Starting a Chalet Business in the Alps

January 27, 2012

I used to get asked this question twice a week.

“How do I start a chalet business in the Alps?”

I think 2005/6 was the peak. Everyone wanted to move to the Alps, sometimes it was 1 in 3 of the enquiries we received . I have learnt over time that the question should really be phased a bit better. Perhaps:

“how can I make a living in the Alps?”

would be more appropriate. The thing is that most people that have gone skiing have witnessed at first hand a chalet business. The holiday cost them €600 so the embryonic business plan started over the dinner table.

€600 x 10 people staying in the chalet = €6,000

€6,000 x 16 weeks for the season = €96,000

Obviously you need a chalet, there are the usual bills, food and linen to pay for too but surely there is a fair living to be made? And that’s not including the summer business. Right, sign me up, where do I start?

Alpine Property Team Meal 2011

Well I’ve been there. Although I now make my living from my full time job with Alpine Property I’ve also worked a couple of winter seasons, I’ve run a chalet business (mostly summer based) for 10 years and now I live in the Alps with my wife and 3 children. Surely living proof that it’s a good idea? Well “Yes” and “No”. I’m now going to give my advice. Feel free to take it with a pinch of salt!

My first bit of advice is “don’t do it”. Well don’t start the chalet business that is. Living in the Alps is a great idea! Have a look at your skills, can you carry them over to the Alps and keep working? That’s a possibility? And it might be better in the long term. There are plenty of people that live in the Alps and make a living here or based from here. These are the trades I know of:

Accountants, #pilots, #lawyers, journalists, IT experts, various consultants and #project managers, guides (walking / biking / climbing), ski instructors, electricians, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, builders, bankers (in Geneva), doctors, nurses, #engineers, estate agents, interior designers, graphic designers, photographers, artists, writers, teachers, taxi drivers, hotels owners and hospitality workers….

The professions marked as # generally work away from home and use the Alps as a base. There are bound to be more, these are just the ones I know personally.

So if you don’t feel that you can carry over your current skills and you still think running a chalet is the way forward then hang on! You’ll have to wait until next week for the “how to” section.

1 Comment | Advice, General | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

Adding value to your property

December 16, 2011

The last stages of finishing off a renovation “project” are often overlooked, the furnishing and decorating of the newly renovated apartment or chalet are left to the owners to undertake – a daunting enough task close to home. Most of the renovations managed by members of the Alpine Property team are finished off by professionals, you’d imagine that this would push the cost up even more, it doesn’t have to. Especially if you take into account the amount of time you would need to finish the job. Time better spent enjoying the finished product!

Liz Ockelton – MAKE SPACE DESIGNS (www.makespacedesigns.com) has just finished 3 projects this autumn. Here are some of the results.

1. Chalet La Roche SAMOENS – sold by Denis Barbier of Alpine Property refurbished in 2010 and renovations recently completed by MSD adding an extra bedroom and now 4 new bathrooms. The original property listing is here. A selection of photos of the updated chalet are below.

 

2. La Christiana MORZINE – sold by Lee Massey of Alpine Property though before it ended up on the website. Newly furnished by MSD ready for Dec 2011

3. BONNEVAUX farm, sold by Claudia / Ed. Chalet Bonnevaux. The original listing is here, this old farm was habitable but is now being  renovated. Currently under construction due to be complete Dec 2011 / Jan 2012.

An original picture here:

The current state of affairs:

Comments Off | General, Latest News | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

Buy a chalet with your gold

October 3, 2011

As you can imagine the current state of the market for property in the Alps is high on our list of topics of conversation. We are always happy to express our opinion to anyone that asks. It’s normally journalists, though sometimes it’s people looking to buy. In the second case I often get the feeling that the buyer thinks they are hearing too much “spin” as the reality on the ground in the Alps often differs marketly from the reality where the buyer happens to live.

This morning we had a long conversation with the bank we work with. BNP Paribas they commission a yearly report on the subject and the results are just out. A summary is available on their website. As is always the case with these reports, the figures are already out of date, they deal with 2010. A more current view can be obtained by talking to the agents to get their gut feelings and anectotal quotes.

A Chamonix viewThis view comes for free with a very reasonable priced “estate” in Chamonix.

So here are some quotes from Alpine Property. They concern the area we cover, so the Haute Savoie, which includes the likes of Chamonix, St Gervais, Megeve, La Clusaz, Grand Bornand, Samoens, Les Carroz, Flaine, Les Gets, Morzine, St Jean d’Aulps and Chatel.

“The Swiss are buying in the Northern Alps, it’s not a surprise, the Swiss Franc is so strong they can buy 30% more than they could last year”

“The French are back! After a fairly long time out of the market they are happy to buy second homes,

“Francophone buyers make up 50% of our sales”

“There are plenty of people out there willing to invest 1m+ euros in second homes in the Alps”

“The summer is now almost as important as the winter, that’s not to say that the summer market in the Alps would exist without the winter market, it’s just that the modern Alpine purchaser values the summer activities almost as highly as the winter ones”

Chalet Sochi

Chalet Sochi, shown here as an illustration of what is available at the top end of the market, full details on the Alpine Property website.

That’s 5 quotes, that’ll do for now. My comments as far as the BNP report goes are that in 2010 the market recovered from 2009. In fact we would say the market crashed in 2008 (that’s not news), this hit the 2009 figures hard and now the figures for property sales in  2010 illustrate the  good recovery, almost back to the peaks of 2007. We can add to that and say that 2011 will be better still.

As far as prices go we saw some quite significant price falls in the outlying towns, they have stabilised now but there are still some great bargains to be had. For instance take a look at:

Chez Patou, 295,000 €uros in St Jean d’Aulps

A character property in need of renovation, situated on a sunny plot with great views.

Full details can be found at the Alpine Property website.

Even in the established towns such as Morzine there are bargains, look at the following property, we haven’t seen anything like this (at this price) for 5 years.

Chalet Amis, 399,000 €uros in Morzine

A 3 bedroom chalet on the ski bus route in Montriond

Full details can be found on the Alpine Property website

This all sounds quite upbeat doesn’t it? The property sales bear this out. The owners know this too, they are pricing their chalets “to sell” but not negotiating a whole lot. This might sound surprising to the British buyer who is fed a constant stream of gloom from the press. There are plenty of people who instead of investing their money in the stock market or gold are putting it into the euro in the form of bricks and mortar.

1 Comment | Latest News, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

Latest Coverage in National Papers

January 25, 2011

Our partners at Winkworth in London work very hard to give our properties exposure in the UK press. This year has been no exception. So far for the winter 2010/11 the following articles have featured our properties.

1. November 2010: Country Life special winter edition

Featuring the following properties:

Chalet Morzine, Chalet Juliette (in Les Gets)

and Chalet Les Murailles (near Annecy)

2. December 2010: Tatler

Featuring the following property:

Chalet Morzine

3. December 2010: Sunday Telegraph

Featuring the following properties:

Auberge Vercland and Chalet 2 Saisons in Samoens

Chalet Oratoire in Chamonix

4. December 2010: Money Week

Featuring the following property:

Chalet Nant Cruy near Megeve

5. January 2011: Sunday Times

Featuring the following property:

Penthouse Apartment in Morzine

6. February 2011: Sunday Telegraph

Featuring the following property:

Chalet Juliette in Les Gets

Comments Off | Our marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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

Comments Off | Latest News, new property, Our marketing | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

The indebtedness of the Communes

January 22, 2010

Here are some interesting statistics that were published in the Dauphine Liberé this week. They refer to the amount of money the Commune (translates as Council) owes divided by the number of people who pay taxes in the Commune.

I have selected some of the more popular Communes for comparison. I don’t suppose you should make a property purchase decision on the basis of these figures, they just give you an idea of who owes the most! I’ve no idea what happens should a Commune in France goes bust.

Les Gets looks to be on shaky ground, it is an “average” sized ski resort and owes a lot. I know that in the last few years they have built and underground car park, a reservoir to supply water to the town and they have upgraded their sewage system too.

On a similar subject the Dauphine Liberé ran a story on the amount of ski lift investment in the Haute Savoie over the last year.  Full story via the link below.

http://www.ledauphine.com/avec-six-nouveaux-apparei-@/index.jspz?article=249867&chaine=23

More property related stats from the following link.

http://www.budget.gouv.fr/

Commune Euros per Inhabitant
Les Gets 25,279
Chatel 10,698
Les Contamines-Montjoie 7,127
Morzine 6,806
Megeve 6,657
La Clusaz 6,490
Morillon 5,942
Chamonix 5,186
Le Grand-Bornand 5,076
Combloux 5,063
Samoens 4,700
Araches-la-Frasse 4,619
Manigod 3,663
Evian-les-Bains 3,603
St Jean de Sixt 3,581
Saint-Gervais-les-Bains 2,426
Montriond 1,926
Le Biot 1,755
Essert Romand 1,742
Les Houches 1,731
Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval 1,690
Passy 1,506
La Chapelle-d’Abondance 1,478
Annecy-le-Vieux 1,445
St Jean d’Aulps 1,311
Vallorcine 1,051
Taninges 847
Servoz 780
Annecy 483
La Baume 3
Average in France 890

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

State of the Market

August 4, 2009

Every two months we undertake a review of the property market (from our point of view) in the Haute Savoie. We cover quite a large area and this review helps us keep abreast of what is happening across the region.  Our main conclusions this month were:

1. The majority of new clients are looking for a property priced between 200k and 400k.

2. The interest is spread evenly between the Portes du Soleil /  Grand Massif / Chamonix+Megeve+Aravis.

3. The French are well and truly back in the market as far as buying is concerned.

We are currently experiencing the highest number of sales in our history. Our last peak was in 2005. The current enthusiasm goes against the feeling the UK media is pushing. The reasons for our current positive results may well be.

1. We have more properties than ever for sale.

2. It’s a buyers market and sellers are very willing to negotiate.

3. Selling prices (as opposed to advertised prices) have reduced significantly.

4. The French are buying again, they aren’t being bombarded by negative financial press and in fact the French economy is probably in a much better state than the British economy.

5. The Euro seems to have stabilised and is slowly weakening against the pound.

Long may this continue. The only people who aren’t happy currently are the people that have to sell their properties. Though if they are taking the proceeds back to the UK the strong euro means that they go home with more pounds than the would have done 1 yr ago OR if they are moving within France they are reassured by the fact their new property is also “cheaper”.

Comments Off | Latest News | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

How to reclaim the TVA (VAT) on a new build.

May 28, 2009

It is possible to reclaim the TVA (VAT) on a new build property. Many people have heard about this and ask us how to go about it. The short answer is “it’s complicated”. In this short article we’ll try and add a little more information than that!

To start with it would be better to think of a property purchased in this way as an “investment”, an investment that will provide a rental income and may provide capital growth. It would not work if the property was being bought as a “holiday home”.

As an example I will use Chalet La Lyre and Chalet La Couronne Boréale in Samoëns. These two “off plan” properties are close to the centre of Samoëns and would provide good accommodation and location for a rental business; they could be used as self-catering or catered accommodation.

So Chalet La Lyre and Chalet Eridan together are for sale for together for a discounted price of 1,250,000 Euros (individually they are priced at 870,000 Euros and 480,000 Euros). The TVA component of this is 205,000 Euros.

  1. The purchaser would rent it a TVA registered rental company (which could be run by anyone – including the purchaser).
  2. They rental company leases the property from the owner on an annual contract, they must propose minimum services – 3 of 4 of the following: linen/breakfast/concierge/cleaning.
  3. The owner reclaims 19.6% of the purchase price = 205,000 Euros, this TVA is repaid in a lump sum after 3  months of rental has been received by the management company.
  4. This rental agreement would have to carry on for 9 years otherwise you’ll have to pay back the pro rata proportion of the TVA. So if after 5 years the purchaser decides to sell, the French authorities would want 4/9 x 205,000 = 91,000 Euros returned to them

So the initial investment for the purchaser would be 1,045,000 Euros, the yearly rental would be an estimated (30,000+15,000) 45,000 Euros. Providing an annual return of 4.3%. In these circumstances the running costs for the property would be paid by the renter so the GROSS and NET annual return would be almost the same.

Some further notes.

  • There are purchase costs to take into account. Notaires fees and stamp duty, these are discounted on new builds! They amount to 2.5% in total.
  • If the purchaser waits until after 5 years to sell the properties he will avoid having to pay Capitol Gains Tax.
  • Before signing anything the whole project would need to be discussed with a qualified French accountant. We can suggest SAREG in Les Gets.

Comments Off | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

News from the last 3 weeks.

April 20, 2009

I took a few days off with the family last week to visit London. The run up to this seemed quite hectic. Now I am back at my desk and decided to take stock of the new additions that Jo and I have added to the website.

The following list is all the new properties that have gone on-line in the last 3 weeks.

Chalets (10)

Chalet Servoz, a 4 bedroom property in the Chamonix valley.

Apartment Centre Ville, a small apartment or business slap bang in the middle of Samoens.

Apartment Bertrand, a 4 bedroom apartment in St Jean d’Aulps.

Apartment Chamois d’Or, a 3 bedroom apartment in the centre of Morzine.

Moulin de Trebillon, a stables with land not far from Evian and Lac Leman.

Chalet la Griaz, 3 bedrooms in Les Houches in Chamonix valley.

Chalet Iris, 5 bedrooms, 100m from a ski lift in Chatel.

Chalet Laer, 7 bedrooms, on the ski bus route in Chatel.

Chalet Cravarin, 6 bedrooms and great views in the Samoens valley.

Chalet la Toile, 4 bedrooms and great views in St Gervais

Land (4)

Land les Bollus, walking distance from the ski lift at Vercland, Samoens.

Land at Flerier, in a quiet setting by a lake near Taninges, Samoens valley.

Land du Buissons, good views on the outskirts of Essert Romand nr Morzine.

Land at Passy, cheap! About 20 minutes from Chamonix.

Renovation (1)

Farm Grevat, a farm building and 1620 m² of land, Essert Romand near Morzine

Comments Off | Latest News | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

Spring Alpine Property Market Review

March 30, 2009

This review has been posted by JC Skiera with Winkworth, our UK partners.

“After a poor second half of 2008, French ski resorts are witnessing an unexpected but welcome soft landing. In spite of negative economic data, recent price falls have spurred buying interest in previously unaffordable “niche” areas. This is particularly evident in prime locations within famous destinations such as Chamonix, Megève, Morzine and Samoëns. Central locations and quality properties – ideally both – are now supported by attractive rental returns and the sub 500,000 euros market is showing encouraging signs of life, with transactions in January and February exceeding expectations. New properties have been the worst affected by the downturn and are now looking far more appealing as developers are offering large price drops and incentives in order to sell their inventory. France has not suffered from a credit crunch and interest rates are still falling, which in turn ought to be reflected in healthier demand as we progress further into 2009.”

Comments Off | Advice | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Gareth

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 196 other followers