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This is my third market report since the start of the COVID crisis. Right now we have returned to some sort of normality. The mountains and lakes were the first to have restrictions lifted (May 11th) then cafe’s, bars, restaurants and hotels opened. Now pools, ski lifts and shops are open too. The border with Switzerland has been open since June 15th.

There are restrictions in place. You have to book to go to the pool, all shops have to provide a sanitising station on the way in. Most are asking that you wear a mask. Some insist some don’t. It’s a 50/50 thing around here. I’ve eaten out a few times but always sat outside. You are generally required to wear a mask as you move around a premises but it’s not required at a table. It’s always table service too. Order and pay whilst seated. As I write this some of the protocols are being adapted. One of the local pools has given up with the booking system because so few people came. So now it’s first come first served.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the flights in and out of Geneva airport. At the worst point, there was literally only a handful of passengers coming in and out. By the beginning of July that was up in the hundreds. As I write this there are about 100 flights a day coming in and out. However, that is still only a third of what they are used to.

The number of tourists in our Alpine villages has shot up this weekend. This is the week of the “quatorze Juillet“, traditionally the start of the holidays in France, and the French are making the most of a “Staycation” (it’s the same word in French), many British second homeowners are arriving by car, far fewer by aeroplane. Self-catering bookings are good. Most of the British tourists have cancelled but their place has been taken by the French.

I wrote the first report back in mid-April, you can read it here. Coronavirus COVID-19 and your Property in the Alps. Back then everything had come to a halt, the Gendarmerie were on patrol and we could only leave our homes briefly and with the correct paperwork. We carried on working from home (no change there for Alpine Property) but we could only guess what the future held.

I wrote the second report at the end of May. How is COVID affecting property prices in the Alps? At this point, we were caught between two realities. Many of the sales we had “in process” so pre-COVID sales were struggling because the buyers feared for their future and didn’t want to take on extra risk. They were either trying to reduce the price of the property they had already agreed or were looking for a way out. On the other hand, we were feeling a very significant pressure from new post-COVID buyers. New enquiries were back to normal. I wrote this market report to try and provide some facts and figures to attempt to shore up some of our crumbling sales.

This third report that I am writing (July/12) is more of the same. We have just seen a record-breaking number of enquiries in June and we are heading the same direction in July. I reported 16 agreed sales at the end of May, that number has now doubled. The average sale price and average offer prices remain the same. The only slight change is that the Francophone buyer is in the ascendancy. I say Francophone because some of them live in the UK! We have seen about 30% of our “pre-COVID” sales fall through which obviously leads to all sorts of heartache for all involved, however many of these failed sales are being quickly rescued with new post-COVID customers. It would be great to think that this is only the experience of Alpine Property. However it never works like that, I have heard similar reports from many other agents in our area.

It’s not just in the Alps either. There is a similar effect being reported in the UK, I also heard an off-the-record report from a very good source that new enquiries in June in one UK sector are easily 50% higher than usual. And that was before the announcement of a higher stamp duty ceiling!

So what of the future? We can’t be complacent. I for one appreciate the strong “confinement”, it has really brought the numbers right down in France. Of course, the numbers will go up. That is inevitable. We just hope the current measures are sufficient to keep enough of a lid on it. As far as our property market goes, the bottom line is, the French Alps is a fantastic place to live or take a holiday and that won’t change. We can’t imagine going back to another country-wide confinement. But then again, we could never have imagined being confined in the first place! I’d never have guessed we’d have carried on doing the same levels of business as usual. With that in mind, I don’t think I can make any predictions for the future!