Residential ships are a way to share expenses instead of owning your own private yacht. The concept seems reasonable, but there is some price gouging going on in the business.
The ship that started the current spate of luxury residential 중국배대지 homes aboard cruise ships was “The World,” operated and managed by ResidenSea. All the residences onboard “The World” are already sold-out, but occasionally an owner puts one up for sale. If you have to ask the price, you probably cannot afford it.
Residential Cruise Line, LTD. Is offering 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 624 sq.ft. apartments on “The Magellan” for a mere $2,160,000. A 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath, 4334 sq.ft. unit will set you back $15,460,000 to buy and an annual maintenance fee of $542,000.
Not to be outdone, The Four Seasons Ocean Residences has units running from $3.75 million to $39 million, and sizes range from 797 square feet for a 1-bedroom unit to 7,860 square feet for a 4-bedroom unit.
The “Orphalese” plans to launch in 2008. They are offering 200 permanent residences ranging from the 1,000-square-feet, 2-bedroom Pegasus Estate to the 3,700-square-feet, 5-bedroom Penthouse, which are available for full ownership. The 2-bedrooms start at $1.8 million with $30,000 in annual fees, while penthouses start at $10 million with $78,000 in annual fees.
Voyage Partners has a ship under construction but has not announced pricing yet. When they do, the prices will probably fall in the range of the others in this short list of new residential cruise ships.
Another ship of this caliber is in the planning stages, it is to be named “Everest” and will be 656′ in length if or when it is built. It is to intended have 17 apartments and an owners private penthouse suite on the top deck.
“The Orphalese” is the best bargain of the bunch, and I think it is the highest quality ship too. “The Orphalese” is being built at the Aker Shipyards in Finland by the same builders who have recently built the biggest and best mega cruise ships in the world, including the largest of all cruise ships “The Freedom of the Seas” operated by Royal Caribbean. Also the management of “The Orphalese” seems to be practical. There will also be 265 guest suites available on the ship for cruise passengers who do not own residences.
Using the best of the bunch “The Orphalese” as a benchmark, let’s see how it stacks up against real world prices.
New cruise ships can be built for around $200 million. The most expensive new mega cruise ships cost about $500 million to build.
All the current prices of residences onboard cruise ships are exorbitant. Rich people apparently enjoy squandering their money. It must be a status thing to waste more money than the Joneses. For those who prefer to not waste money trying to outspend the Joneses, there is a better way.
Occasionally a cruise line may have a new ship under construction and run into financial difficulties. They may be forced to abandon the construction project, and an unfinished ship may sit idle in a shipyard. There are such ships available now. One in particular is as follows: