays with new models between 40 and 60 metres. It is a trade fair, however glossy, and the people walking the pontoons are there to order, not to admire.
Ulyssia sat in a different category. Monaco Life reported building contracts are with China Merchants Cruise Shipbuilding for a design by Espen Øino, with 22 guest suites alongside the residences, and a maiden voyage from Monaco planned for 2031. The publication says the shipyard signing is scheduled for 12 November, and building will take around five years.
A home you own a share in
The homes range from 110 to 953 square metres and from about €10 million to €100 million. So far, so Monaco. The interesting part is what you actually get for the money.
It’s worth noting: you don’t receive a deed; you own a share in the company that owns the ship. Shares can be sold or inherited. The owners then decide together where the ship goes. This model was pioneered by ‘The World’, the residential ship that launched in 2002 and is still sailing, and it is closer to buying into a very exclusive cooperative than to buying a flat.
Then come the running costs. Ulyssia projects them at around 3.5 per cent of the purchase price every year, covering food, fuel, marina fees, maintenance and refits. On a €10 million home, that is €350,000 a year. On a €24 million one, which a trade report gave as the average, it is about €840,000. Keep the home for a little under three decades, and you have paid for it twice.
The lesson that works on dry land
I won’t put my name down, and I suspect most people won’t either. But I found the numbers oddly clarifying, because the project is so honest about something the rest of the property world prefers to mumble.
Every asset has a carrying cost. Ulyssia prints it on the brochure as a percentage. A house has one too, made up of repairs, insurance, service charges, tax and the boiler that picks its moment. So does a car, a boat and a holiday flat. We tend to compare purchase prices and forget the annual percentage that follows us around afterwards.
I have started doing the same sum on my own things. Take what something costs to keep each year, divide it by what it cost to buy, and you have a number you can compare across almost anything. A modest flat with a heavy service charge can be a more expensive thing to own, in percentage terms, than a ship full of millionaires. This is the same thinking behind the boring basket that beat my best idea: the dull detail is usually what makes the final decision.
Know what you actually own
The second lesson is about paperwork. Ulyssia’s buyers own a share in a company, not a piece of the hull. That is not a criticism. It is simply a different thing, with different rights, and the buyers have advisers to explain it.
Most of us meet smaller versions of the same question without advisers. A leasehold flat in England, a condominium in Florida, a timeshare in Spain and a share in a holiday lodge all look like owning a home. Each one means something different when you decide to sell, borrow against it or pass it on. The brochure tells you very little. The structure tells you nearly everything.
Where I land
Something is cheering about a €2 billion ship that makes ordinary property look sensible. It will be a remarkable thing if it sails on time. For the rest of us, the takeaway costs nothing: before falling for the price of something, ask what it costs to keep, and ask exactly what your name will be on. Those two questions work just as well in an estate agent’s window as they do in Port Hercule.
The Jacqueline Brand — knowledge builds confidence, and confidence builds wealth. This is editorial commentary for information and education only. It is not financial, investment or professional advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any investment. The Jacqueline Brand is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and past performance is not a guide to future returns. Figures were correct at the time of publication. Always do your own research and consider speaking to a regulated adviser. Where cryptoassets are discussed, they are high risk and largely unregulated in the UK, and you could lose all the money you invest. The Collection
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