Price Reductions

April 29, 2010

The affordability of property in the Alps continues to improve for British buyers.  Since Sterling reached an historic low against the Euro (£1 = 1.06 €) in Oct 2009 the rates have been improving until we reached a recent high (£1=1.16€)  this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/currency/11/13/twelve_month.stm

Combine this with price reductions over the same period and some properties are looking 20% cheaper to a British buyer when compared to the Autumn of last year.

A couple of  chalets that have come down in price this week.

1. Chalet La Toile, 680 000 €uros ST GERVAIS

4 bedrooms; quiet, sunny and with great views

Chalet in St Gervais

Floor area     175 m²
Land area     1094 m²
Nearest skiing     1500 metres

2. Chalet Les Chouettes, 675 000 €uros, CHATEL

A 6 bedroom, ‘ski-in’ chalet at Petit Chatel.

Chalet in Chatel

Floor area     223 m²
Land area     1500 m²
Ski access     ski bus within walking distance
Nearest skiing     1300 metres


Chalet La Toile Contact us about this property
Price 680 000 €uros
Status FOR SALE
Last updated 07/04/2010
Area MONT BLANC
Location ST GERVAIS
Bedrooms 4
Bathrooms 4
Floor area 175 m²
Land area 1094 m²
Detached yes
Heating oil fired central heating
Chimney open fire
Nearest skiing 1500 metres
Garden yes
Drainage mains drains

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Posted by Gareth

St Gervais welcomes new Hotel

March 4, 2010

A new hotel has just opened in St Gervais, further evidence of the towns up and coming chic atmosphere. “La Feline Blanche” www.lafelineblanche.com is a 10 bedroom establishment run by Brigitte and Jean-Jacques Ballet. Tastefully decorated suites in black and white marry both contemporary design and the mountain-look, and prices start at a reasonable 129E per night for a double room.

With a dynamic Maire and much investment, St Gervais has seen many recent changes including a full facelift of a main part of the high street, granite curbing and paths as well as new lampposts. Recent establishments such as the contemporary “Pur bar” www.pur-bar.com who experiment with fresh new ideas such as a “beach” outside with sand and deck chairs in the summer, help offer clients more than just its cocktails, champagne and smoothies. There has also been the recent refurbishment of le Serac, a fine dining restaurant which has won its second accolade from the famous gastro guide ”Gault et Millau”.

The changes over the last few years have all helped increase St Gervais caché and appeal. Consequently it is now starting to compete seriously amongst its nearby upmarket neighbours, Chamonix and Megève.

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Posted by Gareth

New Spa Project for Chamonix

February 25, 2010

summer picture of Chamonix churchThe Dauphine Libere reported about a meeting that took place earlier this week in Chamonix. The town hall delegate for development (Yvonick Plaud) proposed the development of a spa complex, thermo pools, saunas, jacuzzi s, steam room, massage, therapy etc….

This type of development proposal is in line with the current thinking in many resorts to provide alternatives to skiing. The demographic of the ski visitor is ageing and in Chamonix the older skier may well find the local skiing a bit arduous! Obviously there would be fairly heavy financial (5-8m Euros) and environmental hurdles to overcome.

This cost sounds quite high from the point of view of the Mairie of Chamonix, though when you compare it to the cost of a new telecabine it does not sounds to bad.

Just think, in the future Chamonix-les-Bains could be competing with St Gervais-les-Bains.

Maybe now is the time to consider splashing out on that new pad in the centre of Chamonix, Apartment Cloud Nine, could be a good start!

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Posted by Gareth

Jean Vuarnet in Morzine

February 23, 2010

Click here to see the Jean Vuarnet in Morzine

On Monday of this week the town of Morzine unveiled a sculpture commemorating 5o years since Jean Vuarnet won the Gold Medal in the Downhill at the Winter Olympics, in Sqaw Valley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Winter_Olympics

The unveiling was a grand occasion, covered by the national news, a feel of which can be gained by watching the video I have linked to above. The Maire of Morzine (Jean-Louis Battandier) referred obliquely to a controversy involving Jean Vuarnet in during his speech. This raised some eyebrows for the new comers to Morzine. We see Jean Vuarnet’s name all the time around and about Morzine and Avoriaz, obviously there is the Gold Medal which is reason enough for Morzine to promote their link with this famous name, those of us who were not around in the 60′s will know the name Vuarnet thanks to the brand of sunglasses. If you read about Avoriaz you will always see his name mentioned, Vuarnet was heavily involved with the development and promotion of Avoriaz in the late 60′s and early 70′s.

The controversy is salacious and ultimately very sad.  Some information and links below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Vuarnet#cite_note-2

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983915,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Solar_Temple

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Posted by Gareth

Avoriaz

February 15, 2010

We’ve just designated a new area on our website for Avoriaz

http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=search&loc=23&lang=en

This might not sound ground breaking but it is quite a departure for Alpine Property. We have always concentrated on Chalets and properties in the valley ski resorts. in 2006/7 when we had a tricky season of snow we wondered if we should look more closely at Avoriaz, the prices held up well as buyers naturally headed for the “snow sure” areas.

We ski through Avoriaz plenty, personally I live down below in St Jean d’Aulps and visit frequently in the Summer and Winter. I have always had a soft spot for the philosophy and the architecture. I have often had to defend it from it’s critics. Here are some reasons why to like it:

1. Car free, when it was built in the 1960′s this went against the flow, it really shows were the designers were coming from though.

2. Designed to blend in with the surrounding mountains, it does a good job too, I love pointing to the horizon from Morzine and asking the people I’m with to spot Avoriaz. It’s there but it is well camoflaged, no straight edges, and clad in cedar. Genius.

3. It’s at 1800m and is predominately North facing, very snow sure and with modern lifts and tons of snow-making (just in case).

4. Very little expansion from when it was finished in the early 70′s has meant that the property prices have held up well compared to other resorts with a more liberal building policy.

Piste Hors have a nice write up on the history of Avoriaz.

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Haute-Savoie/Avoriaz-History

So no sooner have we added our first little apartment on the website it becomes our hottest property!

http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_1_cedrat&lang=en&hist=page_searchXloc_23Xlang_en

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Posted by Gareth

Winter Olympics Vancouver 2010

February 15, 2010
Winter Olympics Vancouver

Ellie Koyander

So I think I have watched pretty much all the coverage possible, why not?

1. We live in a winter resort so it makes sense.

2. Our region wants to host the Winter Games in 2018

3. I love watching sport on TV. I like taking part as well (I’ll do that tomorrow!)

4. We (France) need to beat the Germans, why? Well Munich is our main contender for the 2018 Winter Olympics so surely beating the Germans will help our bid?

France was just edging Germany when I wrote this, the latest results here.

http://winterolympics.external.bbc.co.uk/medals/2010-standings/index.html

The picture at the top is Ellie Koyander, Ellie came 24th on the Moguls competition for Britain. Well done!

http://elliekoyander.com/

We sold the chalet of Ellie’s parents a few years ago (in the Aravis), that is about our closest connection with the Games this year!

Local (to Morzine) competitors include

Cyprien RICHARD : Geant Slalom
Latest results:
29.01 6th World Cup at Kranjska Gora
30.01  9th World Cup Kranjska Gora
Olivia BERTRAND :  Geant Slalom
22.01 48th World Cup Super G at Cortina d’Ampezzo
24.01  14th World Cup Giant at Cortina d’Ampezzo
29.01  13th European Giant at Courchevel
Johann BAISAMY : Snowboard half-pipe
13th at Calgary and 17th at Kreichberg, in the World Cup
Paraolympics
Yohann TABERLET
30.01  Winner World Cup Giant at La Molina

Good luck to them all.

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Posted by Gareth

Junior World Ski Championships St Gervais, Megeve and Chamonix

February 2, 2010

St Gervais, Megève and Chamonix are playing host this week to the Alpine Junior World Championship. Over 300 participants from all over the world will be taking part in ski races between the 30th Jan and 6th Feb 2010. These elite participants are aged between 15 and 20 years old.

The official opening ceremony took place at the St Gervais ice rink on Sunday 31st January. For the rest of the week the men’s giant slalom is scheduled to take place in Megève (Cote 2000) and the ladies slalom in Chamonix. Eurosport will be covering the event. The closing ceremony and medal presentation will be in Megève on the 6th Feb.

The program

Sunday 31st Jan and 1st Feb – Ladies downhill training

Tuesday 2nd Feb – Ladies Downhill

Wednesday 3rd Feb – Ladies and men’s Giant Slaloms

Thursday and Friday – Men’s downhill training

Saturday 6th Feb – Men’s downhill

Further information can be found on the official website:

http://www.mondiauxskijunior2010.com/

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Posted by Gareth

Property Market Update

January 8, 2010

The last market update I did was at the beginning of the Autumn

http://alpschaletforsale.com/2009/09/17/property-market-remains-fluid/

I reported that we had a busy summer with lots of transactions thanks to more negotiation than normal and lower prices. So a good time to buy a chalet or apartment but not a great time to sell one.

The Connexion newspaper has just done a “Property Supplement” that looks at the figures across France for 2009. *

Many of the figures they use fly in the face of our experience. In general they report that 2009 was a difficult year for property sales in all respects. This opionion is contrary to ours and could be explained by:

  1. They are looking at 2009 as a whole, I report on what has happened over the last couple of months.
  2. They are using figures for either the whole of France or individual departments, our experience is just of a few particular ski stations and the surrounding areas.

Some of the facts used by The Connexion are:

  • Total Sales

2009 = approx 550,000

2008 = 770,000

2007 = 844,00

  • Mortgages down 22% on 2008
  • 5,000 (out of 35,000) estate agents shut their doors in 2009.

I don’t dispute any of these figures, they just (on the whole) don’t match up with our “local” experience. One of the findings we do agree with is:

  • Lowest level of housing construction since 1998 – Though even this is picking up again now.

The Connexion does pick up on an anomalous statistic being quoted by the FNAIM (The French Estate Agents Association), that in general house prices have increased by 3% over the year. I don’t think anyone agrees with this – even their spokesman questioned this – and for that he ended up having to find another job!

Our opinion is that property prices have fallen over 2009. It’s difficult to put a figure on it, as it depends on the type, value and location of the property. Some generalisations follow.

  • The big name resorts (Megève and Chamonix) have resisted the price falls but then they have probably seen less transactions as a result.
  • The smaller ski areas (Grand Bornand, La Clusaz, Morzine, Les Gets, Samoens, Chatel etc) have seen quite large price reductions of 10 to 30% on asking prices.
  • The outlying areas (St Jean d’Aulps, Le Biot, Verchaix etc) have seen two effects. Cheap family homes have held their value (so chalets for less than 400,000 Euros), there are a lot of people that live and work in the resorts that need to house their families, these properties are less effected by speculation and the bubble that was created by the second home price inflation. Small apartments have held up in the outlying areas too. The property that is really struggling is the larger (so 600k+) property in the outlying areas, few families working in the Haute Savoie can afford a family home of that price and people looking for a second home are being more cautions and insisting on regarding their properties as investments that can provide an income, this leads them to look into the centre of the resorts where the rental incomes are more secure.

So too cut a rather lengthy post short.

  1. Property Transactions are still fluid, in fact they have returned to post 2009 levels.
  2. Prices have come down, or at the very least the owners will negotiate heavily.
  3. Mortgage rates have improved.
  4. There is still no shortage of properties coming onto the market 244 properties are listed on our website, up from 228 in September 2009.

All our latest properties, land, apartments and chalets can be found by clicking on this link.

Some further examples of the latest properties for sale can be found below.

Our most expensive recent additon.

Apartment Cloud Nine

Apartment Cloud Nine

Appt. Cloud Nine  (located in CHAMONIX & VALLEY)
2 250 000 €uros
A simply stunning, 4 bedroom luxury apartment in central Chamonix.
http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_1_cloudnine&lang=en&hist=page_searchXtyp_NXlang_en

Our least expensive recent addition.

Apartment Bellevue

Appt Bellevue 10  (located in MORZINE)
149 000 €uros
A one bedroom apartment in Morzine
http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_1_bellevue546&lang=en&hist=page_searchXtyp_NXlang_en

A lovely chalet above Samoens.

Demi-Chalet Olga

Demi-Chalet Olga

Demi-Chalet Olga  (located in SAMOËNS & VALLEY)
650 000 €uros
A spacious 4 bedroom chalet above Samoens.
http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_1_olgademi&lang=en&hist=page_searchXtyp_NXlang_en

*The Connexion is an English languange newspaper that is posted to subscribers. For more information go to http://www.connexionfrance.com/index.php

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Posted by Gareth

Early Season Snow Conditions

January 5, 2010

5/01/2010

Some of the Alpine Propetry team managed a morning out about the Valley de la Manche (Morzine)

fornay2

fornay2

This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

Last Snow Update of 2009:

26/12/2009. No pictures I’m afraid. Just to say that the “early season” conditions have fluctuated hugely, from very good conditions to very bad conditions! The stable weather of the middle of the month broke down around the 20th of December, since then the temperature has been fluctuating from “Baltic” to “Tropical” and is still in that cycle. Everything (from the valley floor up, with artificial snow cover is white and varies from good to icy, From 1500m to 1800m the natural snow starts to appear and anything above 1800m is in good condition. These observations seem to match quite closely the full descritption from the “ Bulletin neige et avalanches”.

http://france.meteofrance.com/france/MONTAGNE?MONTAGNE_PORTLET.path=montagnebulletinneige/DEPT74

Snow update 15/12/09, we decided to dispel some of the rumours circulating about the snow conditions, we took the Alpine Property video camera to document what we saw. Below are details of two half day excursions in the Portes du Soleil. If it softens the blow, we will be working this coming weekend!

Tuesday morning (15/12/09)

Mossettes 15/12/2009

Mossettes 15/12/2009

This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

Monday afternoon (14/12/09)

Avoriaz Dec 09

Avoriaz Dec 09

This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

Snow Reports from earlier in the month.

3/12/09 It looks like Avoriaz/Morzine/Le Grande Terche! are all opening this weekend (for the weekend), I guess everyone else will be as well.

The snow has reached the lower reaches of the Alps over the last day or so. This is a picture of my garden in St Jean d’Aulps, at 800m altitude, 4/5cm here. No announcements yet about a possible early opening of the lifts but I suspect they will this weekend.

We have been busy adding new properties to our website. Over the last 3 weeks we’ve added another 20.

For a complete list of all our latest properties

http://alpine-property.com/index.php?page=search&typ=N〈=en

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Posted by Gareth

Morzine Communal Projects

November 15, 2009

morzine

The “Bulletins Municipaux” has just been published in Morzine. This a the newsletter published by the Morzine Mairie 3 times a year. It has always been very informative and this issue is no exception.

I will summarise in a list the projects and stage of development they have reached.

  1. The Tourist Office square, worked restarted here at the beginning of the Autumn 2009, good progress has been made, there is plenty of nice smooth tarmac, open space and quality looking bits of rock disspersed around the area. The outdoor ice rink is scheduled to be complete before the winter and the “square” will certainly be functional by Christmas, there is more work to come however with a very advanced lighting system and work to the surrounding roads scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010.
  2. The work for the wood-burning heating network started in the summer of 2009. This environmentally friendly heating project uses local wood harvested in a sustainable way. This huge project includes 1.4km of heating conduit that snakes around the town providing heat for the Town Hall, Library, Vicarage, ANPE Offices, both the schools, judo and music rooms, the Palais des Sports and the swimming pool.
  3. New pool for Morzine. The plans for this project where but on display at the outdoor pool this summer. The work is due to commence in the Spring of 2010, pause for the the summer and then carry on in the Autumn, scheduled to be completed by the winter of 2011/12. All the existing pools will be retained, the existing changing rooms and restaurant will be removed and replaced with a 25m x 15m indoor pool, a spar, 3 saunas, 2 hammams, relaxation space and new restaurant.
  4. The new Pierre et Vacances apartment project at Avoriaz continues, we have the apartments for sale on our website. The apartment building works start in the Spring of 2010, the Aquariaz project starts in the Autumn of 2010, the second phase of apartment building is scheduled to start in 2011.
  5. The work towards the replacement for the Prodains cable car is due to start in the Spring of 2010 and due to be completed by the winter 2011/12. The cable car that has been proposed linking Morzine to Avoriaz is still in the feasibility study stage.
  6. The Morzine ski company reports that plenty of work has been carried out adding snow cannons and moving snow cannons around the pistes to deal with “gaps” in cover. Everyone will have seen the earth works carried out on the “Retour des Nants” AKA the “Green return piste”, included with this is 6 new snow canons therefore adding another snowsure route back to the foot of the Pleney side of Morzine. Also mentioned was a proposed to 6 seater chair lift to replace the acient Chamossiere chairlift. Work is due to start on this next year to be completed for next winter.

There is lots more information in the newsletter and it is produced in English and French. Click below for links:

Morzine Bulletins Municipaux in French

Morzine Council News in English

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Posted by Gareth

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