_Chamonix leads the 2017 Alpine Property Index
The Alpine Property Index is now in its ninth year and tracks the movement in luxury residential prices across 16 ski resorts in the French and Swiss Alps.
The resorts of Val d'Isere and Gstaad occupy second and third position this year, recording annual price growth of 2.5% and 1.8% respectively. At an altitude of 1,850m Val d'Isere offers one of the longest seasons due to its reliable snow cover.
Price growth in Gstaad, last year’s highest performer, remains in positive territory with a lack of supply supporting prices. The resort is also popular with those seeking permanent residency due to the quality of its international schools.
The majority of the Swiss resorts sit towards the foot of our rankings tables the strength of the Swiss Franc and restrictions on foreign buyers have prompted some hesitancy on the part of buyers. This, combined with a degree of intransigence on the part of vendors has slowed sales and also reduced budgets meaning the market below CHF2m is the most active.
In St Moritz, the market has proved mixed with the area close to Suvretta House and the centre of the resort seeing strong growth over the last 12 months but other, more peripheral areas have seen activity and prices decline.
Villars’ annual decline of 5% comes despite strong investment in the resort’s infrastructure as well as its ski and non-ski amenities but we expect we will see this translate into price growth in the coming two to three years.
Tucked within the Canton of Valais, there sort of Cranes Montana saw prices slip 15% in the year to June 2017 as older stock accounted for a large proportion of the inventory and vendors displayed greater willingness to negotiate on price.
The Three Valley resorts of Courchevel and Méribel recorded similar levels of growth of around 1% this year, marginally lower than last year but a weak pound, Brexit and the French election saw the French property market as a whole pause for breath in the first half of 2017.
Overall, the index declined by 1.8% in 2017 year-on-year. More reflective of the current landscape is the split by country; French resorts saw prices rise by 1% on average, whilst their Swiss neighbours registered 5% dip over the 12-month period.
Download the 2017 Ski Property Report
View ski homes for sale in the French and Swiss Alps
Apology and correction
In a previous edition of this report we included information on the Aspen & Snowmass market in the US. We note that we had not received permission to reproduce the data on $psf sales in these markets and erroneously provided the data without the correct source details. We apologise for this oversight. For reference the original data on these markets can be accessed at: www.andrewernemann.com/market-report.