New Alpine Property Website

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Alpine Property has recently launched v4 of the website. As usual we are keeping up with current technology and have made a website that will adapt to all the various devices that are being used nowadays. Mobile phones, tablets (big and small), laptops and massive screens too. With this milestone in mind I decided to look at our websites over the years.

To give a bit of a timescale.

AOL mail went online in 1993
Amazon in 1995
Hotmail in 1996
BBC online in 1997
Google in 1998
Facebook 2004

v1, Spring 2000 the first Alpine Property website

Built by Steve Norris (now the MD of Alpine Property) for Claudia Buttet, built and maintained with Dreamweaver. One fat finger could render the whole site useless!

v2, Spring 2002

Already technology was leaving us behind so we brought in a professional database programmer and intranet master. This website was dynamically driven (Microsoft ASP), text heavy and image light. Still designed with dial-up modems in mind.

v3.0, Spring 2005

We moved onto our own dedicated server, changed to PHP and designed the site with broadband connections in mind. The same programmer did the technical stuff, the look of the site was the brainchild of Alex Lewis (our marketing man) and a big-shot in the advertising world.

v3.5, Spring 2009

A mild update to the look but a massive update to the back-end, Lehman Brothers went under in September 2008 . This caused the property market to stall over the following winter. We had time on our hands so after a reappraisal of what we were doing we decided to diversify from the UK market and have everything professionally translated into French and Dutch.

Winter 2012 Mobile site created

It became clear that many of our customers were accessing our website on their mobile phones. We’ve always liked to stay ahead of the game when it comes to technology so we commissioned a mobile version of our website. Designed to be super fast to cut down on roaming charges and compatible with all devices be that Apple or Android. It was very successful too. If we ever needed a low-bandwidth version of our website we’d all turn to this one!

V4, Spring 2014

The way people access the web has moved on again; at is usual lightning pace! Our clients are now using mobile phones, tablets (big and small), laptops and massive screens too and the technology of websites is moving on to accommodate this. The architecture of our database has remained the same but the website needed new technology, a new programmer was brought in to apply his skills with Bootstrap to create a Responsive website. Alex Lewis came up with the base design again. In total we put 7 months work into this, exchanged over 2,000 emails, had dozens of web conferences and numerous face to face meetings, it’s also the first website we beta-tested on users before release.

Alpine Property in the press, winter 13/14

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Every year I do a round up of where Alpine Property has appeared in the UK press over the winter. In fact it’s mostly in the Autumn as the newspapers promote the up-coming ski season. As you can imagine this makes getting hold of snowy pictures of our chalets a challenge.

You’ll see that we are normally promoted as Winkworth’s Alpine arm. In general the writers like to feature the well known resorts like Chamonix but this year there has been a diversification. Some of the journalists have been actively seeking out some of the lesser known spots in the Haute Savoie.

Evening Standard August 2013

Cathy Hawker wrote this article about Les Gets for the her regular paper the London Evening Standard. It’s promoting some of the new build projects in Les Gets.

Country Life October 2013

Some random ads for some mega chalets (one for 20m€), we sneaked one in in Combloux for 1.68m€. This did quite well for us when reposted on Facebook, the full article is here. Country Life Oct 2013

Country Life November 2013

A classic article by one of the in-house journalists (Arabella Youens) promoting the big name ski areas across the Alps. Verbier, Couchevel, Meribel and would you believe it Morzine. How times change. 15 years ago Morzine would have been mentioned in the “undiscovered French family resorts category. Not in with the big boys! You can see the article here.

Sunday Times December 2013

A nice article by Sean Newsom featuring one of our favourite traditional properties we have for sale in Le Biot. Some of the lesser known ski resorts in the Alps like Bernex and Samoens got a mention Sunday Times Dec 2013

Money Week December 2013

A little snippet advertising one of most picturesque properties in Le Grand-Bornand. It’s chalet Fleur de Neige, just a short walk to the skiing and with amazing panoramic views of the whole area.

Sunday Times February 2014

This was one of the best articles that appeared over the winter. Written by Sean Newsom again (from http://welove2ski.com/) it was a well researched article on Morzine. I even got to be a bit cynical in it! Sunday Times article

Last years results are here:

Right in the middle of St Gervais

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La Comtesse development in St Gervais is, in our opinion a pretty good option for property hunters looking for something in and among it all. Set behind the church, right in the centre, owners will have a quiet location surrounded by trees and views of Mont Joly, yet with all amenities on their doorstep. In fact next door is the Sérac, a gastro restaurant that has recently obtained its first Michelin star, and very proud of them we are.

Within a 100 paces of La Comtesse there’s a number of banks for all your international transfers, a few locals’ bars – La Grange where you’ll meet the lifties and ski instructors or the more recent Brasserie that offer a pool table and covers sporting events; the Serac’s gourmet bistort and deli; the Mairie for all your French admin or marrying needs and the little police station where the local ‘Policiers’, who get all excited if a car breaks down in the centre of the village and who double up for lollypop duty for the school kids, reside. Ahhh, sweet rural living.

There’s also the choice of 3 supermarkets, the office de tourisme, the potters shop and the historic Haute Tour – which are fortified buildings dating back to the 13th century that can be visited and where cultural and artistic events take place. If you buy in La Comtesse, you can literally holiday in your slippers!

La Comtesse is nearing completion and the other day, they had planted the trees which will give privacy and help landscape the newly implanted building.

Only 6 apartments were ever available and there are currently only 4 left. We have just taken pictures of the insides of the apartments, which until now didn’t have bathrooms and kitchens. Yes, they still need their final clean, so you’ll spot dust on mirrors and floors and the odd ladder in the images, but have a look at the new mountain interiors with a modern twist.

For those wanting a large spacious apartment, then La Comtesse 5 is your best option

alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_3_aptcomtesse5

If a ground floor apartment with some outside space is your desire then No 1, 2 are still available

alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_3_aptcomtesse2

alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_3_aptcomtesse1

and finally a popular 2 bedroom arrangement (no.3) but with a private terrace can be purchased here

alpine-property.com/index.php?page=prop_3_aptcomtesse3

Taking better pictures of your chalet

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So I know, this is the job of the Estate Agent. It doesn’t stop me writing about it though and there are things the owner of the property can do to help!

If you are trying to sell your house good photos are more important now than ever before. Most people are now using the internet as their first source when starting their property search. Good pictures = more interest. It’s as simple as that! In fact we are revamping our entire website with this thought in mind – let me know if you’d like a sneak preview!

One of the finest examples of the importance of good photos happened to us this winter. We took on a small (50m2) 2 bedroom property in St Gervais at 240,000€, the property had already been for sale for some time with some of the local agents but they had not achieved much. We took it on and our agent Sarah Watts took the photos. Within a week we’d had a dozen enquiries and in fact we’d secured a sale after 3 days. It was all down to presentation. The living area is pictured above.

So here are my tips.

Use a decent camera. Digital cameras have come on leaps and bounds over the last few years. I recently did some tests with recent 250€ compact and compared the results to 7 year old digital SLR and the compact won. Under certain conditions the latest phones will outperform an older camera. Though I’m not suggesting you should use a phone as they don’t work well for all types of shot and definitely don’t use your tablet!
Think ahead. Take some nice photos of your property before you decide to sell. I have some stock images of my house taken on a beautiful blue sky/powder day from a couple of years ago. Ready and waiting if I need to put my house on the market. You can’t expect the estate agent to be able to get these images themselves. This last winter is a good example, at no point have the lower villages had a good depth of snow for this type of photo.

Prepare your chalet for the photos. Tidy up, de-clutter. Give the windows a clean. Tidy up the garden. You can take this to great lengths, Home Staging is an industry in itself and for good reason.
Use a tripod for internal pictures. At a minimum steady yourself against a wall. 90% of the time you don’t want to use the flash. 100% of the time put every light on inside the house, one of my favourites in the cooker hood lights.
Make sure your lens is clean.
Open the shutters!
Choose a sunny day with the sun on the “nice” side of the building.
Internal shots are easiest on a dull day. Though logistically this makesthe previous point difficult.
Try and take the pictures “straight”, pick a vertical line in the centre of the room and use that as a reference, if you fail make sure you straighten them later.
Think about varying the height of your shots. Get down low in the smaller rooms, a shot taken across the corner of a bed can work, so take a shot at 0.8m height not 1.6m.
Keep the originals! Don’t resize and overwrite!
A note for the Estate Agent. Take along a spare memory card, a spare battery, a torch, pen and paper and a digital measure! I take a spare camera plus a floodlight and extension lead, I know some that take an extension so the can lift the camera up high on the outside pictures.

How to buy your Alpine Property

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So you have decided to make the move? You want to buy your first property in the French Alps but you are not really sure where to start. Buying a property anywhere, even in your home country can be a daunting prospect but then added to that, you want to buy in France. This creates additional work and research to make sure you get it right first time. Here are our top three tips for making the process as painless as possible.

Get your mortgage agreed in principle

The first thing to do is talk to a good mortgage provider (if like most mortals you need a mortgage) so that they can confirm how much you can afford to borrow. They should give you an in principle decision to lend. We work with the biggest provider of mortgages to non-French residents, just ask Alpine Property to put you in touch. Don’t forget to add in the Notaires fees and Stamp Duty (called Frais de Notaire), budget on 8% for everything except off plan properties in which case it is 2.5%.

Find an Estate Agent to work with

If you don’t speak French then seek out a good local English-speaking agency. They will be on hand to go through everything with you in a language you can understand. The property and the area in which it is located can be fully explained to and you can be guided through the French property buying process, without fear that you have misunderstood something. If you are looking in the Haute Savoie then you obviously should contact Alpine Property!

Get to know the agents. Once you have made contact then arrange to meet to view some properties in person. From our website we have a Google map with all the properties marked. It would be tempting to visit using just this information! With your telephone in hand you could drive right to the door. It would be better not to do this! You’ll miss out on the nuggets of information like “this owner really needs to sell, the asking price is xx thousand euros but I spoke to him yesterday and he’ll accept a lot less”. OR “I’d like to show you this property, it’s not on the website yet but the owner has told me they want to sell”.

One of the main differences when buying in France compared to the UK is the speed at which you’ll be asked to sign the first contract. Once your offer has been accepted the next stage is to draw up a Compromis de Vente (a preliminary contract between buyer and seller) it is then difficult for the seller to sell to someone else, this stops gazumping. At this point you’ll need to lodge a 10% deposit with the Notaire. You will also be tied into the sale so you would be well advised to add “clause suspensives” that would allow you to withdraw from the process if you fail to obtain a mortgage or if your planning permission is refused. If the buyer fails to fulfil the contract they risk losing this deposit.

Only consider buying for the longer term

Buying a property in the French Alps should be considered a long-term commitment. It is recommended that you buy only when you plan to retain the property for at least five years. Transaction costs are high so “churning” properties is rarely cost-effective. You may need to undertake additional research if you intend to live in the area full-time or perhaps rent out your holiday home for part of the year. The cost of living in France is comparable to the UK, though some things will seem expensive (professionals fees) and some things will seem cheaper (diesel which is 20% less expensive according to my calculation in March 2014).

View lots of property in the Alps to make sure you find the chalet that is right for you and your needs and is within the location that you want it. If you want to rent it out, make sure it has all the attributes needed to be rented out easily. I’ve written on the subject of renting here. If you plan to live in it full-time, think about the lifestyle you want to lead once here in the Alps. Do you really want to be above that noisy bar in the centre of town in winter? Or in that “high-altitude” purpose built resort during the summer season?

An Eco-Chalet in the Alps

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Now we have to obtain energy ratings (DPE or Diagnostic de performance énergétique) for all the properties we sell we are shown the stark reality of the amount of energy homes in the Alps use. We know it’s not a cheap place to live but of course we have to heat our homes over the long winter and that is going to cost! Take a look at the following chart for the distribution of energy ratings across our properties.

So most of our properties are D, E or F. I’m not sure that I’d buy a car or a fridge with a rating that bad, and of course our houses cost more to run than either of those! When I see a property with an A or B rating I’m generally sceptical, I always ask our agent how they managed a rating like that and I’ve had replies like “it’s unoccupied and they convinced the assessor that it doesn’t use any energy” or try this one, “it was an E but they got the assessor back and told him to do it again and it came back as a B!” so you can see why I am a sceptic.

We’ve recently taken on a pretty little place in the Vallee Verte which has a “C” rating. As you can see even a “C” is hard to get. To give you an idea what you need to do to get a “C” we have asked the owner some fairly searching questions. He was happy to respond, not a big surprise as reducing his energy bill has been a labour of love. For comparisons sake, it houses a family of 3 in a fairly large house (4 bedrooms/168m2), is detached and at 1000m of altitude and is situated in the bottom of a valley that runs from North to South.

Chalet Michel, near Lullin in the Vallée du Brevon

Water (not part of the DPE rating but it ought to be in this context, it’s still a resource)

Rain water and snow melt is collected from the roof in a 10,000 ltr tank. It is then filtered and used for everything. This is almost sufficient for the needs of a family of 3. The additional costs amount to 50€ but this is mainly the standing charge.

Heating

The house is heated by two methods. An air-source heat pump and an 18kw wood burning stove. Air-source heat pumps are gaining ground on the ground-source systems (often referred to as geothermal heating) as they are less costly to fit and don’t require a large surface area of garden to bury the pipes. These air-source heating systems are a very efficient form of electric heating, you can in fact see the unit on the wall of the photo above.

The house has Solar Panels fitted which supply energy to the grid. At current prices they provide about 1100 € of income. The domestic electricity bill (heating the house, hot water, lighting) comes to 1,500€ a year, so the net cost is 400€/year.

Apparently the main wood burner is only used in really cold weather or for “effect”! Total wood usage is about 3/4 stere (a stere is 1m3 of stacked wood) which at today’s rates will cost 240/320€. I’ll take an average figure for my calculations. So total net resource costs come to about 730€/yr

As a comparison I’ll use my house, it’s not new, it’s a hotch-potch of renovations. I guess it will be an “F” on the DPE scale. The most important insulation (in the roof) was put in over 20 years ago and is not up to current norms. Only half the house has double glazing. We are a family of 5 and the property is semi-detached (4 bedrooms/150m2) at 830m altitude and faces south. Our electricity bill is 2,800€/yr, water 500€ and wood 240€. Total 3540€/yr

So a saving of 2,800€ a year is certainly worth having! Probably 10% of the average family income around here. Even if you take the real consummation figure (so you’ll have to take off the income the Solar Panel provide) the savings are still huge (real consummation figure = 1830, so a saving over my house of 1710€).

Chalet Renovation

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Liz Ockelton is married to Ed our Chatel agent. Liz has brought her professional training as a commercial and domestic interior designer in the UK over to France. She complements Ed’s work as an agent very well, so when he sells a property that needs some work then Liz is on hand to take on the job. From time to time we like to showcase her projects.

Chalet Joyeux was purchased in Chatel in 2013 for 720,000€. The chalet was bought as a second home, the owners wanted a mountain retreat for the family. The aim of the project was to open up the main living space into one large open plan area and make it have more of a cozy chalet style. The open plan living area was really important for the family who want to spend time together on holiday. Upstairs the renovations created an en-suite shower room for the parents and a large family bathroom with bath for the children.

Renovation costs – new kitchen and electrical appliances, 2 new bathrooms, all walls, floors and ceilings in the living space, lighting throughout, old wood interior doors. APPROX 80,000€ and then full furnishing throughout at an additional APPROX 40,000€.

The design research works started in mid Oct when the chalet sale completed. The building works on site took 4 weeks start to finish. All finished in time for the Christmas holidays. All work was completed by local company Alpine Renovation, kitchen and bathroom and tiles all supplied by local suppliers.

Opening up the living area has created a communal space for all the family.

Below are a couple of pictures of the chalet kitchen in its original state.

And below a before and after shot.

A great example of how modernising a bathroom can in bring an old chalet into the current century!

Selling your property in the Alps

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So, your life is moving into a new phase, or the family no longer want to spend Christmas together in the chalet, or the time has come to spend some of the cash tied up in your property. The decision to sell your ski chalet can have any number of triggers, but whatever the reason, let’s assume you have reluctantly decided to put your much-loved ski property on the market. Hopefully with us at Alpine Property.

Maison des Billets, Samoens, for sale for 600,000€ in February 2014.

Selling your chalet in the Alps is one of those things most people do just once in a lifetime. Unfortunately, it’s also one of those things where practise makes perfect. So, what are the dos and don’ts of putting your property on the market in France?

Most important of all…………..

DO price the property realistically. First talk to us! We would say that wouldn’t we? It is tempting to take a look at similar properties for sale with Alpine Property (or other agencies!) to gauge current asking prices, then decide on a price for your property yourself. This comes with risks. For example there are a number of properties on our books that have been there a while and it could be that they are not realistically priced. The second home market is different from other markets, the properties are regarded as “assets” by the owners and often they’d like to sell but they don’t NEED to sell. So if the property is overpriced they are happy to sit and wait. We base our valuations on actual sales figures including data from the notaires, which therefore reflect a more accurate market price.

Talk to us so we can work together on a price that will represent good value relative to the other properties. This way you will almost invariably achieve a higher selling price. Let me explain. Properties which are priced realistically sell very quickly and often a deal is struck within a month. Properties which are priced too highly only sell after sitting for a long time on the market and undergoing a series of painful price reductions. The reason for this is that buyers watch websites like ours at Alpine Property constantly and are surprisingly clever at identifying properties which have been for sale for some time. These properties are perceived to have something wrong with them and are unattractive to a buyer. Buyers, like early birds seeking a juicy worm, are instinctively drawn to properties which are new on the market. Thus there is a brief window of opportunity to get the best price for your property when it first goes on the market. Price the property too highly and that opportunity is lost.

Our agents are experienced in the prices actually being achieved in the market and will be very happy to advise you on a realistic price. Take a look at our Sell Property page for more practical advice

DO NOT Listen to an agent who suggests testing the market with a price at the top end of the price range you had in mind. His strategy is to get your property onto his books first and worry about selling it later. He will no doubt come back to you in three months time and suggest a substantial price reduction. By this time your property will be stale.

DO make every effort to help us present the property well. The property photographs we take are obviously vital. We use the best equipment to produce good quality views, but it’s up to you to ensure the chalet is clean and tidy. Homestaging is well worth the time and effort. We work with several people in the area that can help with this. The same applies when we make visits. Buyers will only buy an untidy or dirty chalet if it is being sold at a substantial discount. I’ll write another post on the best way to present your property for sale.

DO put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. Often a client looking to buy a chalet within a certain price range has seen many properties priced similarly and has an instant idea of what is reasonable and what isn’t. Though we advise caution on advertised prices not always being an accurate reflection of true value, it can be an eye opener to go ‘internet shopping’ and seeing if you can find a better property than yours for the same money. If you do, then you can be sure that these properties will sell first and yours will remain on the market.

DO keep in touch with your Alpine Property agent. We monitor all our virtual visits of your property listing, log all enquiries from our buyers and are happy to provide feedback at anytime, including after visits. If you’re not getting any buyers looking at the property, then we’ll probably have an idea as to why, and can advise you accordingly. This is the case with any other agency you are using too, particularly if they have given you a high valuation. Once again, it is all well and good them saying your chalet is worth X, but it is then reasonable to challenge them as to why it is not getting any interest.

DO make sure that you are clear as to your Capital Gains Tax liability. The tax situation for second homes has recently seen some flux in France so a visit to a local accountant or Notaire is a must if you are not sure where you stand. Meilleurs Agents can be a good place to get the CGT table for France. Don’t believe everything you read on the web though!

New Chalets in St Jean d’Aulps

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If you thought all building work stops in the Alps in the winter (so all the tradesmen can go off to their second jobs as ski instructors), then think again. It is still the case on a small-scale but in general the tradesmen try to keep working all year around. The idea is to make a structure waterproof so work can carry on inside during the winter months. As an example have a look at this development of the Chalets des Cimes project, it has been continuing throughout this winter in sight of the pistes. The developer has just sent me these photos.

This is my favourite as you can see the piste and the ski lift in the background.

These chalets are excellent quality. Note the copper guttering, the granite faced first floor walls (this is an option for an extra cost), the charred and brushed Douglas Pine (this means you won’t need to varnish or treat the wood). I wrote an article where I mentioned the quality of chalets we see in the Alps and how it’s hard to compare with a cheap build in the UK. These chalets are a good example of this.

Don’t forget that these chalets are at the base of the piste at La Grande Terche (Espace Roc d’Enfer), they are in the Portes du Soleil and only 20 minutes drive from the skiing in Morzine or Avoriaz.

Out of the 9 that are being built, a couple of them are sold and another 2 more are “in negotiation” (as of 18/Feb/2014), we’ve listed the different types on our website here:

Les Chalets des Cîmes, No. 9
600 000 €uros, 5 bedrooms, 144m2

Les Chalets des Cîmes, No. 3
580 000 €uros, 4 bedrooms, 133m2

Les Chalets des Cîmes, No. 4
550 000 €uros, 4 bedrooms, 121m2

Les Chalets des Cîmes, No. 2
525 000 €uros, 4 bedrooms, 121m2

Build your own chalet

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This was written in 2014, the numbers are out of date! I have refreshed it in a post late 2019. We frequently get asked how much it will cost to build your own chalet. In general we quote 2500€/m2 as a benchmark. Sometimes we qualify this with “of course it depends on many 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. But in the end 2500€/m2 is a good place to start. So if you were building a 4 bedroom 140m2 chalet then a starting point would be 350,000 € to build the chalet after you have bought the land.

When I mention these figures to UK-based buyers that know about these things they take a sharp intake of breath. Apparently you can build houses in the UK for much less than that. Closer to 1500€/m2 I’m told 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.
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.

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 2000€/m2.

kit chalet in Samoens

We’ve recently been approached by a ECSUS Design, who have recently completed a chalet in Samoens and are constructing a couple more in Morzine this summer. These guys either design your home or adapt an existing design and fabricate using Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) that are precision engineered and 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 2000€/m2. Now I can’t act as a reference for these guys but they can offer references if interested. The company is http://www.ecsusdesign.com/ and the SIPs system is http://www.tek.kingspan.com/ They supplied me with the lovely photo of the finished chalet in Samoens. I have used it to illustrate this post.

The Alpine Property Blog

Selling properties in the Alps since 1999

New Alpine Property Website

Alpine Property in the press, winter 13/14

Right in the middle of St Gervais

Taking better pictures of your chalet

How to buy your Alpine Property

An Eco-Chalet in the Alps

Chalet Renovation

Selling your property in the Alps

New Chalets in St Jean d’Aulps

Build your own chalet