High net worth individuals from the East are increasing their spend on big ticket items with new super yacht deliveries topping the ‘must buy’ list.
A new report released this week shows that conspicuous consumption on high-end luxury goods has not abated despite the worldwide recession, with yacht delivery hitting the top of the expenditure chart for the worlds richest.
Published by a leading bank, the survey polled 160 bankers looking after 5000 of the richest clients in the UK, each with at least $10million in liquid assets. Without exception, all Russian account holders increased spending on deluxe goods, with super yachts closely followed by private jets. The payout from Europeans and Americans on such items was down 30% and 57% respectively.
When it comes to executive transport, big is better for customers from Asia, the Middle East and Russia. Chelsea football owner Roman Abramovich has just welcomed his latest yacht delivery – the world’s longest mega-yacht. Costing £600million, M/Y The Eclipse measures 163m, one very important metre longer than the previous world record holder.
The Eclipse boasts 24 luxury suites, a 16m on-deck swimming pool that can be transformed into a dancefloor, two on ship helipads, storage for three helicopters and even a private submarine. And all this comes just months after then oligarch accepted yacht delivery on another 115m long mega-yacht called M/Y Luna in 2010.
According to analysts, high net worth individuals from Asia, the Middle East and Russia are bucking spending trends, increasingly placing orders for mega and super yachts to be built in European shipyards. Abramovich’s Eclipse ocean-going yacht was delivered to Norway for sea testing after being built in a German dockyard.
David Poole, head of wealth management at Citi Private Bank who released the report, said: “Spending patterns on conspicuous luxury are way up in emerging market countries, while substantially depressed in the developed world. This is yet another sign of the flux in wealth from West to East, and a trend that will continue to grow over the next decade.”