Selling Your Yacht in Hong Kong: A Seller's Step-by-Step Guide

Selling a used yacht in Hong Kong comes down to six steps: ① decide how to sell (hand it to a broker or list it yourself) → ② value the boat and set an asking price → ③ gather your paperwork, photograph the boat and list it → ④ arrange viewings, a sea trial and the buyer's survey → ⑤ negotiate, sign the sale contract and take the deposit → ⑥ file the MD 513 transfer with the Marine Department together with the buyer. The government side is actually straightforward (the transfer fee is HK$355, paid by the buyer, and the form must be filed within 7 working days of signing). What usually slows sellers down is one of three things: a mortgage entry still sitting on the COO, an operating licence that has lapsed, or an asking price out of step with the market. This guide is the seller's version of our Guide to Buying a Used Yacht in Hong Kong: the same transaction, seen from the seller's side, with what to prepare at each step.

Spend an afternoon on a self-check before you look for buyers; it saves a lot of back-and-forth later. The Marine Department's MD 513 guidance is clear: if a mortgage has not been released, or the operating licence has expired, the transfer will not be formally recorded. A third item, COO details that no longer match the boat's current state (which must be notified to the Marine Department on form MD 511), is not a stated condition in the transfer guidance, but a buyer who sees it on the register will stop and ask questions all the same.

Sources: MD 513 Guidance Notes (Marine Department), Marine Department fees and charges, Marine Department FAQ: licensing of local vessels.

Serious buyers will want this HK$175 search done before they put down a deposit (it is what we recommend in the buyer's guide too). Note that, per the Marine Department FAQ, the search must be requested by the owner or by someone holding the owner's confirmation letter, so a buyer who wants to search will usually need a letter from you; it is best to have one ready. Running the search yourself first has a real advantage: you learn about any problem before the buyer does, and you can agree a timetable with your bank or finance company for releasing the mortgage before the boat is listed, rather than scrambling once a buyer has found it.

The Marine Department's requirements for transfer documents are the same whether a broker sells the boat or you sell it privately. The MD 513 guidance also lets the original owner complete the authorisation section, so that an authorised person can file the documents on their behalf with the original authorisation letter and their own original ID card. So the choice between a broker and selling yourself is not a legal one; it is about how time and risk are shared out:

Source: MD 513 Guidance Notes (authorisation section, addresses of the 8 district offices).

Before you appoint a broker, get these points in the contract rather than relying on a verbal understanding: how commission is calculated, when it is payable (on completion, or are there upfront fees), how long the mandate lasts, whether it is exclusive, and what happens if you want to withdraw the boat midway. Practice varies and there is no uniform standard, so what matters is the broker agreement you actually sign; any broker should be willing to walk you through it clause by clause before you sign.

Used yachts do not have public transaction records the way property does, so valuation rests mainly on three things: asking prices for the same or comparable models in the market, age and engine hours, and the boat's condition and equipment. The most practical approach is to find current asking prices for the same brand and a similar length.

Here is a worked example using the 2016 Absolute Navetta 52 in Sun Yachts' current stock (asking HK$7,800,000, a real listing). Suppose you have a similar Absolute you want to list; this is how you would line it up:

Source: Sun Yachts listings data. All figures are current asking prices, not sale prices. The two 2019 Navetta 48s are separate listings; details are as at the time of enquiry.

The table shows a few basic principles of valuation:

• An asking price is not a sale price. Everything above is a listing price; the final price will move after negotiation and the survey result. When you use market asking prices as a reference, leave room for negotiation, but do not assume a discount that bears no relation to reality.
• Look at age and hours together. Within the same range, newer boats with fewer hours generally ask more, but it is not a straight line; length, engine model and specification all open up gaps.
• Specification and recent maintenance count in your favour, so write them down. The original Navetta 52 listing specifically states "just relicensed, nano antifouling applied", "Full Option" and "SEAKEEPER gyro stabiliser". These are things buyers ask about and that affect whether they will make an offer. List every major service your boat has had and every option fitted before you go to market.

There is one more figure sellers rarely work out: every extra year the boat sits on the market is another year you pay to keep it. Berth, insurance, maintenance and licence fees do not stop because the boat is listed (see our breakdown of yacht running costs for how each is calculated). If the asking price is set too high and nobody enquires for months, that holding cost is a real loss.

To see roughly where your boat sits in today's market, you can compare it with our comparable stock.

What you prepare before listing falls into two groups: outward-facing (what buyers see) and inward-facing (what the transfer needs). For the outward-facing part, you can follow the nine fields in the spec table on a Sun Yachts boat page; buyers comparing boats go through them one by one:

Source: Sun Yachts listings data.

Beyond the specs, photographs are the second thing that decides whether a buyer will book a viewing: exterior, flybridge, saloon, cabins, heads, engine room and instrument panel should all be covered. Many sellers skip the engine room photos, but serious buyers will always ask.

The inward-facing part is the documents you need for the Step 6 transfer. We suggest finding the originals before you list, rather than discovering after a buyer has put down a deposit that nobody knows where the original COO is:

Source: MD 513 Guidance Notes.

A serious buyer will generally go through three stages: a viewing on shore → a sea trial → a pre-purchase survey by a surveyor. The survey is a report prepared for the buyer, and the common practice is for the buyer to arrange and pay for it. There is one thing sellers should know, though: the surveyor MSES states that during the sea trial and haul-out, the owner is responsible for operating the vessel and arranging the haul-out. In other words, this is a step where you (or your skipper) have to be there in person. How the haul-out and re-launch costs are split should be written into the contract.

Sources: One Blue Anchor (survey fee range, time for 40–55 ft, report turnaround), MSES (survey time for 36 ft, owner responsible for sea trial and haul-out).

What a seller can prepare at this stage:

1. Put the maintenance records and receipts in one file. Engine servicing, antifouling and electrical repairs are most convincing with receipts and dates.
2. Check the basics before the sea trial. Batteries, bilge pumps, fuel and safety equipment: an alarm going off mid-trial directly hurts the buyer's confidence.
3. Do not conceal known problems. A surveyor will generally find them. If you raise it yourself, you keep the initiative in the negotiation; if the survey report spells it out, the buyer is negotiating with the report in hand.

We cover what surveyors look for (for example fibreglass hull osmosis and galvanic corrosion of underwater metalwork) in the buyer's guide; it is worth a read as a seller too, so you know what buyers will ask.

The most important clause in a used-yacht sale contract is making the survey and sea trial results a condition of completion (the survey and sea trial condition). That means that if the survey uncovers a major problem, the buyer is entitled to ask for a price reduction, ask the seller to carry out repairs, or cancel the deal. Sellers need to understand how this clause works so they know their bottom line at each stage:

Sources: MD 513 Guidance Notes (7-working-day filing deadline); for the survey condition, see Step 1 of the buyer's guide.

When negotiating, keep the holding cost from Step 2 in mind: if the buyer's offer is a little short of what you had in mind but the boat has already been on the market for a while, once you add up the monthly running costs, a sooner sale can sometimes be the better decision.

The transfer form is MD 513 (Notification of Transfer of Ownership). It is signed by both the original owner and the new owner (if held by a company, by an authorised person with the company chop), and then filed at any Marine Department district office within 7 working days of the transfer.

Sources: MD 513 Guidance Notes, Marine Department fees and charges, district office addresses. The documents actually required are as the district office currently directs; it is worth phoning the office to confirm before you go.

Once the transfer is done, the seller still has two things to follow up:

• The berth: the yacht licence and the berth / membership are two separate systems. A club berth is dealt with under the club's membership rules; if you hold a Marine Department private mooring, transferring it requires a different form, MD547, and the Marine Department has frozen new applications for private moorings since 1 January 2021 (Marine Department private mooring page). How the berth is handled is best settled in the Step 5 contract. For the berth situation around Sai Kung, see Sai Kung Berthing: Marina Cove and Hong Kong's Berth Shortage.
• Insurance: the new owner must take out third-party risks insurance in their own name before the MD 513 can be filed. Confirm with your own insurer what to do with your existing policy (cancel or transfer) and from what date, and do not stop cover before the transfer date.