Swap you a site for a boat, anyone?

MOST OF US would love a buoyant asset in our portfolios but a man who advertised in The Irish Timeslast Friday took this ambition quite literally.

“Boat Wanted” read the ad, which specified that the boat had to be 11-12 metres, suitable for the Shannon waterways and less than three years old.

In exchange he was offering no less than a three-quarter acre commercial site in Berlin, around 7kms from Alexander Platz. “Today’s market value €240,000. Estimated future value €500,000 due to future road planning. Current rental value €12-€15k per annum,” said the ad.

Intrigued, we contacted the man behind the ad who told us he lives in Wicklow but develops property in Germany.

He said he’d been promising to buy himself a boat for years and figured, rather than sell the site (with Irish investors expecting him to organise the finance), he would try to swap it.

“I think I’d be swapping a piece of gold,” he said, adding “maybe it will interest someone who paid €250,000 last year for a boat that’s sitting in Dún Laoghaire or on the Shannon and going down in value.”

Alas, it all proved to be academic. By Monday he received four e-mails expressing interest although he says the boats offered were only in the €140,000 to €160,000 price range.

In the meantime, he says by complete co-incidence a buyer who had been interested in the Berlin property – which is on a busy road opposite a Lidl and has planning for commercial units and seven houses – stepped forward and signed the contract.

But could he have started a trend. What next?

“Wanted. Vespa wanted in exchange for apartment in Bulgaria . . . ”