Yacht Leasing
Our established team has over 30 years of experience in yacht financing. We offer customised and attractive leasing for European yacht owners.
Financial Lease
Our financial product is an ideal option if you seek finance between €500K and €1M for your selected yacht. It is a straightforward product, applicable for yachts that are used privately or commercially.
The yacht will be purchased by the St Julian’s Maritime Finance Ltd (“the Lessor”), and at the start of the lease, the economic ownership of the yacht will be transferred to the user (“the Lessee”), however during the term of the lease the legal ownership is retained by the Lessor. The full ownership of the yacht will be transferred to the Lessee when the purchase option at the end of the lease has been paid.
We offer financial leases for new and used yachts with lease terms from 2 to 5 years with equal monthly rentals/installments.
In most cases, we require a down payment of 30% to 40% (max LTV 70%) and allow a purchase option (last bullet payment) of 10% to 20%.
Please note that the yacht is required to enter Maltese waters at the beginning of the Lease Agreement. Other conditions may apply.
Learn more about why leasing and registering your yacht in Malta will give you substantial operational and fiscal advantages here.
Operating Lease
Our unique operating lease is the most suitable finance product for higher valued commercially and privately used yachts, in particular, the VAT treatment for privately used yachts is very beneficial as the VAT is not charged on the purchase value but on the lease rentals.
For every lease a new dedicated company will be set up, and this Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) will be solely operated for your leased yacht. The SPV will be fully owned by St Julian’s Maritime Finance Ltd.
The yacht will be purchased/owned by the SPV (“the Lessor”), and the yacht will be rented for the fixed lease period by the client (“the Lessee”).
At the end of the lease, the Lessee will have the right to purchase the yacht or to purchase the SPV which owns the leased yacht.
We offer Operating leases to new and used yachts with lease terms from 2 to 5 years with equal monthly rentals.
In most cases, we will require a first down payment/loan of 30% to 40% (Max LTV 70%) and allow a 10% to 20% remaining financed balance at the end of the lease.
For commercial use (chartered) yachts no VAT will be calculated on the lease rentals.
For private used yachts, the deferral of the VAT payment is optimised as the VAT is spread over 20 years, however, the biggest VAT saving will materialise when the yacht is disposed of when you as lessee want to upgrade or sell the yacht. This essentially means that as a lessee you will have paid VAT only on the depreciation, and the yacht will be sold as NON-VAT PAID.
At the point of resale there is a difference in value between a VAT PAID and NON-VAT PAID yacht, however in comparison to a straight purchase at the start (paying 18% over the purchase value), our product will result in substantial VAT savings.
See the comparison of yacht investment costs with disposal of the yacht after 5 years below:
