March 8, 2010
We currently have 34 plots of land for sale in the Haute Savoie. Thanks to this we are recieving lots of questions about how to go about a new build project. Normally my answer is to speak to one of our experienced agents, most of whom have been involoved with new build projects in France for some time.
I have decided to do some research into the whole subject and write a 7 part blog following a current new build near Morzine. It helps that this is being undertaken by Alew Lewis (the Marketing Man). Alex and his Father-in-Law (Steve Norris, the MD) have been going through the process meticulously, leaving a well documented paper trail to help with the research.
If you want to keep abreast of the build process then I suggest registering your details with us via the little form on the right of this page. I intend to have part 1 and 2 written by the end of this week.
Part 1. Choosing your land, what to look for, the questions to ask. Making an offer, the first contract.
Part 2. Asking for planning permission
Part 3. Getting the constructions quotes.
Part 4. The build, from digging the first hole to the finished concrete structure.
Part 5. Adding the wooden frame, walls, roof, windows and doors – Hors d’eau – hors d’air.
Part 6. Finishing the inside, electrics, heating, kitchens etc….
Part 7. Landscaping and obtaining the Certificat de Conformité.
I have some examples of plots below:
The most expensive we have is:
Land Medon, 521, 850 euros, Combloux near Megeve
http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_1_medon&lang=en&hist=page_searchXtyp_4Xlang_en
to our cheapest
Land La Chapelle, 80,000 euros, Sixt fer a Cheval
http://www.alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_1_lachapelleland&lang=en&hist=page_searchXtyp_4Xlang_en
2 Comments | 
Advice | Tagged: alps, chamonix, chatel, les gets, megeve, morzine, samoens, st jean d'aulps, france, alpes, St Gervais, Le Grand-Bornand, Les Carroz, le grand massif, aravis, new build, off plan, self build | 
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Posted by Gareth
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: Annecy, chamonix, chatel, les gets, megeve, morzine, property, samoens, st jean d'aulps, Vallorcine, Les Houches, Combloux, Le Grand-Bornand, La Clusaz, Sixt-fer-a-Cheval, Taninges, Montriond, council, commune, Annecy-le-Vieux, Araches-la-Frasse, La Baume, Le Biot, La Chapelle-d'Abondance, Les Contamines-Montjoie, Essert Romand, Evian-les-Bains, Manigod, Morillon, Passy, Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, St Jean de Sixt, Servoz | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
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.
- The purchaser would rent it a TVA registered rental company (which could be run by anyone – including the purchaser).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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: alpine property, property, reclaim, samoens, tax, tva, vat | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
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: chamonix, chatel, morzine, property, samoens, st jean d'aulps, news, property for sale, portes du soleil, St Gervais, new additions | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
April 9, 2009
Alpine Property is approaching its 10th anniversary, but before we reach this milestone we have recently achieved another. This week is the first time we have had 200 properties available for sale on our website. In fact by Friday we’ll be on 205.
I know 200 doesn’t sound like a lot of properties for a web based agent. It is when you consider we operate like a traditional agent. We know each individual property and for each one we visit, take the photos and arrange a contract with the owner. We do not just “re-advertise” the properties for other agents.
It sounds like a lot to me. The reason for this is that Jo and I prepare the information and pictures and put each one on line. We have worked out how long (on average) each property takes to upload. Assuming we have to create a plan for the property (a lengthy task) then the whole process takes about 5 hrs.
So it made me wonder. How many properties have we put online in total? This is fairly hard to work out before 2002. And very easy to work out since 2002 (the year we went from a “static” HTML website to a “dynamic” database driven website). Since 2002 we have advertised 716 properties.
Thanks to Alexa’s “way back machine“, we can track how many properties where online on any given month since we went online. Here is the history for Alpine Property.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.alpine-property.com
This is also an interesting place to browse if you want to see what a property might have been worth 10 years ago!
So here is the data for number of properties visible on the website (so it includes properties “under offer”). I’ve also added initials by the year each team member joined.
Spring 2000 – www.alpine-property.com goes online with 15 properties SN/CB which overed St Jean d’Aulps, Morzine, Les Gets and the Chatel Valley – AKA The Portes du Soleil
Spring 2001 – 24 properties GJ/JN
Spring 2002 – 28 properties – website mk 2
Spring 2003 – 32 properties
Spring 2004 – 37 properties JD helping GJ
Spring 2005 – 109 properties – website mk 3 DB/JC, adding Samoens, Chamonix, Megeve
Spring 2006 – 110 properties VM, helping DB
Spring 2007 – 112 properties LM, helping CB
Spring 2008 – 160 properties – website mk 3.5 EC/RO, adding Les Carroz, La Clusaz and Le Grand-Bornand
Spring 2009 – 220 properties
The initials stand for
- SN = Steve Norris
- CB = Claudia Buttet
- GJ = Gareth Jefferies
- JN = James Norris
- JD = Jo Davison
- DB = Denis Barbier
- JC = JC Skiera
- VL = Valérie Maes
- LM = Lee Massey
- EC = Emma Casanova
- RO = Richard Owens
Comments Off | General | Tagged: chamonix, for sale, le grand massif, portes du soleil, properties, samoens | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
April 8, 2009
Another of the “non web” marketing strategies we have been employing.
We have just taken on an apartment in the centre of Samoens and the owner has given us permission to display our “for sale” sign.
Comments Off | Our marketing | Tagged: apartment, for sale, samoens, sign | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
March 30, 2009
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.
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Times Property Oct ’08
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Times Property Oct ’08
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Country Life Nov ’08
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Country Life Jan ’09
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Financial Times Dec ’08
Comments Off | Our marketing | Tagged: chamonix, chatel, les gets, megeve, morzine, samoens, st jean d'aulps, Argentiere, Vallorcine, Les Houches, St Gervais, Combloux, Sallanches, Le Grand-Bornand, La Clusaz, Sixt-fer-a-Cheval, Taninges, Les Carroz, Araches, Montriond, Abondance | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
March 30, 2009
Autumn walk '08
We often get asked about how to go about setting up a chalet business in the Alps. Often the underlying question is “I’d like to come and live in the Alps, how can I make a living?”. Obviously the subject is pretty vast and there would probably be a market for a book on the subject. There is certainly a market for loads of magazines and websites. Here follows my “quick” reply.
- There are many ways to earn a living whilst living in the mountains. One of them is to run a catered chalet business. It may be the least profitable though, especially when you take into account the hours involved.
- If you happen to have a million Euros in cash handy then it is a fairly reasonable way to spend your time. You invest the money in a chalet, you make a living from the income the business provides and if you invest wisely (and if the market plays ball) your capital investment can grow.
- If you are very handy and speak reasonable French you could buy a renovation project (200,000 to 400,000 Euros then 100,000 to 200,000 Euros on materials), you can then renovate yourself and turn your investment of time and money into something worthwhile. Don’t imagine you can get away without speaking French though; you’ll have to deal with planning applications, French tax, French regulations (health and safety etc), French electricians and your neighbours! Employing builders to do the work and taking out a large mortgage can really mess up the finances.
If dead set on the “Chalet Business” route then consider:
- Getting a job working for someone else. You’ll get to know the business, make the mistakes for someone else! You’ll get to know the area too and might find yourself a property when “on the ground”.
- Taking 3 months off to tour around the Alps, start with getting to know the areas you might be interested in, then home in on one and concentrate your search on that. Start after the February holidays so that’ll leave you with March/April/May, you’ll be getting serious towards the end of the season – just when people have a bit more time to spend with you. Come to think of it – May can be a bad month – too many bank holidays – difficult to get the local population to concentrate!
Autumn walk '08
Within Alpine Property we have a lot of expertise in your area of interest. All the businesses mentioned are “legit” French business – none of them are “British” businesses operating in France!
- Steve Norris – MD, fluent French speaker, actually seems to enjoy French bureaucracy. Loves France more than the French – oddly that is quite an unusual trait amongst the British Ex-Pats In France. Second business www.alptitude.com
- Gareth Jefferies – Ops Director, second businesses www.endlessride.com and www.endlesstrails.co.uk
- Lee Massey, second business, project managing new build and renovation projects.
- Claudia Buttet, Dutch/French/English speaker, project manager, chalet builder, long time estate agent.
- Denis Barbier, fist of all a chalet builder (it’s in the blood), http://www.alpes-chalets74.com/knows everything there is to know on the subject.
So as far as tradesmen are concerned we can certainly point you in the right direction. It would depend on which area you settled. For the Portes du Soleil it would be Claudia, Lee or Gareth that can advise. For Samoëns it would be Denis. If you settle on Chamonix or Megève it would be Jean-Christophe Skiera or for the Aravis, Emma Casanova (her second business is chalet and apartment management). If it was Les Carroz then Richard Owens (another with a good relevant second business – http://www.lacortiena.com/.
The pictures of the “Autumn Walk” were taken on a walk above Morzine in November ’08, Steve and Gareth “bunk off” work for the day. We were back at our desks by lunchtime! All the pictures can be found here.
Comments Off | Advice, FAQs | Tagged: alpes, alps, Annecy, business, chalet, chamonix, Flaine, france, morzine, samoens, st jean d'aulps | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
March 28, 2009
A view of the land in Samoens
Now online, Land les Vaisys, situated above the Samoëns valley in Le Grand Massif, a lovely position just 350m from the ski lift in Vercland. Planning permission has already been granted for a 6 bedroom and 6 bathroom chalet with a living area of 231m². This would be an ideal spot for either a holiday home or a business. Building costs are coming down, in 2008 we would quote 2,500 euros per m² to build a new chalet, now we think it is closer to 2,100 – 2,300 euros. This would mean that the building costs for this chalet may be closer to 500,000 euros.
Water and electricity are available near the site and the mains drains are accessible too.
Click here for further details
Comments Off | new property | Tagged: for sale, land, new, samoens | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
March 27, 2009
News from Alpine Property in Samoens.
Until the end of March
So the crises certainly exists but the effect is to reduce the prices – which thankfully means they start to match peoples budget = some sales are made. Phew!
Comments Off | Latest News | Tagged: news, property for sale, samoens | Permalink
Posted by Gareth
