Vintage cars have risen 185% in value over the past decade, outstripping the growth of luxury rivals wine, watches and art, and ranking second only to rare whiskies, according to Knight Frank’s 2023 wealth report.
This year, the asset manager is launching what it describes as the world’s first “evergreen” fund to invest in vintage vehicles, and says it’ll only bet on cars worth more than 1 million euros each. The Hetica fund, which is targeting returns of 9%-15% after seven years, has bought a dozen cars so far and aims to get to 30-35 cars by the fifth year, leaving the last two years to sell the vehicles and pay investors.“We’ve seen more than 100 attempts at setting up funds in the past. Nobody managed to build both a diversified investor base and a diversified car portfolio,” said Dietrich Hatlapa, founder of classic car research house HAGI, which supplies the sector data used by Knight Frank.
“It’s getting harder and harder to find the proper mechanics to keep these cars alive. And you have to spend quite an amount of money to keep all these cars in running condition,” he said. Nonetheless, the classic car market is expanding as the number of wealthy people also rises; the value of vintage cars grew 25% in 2022, their strongest performance in nine years and second only to art’s 29% increase, according to Knight Frank.
Ferrari Classiche cars are pictured in a garage at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Alessandro GarofaloThe global race to renounce combustion engine cars will only serve to heighten interest in these relics of a vanishing era, say some market players.