Welcome! You’re here because something piqued your interest: Perhaps you’ve received a recommendation, searched online, or heard about us from a fellow investor. Whatever the reason, we’re glad you’re here.

Whether you’re an experienced investor or just exploring new opportunities, we want to provide you with valuable insights into an emerging investment space: marinas. Our goal is to educate and inform investors about the potential benefits, risks, and market trends surrounding marinas as an investment asset. If you want to learn more, we’d love to have a conversation about how to get started.

“Marinas? Really? I’ve never thought of them as an investment!”

That’s a common reaction. For years, the focus in real estate has been on single-family and multifamily residential properties. These sectors are familiar and easy to understand, as everyone needs a place to live, and the demand for housing has consistently been strong. But the landscape is changing. 

Major institutional investors like Wall Street are increasingly dominating residential real estate. In 2024, it’s estimated that institutional funds will buy one in three single-family homes. As a result, individual investors are finding it harder to compete for the returns or margins they once enjoyed. The same consolidation trend is happening in multifamily properties, making it challenging to achieve the same wealth growth as before.

Many investors have turned to alternative assets like self-storage, which offers steady returns. However, cap rates in self-storage have dropped below 7% in many areas, leaving investors to question how to maintain meaningful growth while keeping up with inflation.

So, what’s next? Where can investors find new opportunities?

Marinas and recreational real estate, such as RV parks, are quickly emerging as attractive investment options. Here’s how we’ve discovered marinas offer exciting potential:

1. Family-owned operations: Approximately 96% of marinas in the U.S. are owned by individual families or small companies. These “mom-and-pop” businesses often lack the resources for modernization, creating opportunities for investors like us to step in, revitalize operations, and increase value. As privately owned businesses, they often lack the capital needed to expand their operations and increase value. They also have a history of not raising their rents to market standards.
2. Under the radar of big funds: Wall Street and large institutional investors have typically classified marinas as “alternative assets,” making up only a small percentage of their portfolios. They are starting to take notice, but they often prefer to buy established, cash-flowing marinas, leaving opportunities for investors to add value to underperforming properties.
3. A less saturated market: Unlike more familiar real estate sectors, marinas haven’t yet become a crowded space for investors. This means there’s still room to capture strong returns as the sector matures.

We hope you find this informative and thought-provoking. We strongly believe marinas represent a promising investment opportunity compared to other asset classes. If marinas sound like an investment opportunity worth exploring, contact us at investing@southsilvergroup.com or schedule a call with Jay. We’re excited to share more and help you consider whether this could be the right addition to your portfolio.