Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cycle paths in the Alps (or the lack of them)

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#See the note at the bottom, it seems the council has been listening to my dreams!

I’m not talking about mountain bike tracks here. I’m talking about transport. At the moment cyclists mostly share the alpine roads with motor vehicles. On the mountain cols that can work OK. Unfortunately, as the valley roads get busier and busier tensions between the two communities rise. And before I polarise this discussion, it should be remembered that almost all the cyclists drive cars too! And some of the drivers ride bikes. So these two communities are really one community.

Between Morzine and Les Gets, my dream, nothing more at the moment © Please do not reproduce this image!

We see all the new investment being spent on skiing, on snowmaking, ski-lifts, new pistes. Not forgetting the new buildings, chalets and apartments. It’s easy to see the link between investment and return. This is not a criticism, I understand the business. We are used to seeing money being spent on new tarmac, new roads, bridges, tunnels. We don’t question this necessity. But I think we are missing a trick.

Between Morzine and Les Gets, the solid blue line exists as a gravel track. The rest is just a suggestion.

We all rely on the mountains to “provide”, we know that they offer more than just skiing. I came here 20 years ago looking for mountains (not skiing). Skiing provided the industry to pay the bills. At that time I was in the minority. Now it’s normal. Now the majority come to these valleys for the mountains. They might ski but they will also bike, run, swim, climb…the list is long. There needs to be a change of emphasis in investment to reflect this.

Cycle paths

I don’t need to state that more people are cycling on the alpine roads. It’s obvious. Many, many times more than 20 years ago. And now we have e-bikes too. Yet another explosion, and this is just the start. All across Europe, there is fantastic cycling infrastructure being created. If you have never been to the Netherlands on a bike, I recommend it. It’s another world. Even closer to home, just the other side of Lac Leman you never have to ride on a busy road. Almost no expense has been spared to keep powered and non-powered transport separate.

Wooden cycle bridge
Pont Rotary on route 5 in Switzerland, for walkers, bikes, roller skis or skates!

But it’s not just in Switzerland. France is catching up too. Near us is the mighty ViaRhona, 815km from Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) to the Mediterranean. There is still work to do around Lac Léman, but the section I rode this summer from Geneva to Lyon was either on smooth cycle tracks like the one pictured below or quiet side roads.

Pont du Lit au Roi on the Via Rhona cyle track, pretty much the “middle of nowhere”.

The bridge in the next image is due to be finished by the end of the year. Again, on the ViaRhona, it’s an investment of 1.8m€ so the cyclists can avoid a busy road. More information here https://www.savoie.fr/entre-la-balme-et-virignin and a reportage here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXCBQJwI9DI

A 170m bridge being constructed on the Via Rhona

At a departmental level there is progress being made. From Chamonix to Geneva the Véloroute Léman Mont-Blanc is progressing well. The Tour du Lac d’Annecy and Annecy to Thones too. There is more information on this dedicated website. http://veloenhautesavoie.com/plan-departemental-74-velo-voies-vertes/

The cycle tracks under construction in the Haute Savoie.

It’s not just national infrastructure either. In the Abondance valley the local municipalities have got together and linked the quiet roads from one end of the valley to the other. 20km in all. An excellent job.

Le Chemin des Bords de Dranse

It wasn’t all easy. This section of raised route clings to the side of the river valley, to avoid the main road on the other side. Unfortunately, it is not a route that is likely to attract the dedicated road cyclist. To do that it would have to have a smoother surface.

However, it is at the Municipal level that progress is much slower. There is so much more work to be done, and some very particular “pinch points”. One of the worst is from Morzine to Les Gets. Two villages only separated by 5km, but if you are a cyclist it’s a very unpleasant section. People even try and walk it, sometimes with tragic consequences. The first two pictures in this blog illustrate what could be done. It should not have to be a dream. It should be a priority. There are plenty of others. Morzine to St Jean d’Aulps, Samoens to Taninges, I could go on.

This sort of thing should not be an afterthought anymore. Cycle provision should be a priority. It does pay too. If the local municipalities prioritise this sort of infrastructure the visitors will appreciate it as much as the local inhabitants. And that is good business!

# It looks like Morzine and Les Gets municipal councils have mobilised to create something ambitious. Excellent! Have a look at this article for more information! https://c.ledauphine.com/culture-loisirs/2020/10/08/une-voie-verte-pour-securiser-les-cyclistes-entre-les-gets-et-morzine

How fast is the internet in the mountains?

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We are 6 months into COVID and it seems that the main effect on the property market in the Alps is to increase demand. I’m not sure I know anyone that would have predicted that at the start. However, it seems obvious now. For those that have been thinking of escaping their homes in the city, this has been the final straw. So it is no surprise that the second question we get asked about a property we have for sale is “how fast is the internet“?

The other COVID effect is to force many people to work from home. That has helped the Alpine Property market too. Because if your home no longer has to be near your work, then you might as well live in the place that you want to spend your free time. In which case you need a good internet connection! I have been working from home in the French Alps for the last 20 years. Without a good internet connection, I can’t work at all. So I’ll share some of my experience here.

If you are looking at a property in the alps to buy then you probably want to know how good the internet is. The estate agent often won’t know. Maybe in this day and age, it should be listed in the particulars! The easiest thing to do is to ask the current owner. Unfortunately most of the time you won’t get an accurate answer. So if you are visiting the property take the time to connect to their internet and go to https://www.speedtest.net/ . Thanks to enormously secure wifi passwords, even this is easier said than done! So that leaves you with making an estimate.

Estimating internet speed.

There are various sites that you can use to check the speed of someone else’s internet. You will often need their fixed-line number. Sometimes an address is enough. https://www.degrouptest.com/ is a good start. Basically what these tests are doing is calculating how far the property is from the telephone “exchange” in the village.

Here are some examples

Property 1
central téléphonique : SEYTROUX
longueur de ligne : 1215 mètres
affaiblissement théorique : 14.01dB
état de la ligne : ACTIVE
débit maximum estimé VDSL2 : 29.3 Mb/s

Property 2
central téléphonique : SAINT‐JEAN D AULPS
longueur de ligne : 2471 mètres
affaiblissement théorique : 38.57dB
état de la ligne : ACTIVE
débit maximum estimé ADSLMAX : 5.6 Mb/s

You can see that property 2 is twice as far from the exchange as property 1. The download speed is 5x slower! That’s par for the course with broadband over telephone lines, and until fibre is installed that is where most of our internet comes from.

If you don’t have the exact address or phone number this map is quite useful. https://www.ariase.com/box/carte-couverture-internet

It simply shows houses close to the exchange in red (10-30 Mbps) or Yellow (5-10 Mbps), it worked for the test above. The first property was in the red zone and the second in the orange zone.

You could stop reading here. However if you want to know a bit more about the numbers please carry on…..

I’ll start with a glossary

  • ADSL is a type of broadband internet. If comes into the house on a telephone line.
  • Mbps (Megabits per second) is how you measure internet speed.
  • 4G is a type of mobile data connection (internet on your phone)
  • Fibre or Fibre-optic, sometimes called FTTH, this is super fast internet.
  • PING (or latency) is how fast information takes to leave your computer and then return. It is measured in ms (milliseconds)

Many of our properties have a download of around about 5 Mbps, this is normally good enough for watching a movie on Netflix and good enough for using Zoom or the like. However, if there are 5 people in the property trying to do that at the same time it will struggle.

BUT download is only half the story. You download video data to watch a movie. But to use Zoom you need to upload video too. In theory, Zoom will work at 0.5 Mbps up/down. That’s not helpful is it? We’ve thrown in UP AND DOWN. But people only ever talk of downloads. All ADSL internet (so the stuff that comes in on a phone line) downloads faster than it uploads. Usually by a factor 10x . So if you have 5 Mbps download, quite often the best upload you will get is 0.5 Mbps, just about good enough for Zoom. But only just.

Here is the speedtest result for the ADSL in my home

Which you’ll know, if you have read this far, is just enough to get by. However, there are 5 of us in this house and frequently the others are all using the internet at the same time. At which point it is nowhere near enough. I have had to add a 4G connection. With this connection my result is

Which is always good enough. You’ll see that there is another number. A Ping of 47ms. this is “latency” or more simply, this is the delay in sending and receiving the information. The higher that number the longer the pauses required when using Zoom. Anything under 150 is OK. However, it is not good enough for online gaming. the gamers would prefer a Ping of 20 or so.

4G? What’s that?

4G or even better 4G+ is the mobile phone signal. With 4G the difference between the upload and the download is only 2x. As you can see from the numbers above, using 4G improves my upload speed by 40x. If a property is struggling with internet speeds using a 4G box can be an enormous help. A number of us in Alpine Property already do this. It will depend on if you get a good mobile phone signal at your house AND if the phone company has space for you on their system. I know that in St Jean d’Aulps the available slots are full. However, in Le Biot down the road, you can still sign up for a 4G box.

Fibre? Isn’t that coming soon? Won’t it solve the issue?

Yes and Yes! Most of the Haute Savoie is due to be connected to the Fibre optic “soon”, people are being connected now (2020) but you might have to wait until 2025. Syane are undertaking the work and they have a website here https://fibre.syane.fr/eligibilite-de-mon-logement/

They are installing fibre to the home (FTTH). The minimum download will be 100 Mbps, the maximum could be 1000 Mbps (1Gbps), upload at 50+ Mbps. Ping should be less than 20ms. So more than enough for working from home. More than enough for anything really.

When I test my eligibility they say “Vous serez éligible à la fibre entre 2019 et 2025”. This is confirmed by looking at their maps. I live in a grey zone. If you compare this map to the previous map (of current speeds) you will see that they have prioritised properties with really terrible internet. Le Biot is a good example.

Because I rely so heavily on my internet I have kept my ADSL and I have 4G too. I have added a system from OVH that combines these together. This means that if one of the connections is playing up then the other may still be enough. These are connected to one wifi signal that covers the whole house. If the children are clogging everything up I have an app that means I can prioritise my office computer. Obviously, this increases the cost somewhat,

  1. Bouygues ADSL 25€
  2. Bouygues 4G 40€
  3. ovhtelecom.fr/overthebox/ 20€
    Total 85€ /month

What if there is no ADSL and no 4G?

Then currently you are left with satellite. Which doesn’t have to be that expensive. Especially when you compare it to the amount I am paying. AND it looks like you can get some help here.

https://www.syane.fr/122-122-1-Amenagement-numerique-%3A-plan-satellite-haut-debit

This site seems to explain the situation well.

https://www.echosdunet.net/en/satellite

The problem with satellite broadband is limited data. Even the “unlimited” plans (70€/month) are capped at 100GB of data. Which for many is fine. Not for my household though. We used 600GB of data last month!

Starlink

As I write this Starlink is not yet operational. It is Elon Musk’s project to connect the entire earth to the internet without wires. This is satellite technology but without the need for a dish. They have just started testing this, so it might be operational in the next few years. It should take over from satellite broadband. It is bound to start out expensive and is most likely going to have data limits. For those who will never get connected to the main networks, this could be the ultimate answer. Take a look at the Wikipedia article for more information.

We’ve talked about this on our YouTube channel too.

Alpine Property market report, July COVID edition!

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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!

How is COVID affecting property prices in the Alps?

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Contrary to the received wisdom in the media we are not seeing a drop in demand or a reduction in prices for property in the Alps.

The popular press is predicting a drop in prices. We won’t list the articles on this subject. They certainly play well to our assumptions. And if you are in the market for a property, it plays well to your hopes! However, it is not our experience on the ground.

If you don’t have time to read on, then I will summarise our findings here. These are based on our historical record that goes back 20 years. We have increased activity on our website, and so far this month we have almost record numbers of enquiries. I say “almost” because as I write this, the month is not finished. But on the performance so far, enquiries for May 2020 could break our record. And since the beginning of our confinement, we have agreed 16 sales. Our prediction during this confinement would have been zero sales! The ratio of agreed prices to asking prices is minus 3.7%. Based on previous experience that is completely normal. Unless the property is new to the market and there seems to be other interest people will often make a lower offer than the asking price.

I’ll breakdown our 16 agreed sales here.

  • Average property price 422,750€
  • Agreed offer on average 3.7% lower than asking price.
  • Ranging from 62.000€ to 1.595m€
  • 8 Anglophone buyers (based in the UK or elsewhere)
  • 7 Francophone (mostly based in France)
  • 1 Finn

There are 2 distinguishing features of these buyers

  • 80% of them are new to us this year. Normally that would be about 50%, many of our customers spend some time looking for a property.
  • Most of them don’t need a mortgage, and therefore don’t need rental to help pay for the purchase. In fact, less than half of them see a rental return as important.

At the moment we are experiencing two types of buyers

  • Buyers in the middle of a purchase. Something they might have started last year, a long term project, they have signed the first contract and would normally be finalising the purchase at this point. COVID has destabilised these sales. The world they knew before they made the decision to buy has changed, and they are not sure about the future. Many of them are having second thoughts. Sometimes forced upon them by financial worries. Inevitably some of our sales agreed before COVID will falter and the properties will return to the market.
  • New buyers, buyers who have had the dream of an Alpine home for a while and have made the decision to take the plunge during this crisis. These sales may well be more secure. As far as these purchasers go, the world situation can only improve (and seems to be doing so).

So what is the main motivation of these new buyers? Some have suggested that they are looking for a lock-down bolthole. We don’t think that is the case. Travelling during the lockdown to a second home has been outlawed. Most (but not all!) have remained at their principal residence. We get the feeling that these “new” customers are reevaluating their lives and priorities. They are taking the opportunity to follow a dream. When you think of your own situation you might be able to emphasise with a reset of what your own aims and objectives are!

If you are interested you can see the list of properties we have recently sold on our “SOLD” property page. This is somewhat old news though. Contact us if you would like a more detailed breakdown of our sales.

Coronavirus COVID-19 and your Property in the Alps

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Are people still looking to buy?

For the first few weeks of the COVID crisis, demand for property in the Alps really did stop dead. One month into the confinement, and that is not the case now. Enquiries are down, but only by about 30%; activity on our website did drop by 40% for a couple of weeks, but now it is up on the same period as last year.

Pageviews on the Alpine Property website, March/April 2020 compared to 2019.

Do we expect a drop in prices?

We went through something similar in 2008, similar but smaller. Many people will wait to see if prices drop. If you are looking for a bargain then you need to act now. During the hiatus. And people are doing just that – we have agreed 4 sales over the last week. And two of them were at the full asking price. We can feel there is plenty of demand. If you wait until everything is stable again then you might have to wait for a while.

Do we expect a rise in prices?

It is possible (but arguable) that prices will rise in the medium to long term. The various governments may print money to try to deal with COVID and the recession that follows. In the past, this has led to inflation and property prices go up when this happens. If there is an imbalance between how countries react then you will see changes in the exchange rate. If the UK prints more money than the EU then the value of sterling could fall. All this also has to be weighed against the performance of the economy.

What is Alpine-Property doing during the Pandemic?

Up until 11th May, we are in “confinement”. This means that we are all encouraged to work from home, save for essential activities that cannot be done remotely. So, for Alpine-Property, there is no change. We don’t have bricks and mortar branches. All our agents are available as usual and working from their homes. We are on hand to answer your questions and discuss your plans.

How can you view a property?

On the whole, we can’t meet anyone in person at a property. And, even if we could, it is very unlikely that anyone could travel into the area legally for this purpose. However, we do have virtual tours for the majority of our properties. And assuming a property is empty we can make a virtual tour if one is missing. Obviously you can view these tours on our website in your own time. However, we encourage appointments with our agents so that they can accompany you on a virtual walkthrough, explaining about the property as they go. Our agents are doing this every day. You can see the properties we have for sale here.

Can you start the buying process?

You can, and some people have. Most of our customers are using this time to do their research, find out what is available. Decide which ski village suits their requirements. If you would like to borrow against this purchase, speak to the mortgage companies and find out what they can offer. Discuss the areas with our agents. We have 16 agents spread across the Haute Savoie. Each one would love to talk you through why their area is the best!

Will COVID prevent a current sale from completing?

Unlikely. Though it might delay it. During the first few weeks, we had to deal with various jams at the notaires’, the banks, and with more mundane issues like arranging energy reports! All these jams are beginning to become free now. All deadlines have been extended too. Contracts aren’t going to immediately fall apart because a deadline has been breached. So this means that a sale is more likely to be delayed than stopped.

Valmorel in the Tarentaise

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Valmorel is a little gem of a ski resort in the Tarentaise valley, in the Savoie department which was created in 1976. It sits at an altitude of 1,400m with skiing from 1,270m to 2,550m, offering spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, including Mont Blanc and the valley.
The centre is pedestrianised, giving it an authentic charm. In 2018, TripAdvisor awarded it a certificate of ‘excellence’.

Credit photos : OTVVA/Scalp

It links to Saint-François-Longchamp via the Col de la Madeleine, a well known challenge of a climb for cyclists, and, along with the resort of Doucy-Combelouvière, makes up the “Grand Domaine” which consists of 165km of downhill skiing (31 lifts), 40 kms of cross country skiing and 15kms of snowshoe tracks.

But, there is more than just skiing and snowboarding to enjoy! There is snake-gliss, a series of toboggans joined together that wiggle down the mountain, headed up by an experienced ski school instructor; fat bikes, ie. Bikes with very thick tyres that grip the snow; biathlon, why not try out this exhilarating sport and appreciate how hard it is to ski then breath in a controlled manner whilst shooting at a target; 100% electric snow mobiles for 7-12 year olds; airboarding, lie on an inflatable airbed that glides you down the mountain! So much to enjoy!

Credit photos : OTVVA/Scalp

There is an impressive line up of events during the winter season including:-

  • The Grande Odyssée (16th edition) which is THE yearly husky sledging event in Europe. This year will be its first in Valmorel. The mushers race and demonstrate their expertise. There is also the possibility of learning how to drive a sledge and trips in the sledge for kids.
  • The 5th edition of the Winter Spartan Race which is over 10 kms with 25 obstacles to be conquered – any obstacle missed = 30 burpees!!
  • 3rd edition of La Valmo-Belle, a nighttime ski touring race with 490m and 560m height differences, with a welcome buffet in a mountain restaurant at the end!
  • 6th National Paragliding (Fly & Ski) Challenge, where paragliders have to complete a number of technical challenges such as touch and fly. This is all to raise money for orphaned children of the fire service.
  • E-Wax Music Festival at the end of the season, when Valmorel becomes one giant dancefloor with multiple stages all over the resort, even at 2,000m!!

There are plenty of activities to enjoy in the summer too. There are 185kms of mountain bike trails, a 25m outdoor pool, archery, leisure park, along with many other sports such as pump track, via ferrata, canyoning, rafting, airboating, paragliding and treetop adventure course, to name but a few.

Credit photos : OTVVA/Scalp

Valmorel is a 15 minute drive from Moutiers, 2 hours from Geneva and Lyon airports and 4h15 from Paris by TGV.

We have various properties and new build programs outside of the Haute Savoie. To see the properties we have for sale in Valmorel, click on this link.

Chalet Building in the Alpes

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We are often asked how much it would cost to build your own chalet. In 2014 I wrote that it would cost about 2,500 €/m² HT. Now in 2019, we quote 3000 €/m² HT (before TVA) as a benchmark. Normally we qualify this with “of course it depends on so many, factors”, such as the floor area, quality of materials and fixtures and fittings, easy of building on the site, proximity of services and things like that. And you will most likely have to pay the TVA so in the end 3600€/ m² TTC (including TVA) is a good place to start. So if you were building a 4 bedroom 140 m² chalet then a starting point would be about 500,000 € to build the chalet after you have bought the land.

Chalet du Cret near Morzine. A SIP built property

When I mention these figures to UK-based buyers that know about these things they take a sharp intake of breath. Currently, you can build houses in the UK for much less than that. Closer to 1600 €/m² and without VAT to pay either. And sometimes even less. So why the big difference? Some of my opinions follow:

  • Everything costs more in the Alps. In particular materials and more importantly labour. In fact, everything costs more in France.
  • We are not comparing like with like. The “average” chalet in the Alps is higher quality than a cheap house in the UK.
  • The build methods in the Alps are more expensive. In general the properties have concrete basements and first floors. This makes a very solid property, sometimes due to earthquake and avalanche risks it’s mandatory to build this way. It’s also just “the way it’s done”, much like in the UK houses have traditionally been built from brick or block. Plots are often sloping and require heavily engineered foundations.

There are various things you can do to reduce these costs. Taking each point one by one.

  • I’m not going to suggest importing your materials from afar or even you labour (though both these things are possible and may save money).
  • Building a cheap quality chalet is not a good idea, it would be a real shame to waste the worlds resources on building a house that won’t last.
  • Build methods, there could be money saved here. It may also bring in points one and two. I’m referring to kit chalets.

My neighbour is a carpenter and he has just built a chalet using mostly traditional techniques. The basement is concrete as are some of the first floor walls. The main frame was a kit though, the walls arrived on a lorry and ready built. He’s obviously building on a budget but doesn’t want to live in a cardboard box. His build costs will be well under 2500€/m².

Chalet Neuf Bechigne in Chatel, a traditional construction.

ECSUS Design have built a few of the chalets we have sold recently. These guys either design your property or adapt an existing design and fabricate using Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) that are engineered and pre-cut to size to ensure an exceptionally quick method of building a highly thermally efficient chalet. The main weather-tight structure can be erected in as little as 3-4 weeks and can be easily finished by an adventurous self-builder or they can do the entire job for you. The average costs of the SIPS structure is about 450€/ m² which represents about 30% of the overall costs of a new chalet and means that a fully managed build can come in at under 3000€/m² .

I recently came across this website for what look like low cost A-frame houses. https://avrame.com/

I have listed some of my previous blogs on this subject below.

https://blog.alpine-property.com/2017/01/02/eco-building-alps/

https://blog.alpine-property.com/2014/03/18/an-eco-chalet-in-the-alps/

https://blog.alpine-property.com/2018/07/26/land-for-sale-in-the-alps/

Developing the Alpine Villages

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Author: Steve Norris MD of Alpine Property

Anyone who has been living in the Alps can tell you that the look and feel of our mountain towns and villages has changed and is continuing to change at a surprising speed. Opinion is divided as to whether this change is for the better or the worse. What do you think? Possibly you aren’t so sure. Well, neither was I, so I decided to canvas opinion for you. I was immediately struck by how divided opinion was. Everyone has a very strong view on the topic!

Those with a negative view of the changes suggest a quick trip to the centres of Les Gets, Morzine or Samoens to see the most dramatic and controversial change. In each town centre new large blocks of apartments have appeared in just the last five years. Many locals and long-term residents complain that these have changed the feel of their town. They say that these large new developments have replaced older, smaller scale buildings which gave the town an authentic and lived in feel. An additional problem for them is that frequently these older buildings were hotels or restaurants which provided employment for both locals and saisonaires.

Interestingly this change has not been driven by the tourism industry; pressure for new apartments close to the skiing has always been with us. No, the change has been created by a change in planning regulations. In 2014 restrictions on the maximum size of construction on a given plot of land were removed. This was a national change in response to increased demand for homes. This gave the green light to developers throughout France to build large apartment buildings where this had not been possible previously. The law was changed to help build more homes for families. In our resorts it has resulted in the building of more second homes for holidaymakers. These holidaymakers are delighted to find well built, conveniently located second homes for their holidays in the Alps

But not all is doom and gloom. Many people I spoke to pointed to some very positive changes in the look and feel of our area.

Those with a more positive view suggest a quick trip elsewhere, to one of the many small villages in the valleys leading to the main ski resorts. Over the last 30 years these villages have seen a really dramatic change. Unlike the new developments in the centre of the resorts, this change has been gradual, and so harder to spot. Thirty years ago these villages were very quiet, with many unused buildings. They had, up until the Second World War, been thriving farming villages. At that time the villages were populated by families living a traditional lifestyle. They divided their time between summers spent living in small chalets d’alpage high on the alpine pastures caring for their cattle and winters spent living in the family farm down in the village where the cattle would be kept indoors until the snows melted. This lifestyle gradually disappeared in the fifties and sixties and many families moved elsewhere to earn a living. Their farms and houses thus became unused and in many cases fell into disrepair.

Over the last 30 years these buildings have been renovated one by one. The area has developed a large corps of carpenters, plumbers and electricians skilled in this work. Originally renovated as second homes, more recently these old farms and chalets are being bought and renovated as main homes for people coming to the mountains to raise families in this clean and calm environment. Whatever the reason this gradual change has been immensely positive. Visit any of these villages today and you will see thriving communities with small businesses, local schools and well-kept homes. Most of these chalets and farmhouses have been renovated in a traditional alpine style, meaning that the villages themselves have retained their original authentic feel.

So, what do you think? I think that these changes are simply part of the natural evolution in the use we make of our towns and villages.

If you are thinking of buying a home in the Alps it pays to be aware of these changes and the different character of each village. Make sure you consider what atmosphere will suit you best.

Sailing on La Savoie from Evian

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At Alpine Property we have been web based since our inception in 1999. This has had some huge benefits for our business. Apart from anything it has helped us keep at the forefront of technology throughout that time. However to make up for the lack of day to day team contact we arrange a team meeting in Annecy every other month and a team outing twice a year. This year’s summer outing was on a boat trip on Lac Léman. We love to descend out of the mountains to the shores of Lac d’Annecy or Lac Léman. They have an otherworldly feel. It might only take 30 min to get there but when you do it feels like a holiday.

La Savoie at Evian

We went for an afternoon’s sail on “La Savoie”. This is a replica of a traditional cargo boat used throughout the 19th century for transporting rock and gravel from the limestone quarries that can be found on the sides of the lake. A boat like this could shift up to 200 tonnes of rock, all of which will have been wheelbarrowed onto it’s deck. Yes, the deck. Not the hold as you might think. The waterline length is 35 m, though for the older sailor it might be better understood as 114 ft.

La Savoie was launched in the year 2000, so it’s only a year younger than Alpine Property.. However it took 3 years to build. It’s design is based on a boat that was originally built in 1896 in Geneva. There are 3 of these traditional boats on the lake. 2 on the Swiss side and La Savoie in France.

France in the background, under sail and heading towards Switzerland.

We had been trying to organise this trip for a few years. La Savoie had been in dry dock for a refit in 2014 and 2015. It was relaunched in 2016 but taken out of service again in early 2018 because of a problem with the masts. In fact these boats have 2 parts to their mast. The mast and the enormous “lateen” (antenne in French). They are called Lateen rigs, a derivative of “latin”. They came about as an evolution of the square rigged ships. For the sailors among you, this evolution allows the boat to sail further into the wind than the older square rigged ship.

Sorting out the new antenne’s was a saga in itself. You can’t order this sort of thing online! They needed 2 very long slow-grown Spruce. In this case 27 m long. These exist around the Lac de Montriond. The Mairie of Montriond kindly donated a couple for the job. Cutting them down and transporting them whole to the workshop by Lac Léman warranted an article in the paper. Then follows hours of preparation and 3 coats of varnish. In total they estimate 450 hrs of work, so something like 20,000€ to turn these tree trunks into useful “antenne”.

Down below, seating for 60!

These eye watering figures are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to running costs. Apparently La Savoie requires new sails. Much of the fabrication is done by hand. Not even with a machine. Many of threads are hand stitched! The total sail area is 350 m2 . There is only one company in France that can undertake the job. The cost of the three sails amounts to a staggering 70,000€!

The mainsail, 155 m2

We went out for a couple of hours. It was a private trip which we had restricted to 38 people. Below this number the crew will sail the boat. They got us involved with a bit of hauling to hoist the sails up and even let us helm for a while. They will take up to 70 passengers, however with this number the deck becomes too crowded to safely sail, in which case they will just use the motor.

These trips are open to the public April through to October. Generally on weekends at a cost of 18 euros. A few times of year they run a day cruise over to Switzerland for 90 euros with lunch included!

Returning to Evian

Further information can be found here https://www.barquelasavoie.com/

Les Montagnes d’Evian

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3 small ski areas between Evian and Chatel have linked up to create “Les Montagnes d’Evian“. When I say linked I don’t mean by lift. They have created a ski-pass that means you can ski in any of them during the season.

As an example during the season a full Portes du Soleil season pass costs 998€, whereas this new pass will cost only 296€. Both passes offer early bird discounts. If you buy your Montagnes d’Evian pass before the 20th/December it will only cost 237€.

So for less than the cost of a 6 day PDS pass you can ski all season in these 3 great little spots.

There are no downsides. Plenty of people ski these local resorts. It’s a bit of a secret unknown to the general skiing public. They might think that they are not big enough to bother with. However it really depends on what you want from a day out. If you just want to clock up miles and miles of wide pistes and long runs, they won’t be for you. However if you are looking for peace and quiet, if you don’t want to find the off-piste tracked out within an hour, or if you are after a nice ski with lunch being just as important. Then they are perfect.

After saying all that. If you add the stats up you do get some fairly big numbers.

  • The longest vertical drop (dénivelé) is almost 1000m
  • 34 lifts, including 2 télécabines & 6 chairlifts
  • Almost 100 km of piste (49 pistes : 10 green, 17 blue, 15 reds et 7 blacks).
  • 3 snowparks, 3 boarder-cross, one big air bag.
  • Plenty of restaurants by the piste.

They are even aiming this at the Swiss market. If you happen to live in Lausanne, then you can jump on a boat, then a bus up to one of the resorts and ski for an all inclusive price of 49.50 CHF.