Among all the items billionaires buy with their money, high-class mega-yachts dominate the top-10 list of the most expensive luxury purchases, according to Wealth-X.
Luxury vessels take up eight of the top 10 slots, with the world’s largest mega-yacht, the Azzam, ranking at the top of the list.
The 590-foot yacht was purchased in 2013 for a reported $627 million by the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan — a price that would mean the vessel is worth around 3.5 percent of the Sheikh’s net worth of around $17.9 billion, said Wealth-X, which researches the ultra-wealthy.
The $627 million price-tag for the Azzam, which is also the world’s fastest yacht over 300 feet long with a top speed of 37 miles per hour, overtook the previous largest yacht, the $485 million Eclipse, Wealth-X said. Owned by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, the Eclipse was ranked number three on the list of most expensive luxury assets, coming in at around 4 percent of the total estimated net worth of Abramovich.
The Eclipse features two helicopter pads, 11 guest cabins, two swimming pools, exterior fireplace and a dance hall, as well as coming equipped with intruder detection systems, a German-built missile defense system, and bullet-proof glass and armor plating in the master suite and bridge. It can accommodate up to 30 guests and 75 crew.
The 440-foot Serene, which features seven decks, two helicopter landing platforms, storage for a large submarine and a large internal swimming pool, ranks at number four on Wealth-X’s list. The yacht, owned by Yury Shefler is valued at $330 million, suggesting the founder of the company that makes Stolichnaya Vodka stretched his finances a bit for the purchase as it would mark around 20 percent of his estimated net worth, according to the Wealth-X list.
To be sure, real estate can’t be written off. The second-most-expensive luxury asset is Lanai Island in Hawaii, purchased by Oracle founder Larry Ellison for $500 million and representing around 1 percent of his estimated net worth of $46.4 billion.
Lest you worry that Ellison isn’t cruising the high seas with his fellow billionaires, he is part owner of the 454-foot Rising Sun. Although it doesn’t rank on Wealth-X’s top-10 list, the yacht houses 16 guests and 45 crew and cost an estimated $200 million to build.
The Monaco home of Dmitry Rybolovlev tied with another yacht for eighth place on the list, with the real estate having a price tag of $286 million, coming in at 2.5 percent of his estimated net worth.
But while yachts may rank among the most expensive toys, their sales and prices have been on a downtrend.
Deliveries of super-yachts — those more than 30 meters, or around 98 feet — fell to 169 in 2012. This was down from the boom-time level of 261 seen in 2008, according to the Yachting Index from Superyacht Times and Camper & Nicholsons.
Overall, prices are down about 20 percent since 2008, and the number of super-yachts being built has also fallen.
Some Russian and Middle Eastern buyers of very large yachts — those over 250 feet — have continued to place orders. The average size of yachts ordered also continues to increase. But the mass of U.S. boating enthusiasts who were buying 120-foot and 150-foot boats in the peak years of 2007 and 2008 has yet to return.