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.
For the second year in a row Alpine Property attended the “Second Home International” property exhibition in Utrecht. Last year produced some good sales and some contacts with other Dutch sales channels so we headed over again. Early signs are promising, we registered 20% more prospective buyers on our database and the general feeling was that the people we spoke to where more serious about a purchase than last year. It is always hard to tell how things have gone straight after the exhibition, for example one of the people we met last year has just signed for his new property this month. These things are very long-term! The organisers have not released their official figures yet but so far it looks like about 10,000 people visited the exhibition over the weekend. In a country of only 16 million that is fairly impressive.
So why Utrecht? The Dutch have always been very keen on the Haute Savoie, especially in the 90′s, they went a little cool when the British pushed the prices through the roof but are now returning in their droves and mopping up the bargains. They are in the Eurozone so don’t feel the effects of the weak pound. Apparently Utrecht is the best place to meet in Holland, it is within an hour of anywhere in the country.
Here is a little video too, a word of warning though. It’s not terribly exiting.
Historically Alpine Property’s portal to the outside world has been via the World Web Web. We have been happy advertising our chalets, apartments, renovations and land for sale on “the web”. Generally people find us via a Google search using terms such as “buy”, “for sale”, “chalet“, “Apartment“, “land” and linking them with one of the towns we have properties in, these include – Chamonix, Argentiere, Vallorcine, Les Houches, Megeve, St Gervais, Combloux, Sallanches, Le Grand-Bornand, La Clusaz, Samoens, Sixt-fer-a-Cheval, Taninges, Les Carroz, Araches, Les Gets, Morzine, Montriond, St Jean d’Aulps, Chatel and Abondance to name a few!
Recently we have been working with, Winkworth, a UK based Estate Agent who has been doing PR and Marketing of our properties. I have listed here some of our successes.
Posted by Gareth 
