Residential Cruise Ship Projects Multiply as Financing Stays the Obstacle
Ulyssia signs a letter of intent with China Merchants for a $1.5 billion ship
The residential segment of the cruise industry is lining up for significant growth if a series of announced projects reach construction. Multiple businesses have failed to capitalise on the idea of living permanently at sea, and several more have now announced plans to put ships into the segment.
The latest is Ulyssia Residences, which says it will build a 323-metre residential yacht cruise ship comprising 122 residences and 22 guest suites, with a marina, two helicopters, a submarine for residents' use, a dive centre, fitness facilities, a spa and multiple restaurants. In 2025 the company was in discussions with Meyer Werft. It has since signed a letter of intent with China Merchants' cruise shipbuilding division for a contract that could be valued at as much as $1.5 billion. No contract has been signed. In 2025 the company said at the Monaco Yacht Show that the Ulyssia would launch in 2031.
Similar plans have stalled before. In 2021 Ocean Residences Development was said to have awarded a construction contract, subject to financing, to Meyer Werft for an 84,800 gross ton ship named Njord, with 117 apartments and a launch by the end of 2025. Nothing proceeded. Meyer Werft has since booked building slots in its large hall until the end of 2030 and mothballed its smaller hall.
The World, at 43,188 gross tons, launched in 2002 as the first true residential cruise ship, with 165 residences. The economics of building and maintaining a cruise ship remain daunting, and the financial challenges are greater still for operators planning to convert older tonnage. The only conversion to succeed so far is Villa Vie Residences, which took a 1993-built ship that last operated as Fred. Olsen's Braemar. Now the Villa Vie Odyssey, it is approaching two years into a first three-and-a-half-year cruise and is reported 85 percent sold.
Villa Vie has a second older ship, so far unidentified, that will launch as Legacy in early 2029 as a more upscale offering with cabins 50 percent larger. Founder Mikael Petterson is also starting a second company, Avora Residences, which holds a nine-year charter from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings for Regent's Seven Seas Navigator at 28,800 gross tons, with purchase options. That ship hands over in late 2027 and relaunches in January 2028 as Avora Lumina.
It is the second attempt on that hull. A Florida-based luxury real estate firm launched Crescent Seas in 2025, chartering Oceania Insignia and Seven Seas Navigator, then cancelled the charters in November 2025 after discussions with potential buyers. The company said it had gained a deepened understanding of what high-net-worth buyers want, citing more space, flexibility, and participation in the design of their homes, and that the constraints of converting 25-year-old ships made those expectations difficult to meet. Crescent Seas pivoted to a newbuild called Ocean, at 55,000 gross tons with 300 units and a stated fourth-quarter 2031 delivery, though no construction contract has been confirmed. The pattern across the segment is one of announced sale and purchase and charter deals outpacing contracts that actually close.
