Tag Archives: alpine property

Alpine Property Market Report April 2024

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Winter Season

It’s April, at the end of the winter season 23/24, it is snowing outside and the forecast for the next few weeks is for the temperature to remain in single figures. In fact last night was the coldest April night ever recorded in some parts of France. What a contrast to this past winter season! It will be remembered as warmer and wetter than the historical average. For much of the season the snow depths above 1500m were normal. So at Avoriaz/Flaine the conditions were generally very good. And on the ski areas around Chamonix they had more snow than usual. This contrasted with difficult conditions when skiing back into the villages. The people that run businesses in this area worry about the weather in the same way a farmer does. We worry that people on holiday will be disappointed, we have quizzed many people and I know others did too, and the face to face feedback has been universally good. That contrasts with a small number of people trolling on social media, but then, I guess that is what you get on social media isn’t it?

We asked a number of people looking in the area, why they are buying, are they not worried about “climate change”. The response is always the same, guaranteed skiing is not the main driver for a purchase. There are so many ways to enjoy these mountains. 

I am discussing the conditions, because they always influence the interest we observe for second homes. Overall, this season mirrored the preceding one of 22/23, rendering it average—akin to pre-pandemic years. This equilibrium extended to both buyers and sellers.

Mortgages and affordability

Last year, the market experienced a cooling off due to mortgage accessibility challenges. Fortunately, this hurdle has since eased, with rates now dipping below 4% for select buyers. For those relocating from abroad, mortgage options exist to safeguard against potential rate drops, such as variable/tracker mortgages or those without redemption penalties. Exploring such products may necessitate consulting a broker rather than relying solely on high street banks.

Saying that, the property market in the ski areas has been supported by people that don’t really need a mortgage to buy the property they want. The buyers around here are investing their money in property which is a safe “asset”, the downside for people that live in the area is that the affordability of property ends up out of reach. This is in contrast to the rest of France where most people will require a mortgage for their homes, this difficulty in obtaining a mortgage has meant prices in much of the rest of France are reducing, in time this should make affordability easier. In general over the last year, prices across France are down 10%. Sales are down 30% which is a big issue if you are an estate agent. Plenty are closing down. PACA (the area around Nice) has bucked that trend, as we have in the Haute Savoie.

I’ve had a look at the price trends across the ski areas we cover. We now have access to ALL the sales data across France and to real time data for what is for sale.In general over the last 2 years we have seen price rises of up to 30%, with an average of 18%. 

* I don’t think we have enough data to trust these

** Same for Les Carroz, thanks to a problem with Insee and the Code Postal in that area

Our Commitment to 1% for the Planet

In previous market reports, I’ve emphasised our profound appreciation for our mountain environment, our commitment to sustainable transportation, and our cautious stance on unrestrained growth. Despite often feeling powerless to enact change and pointing fingers at local and central governments, we’ve taken tangible action in recent years. We’ve aligned our actions with our values by joining 1% for the Planet, allocating 1% of our turnover (not just profit) to local accredited environmental organisations. Even during lean times, we will uphold this commitment. In the past 18 months alone, we’ve contributed over €40,000 to these causes. Notably, Montagne Verte, a group based in the Portes du Soleil, has been a primary beneficiary, spearheading initiatives to mitigate our local environmental impact. I strongly encourage you to learn more about their work. Additionally, we proudly support Association un Rêve d’Abeilles, which educates schools and youth organisations on the vital role of pollinators, alongside Ecotrivelo and Inspire, both based in Chamonix. You can read more about all these initiatives here 

https://blog.alpine-property.com/2024/04/04/one-percent-for-the-planet/

St Jean d’Aulps is featured in one of the fastest growing categories in my analysis. The video below shows you why.

The Chamonix valley has shown strong and sustained growth over the last couple of years. Take a look at this property in Vallorcine.

Previous reports:

November 2023 – https://blog.alpine-property.com/2023/11/07/alpine-property-market-report-november-2023/

June 2023 – https://blog.alpine-property.com/2023/06/15/alpine-property-market-report-june-2023/

Alpine Property Market Report December 2022

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Ever since Covid the state of the market in the Alps has felt like a high speed train. This last summer has been no different. As before it really has been a sellers’ market. It has become the norm to have agreed sales within days of a new property being listed. 20 or 30 people inquiring about the same thing in the hours after a property goes online. The same buying pressures have existed since we started to come out of Covid in the summer of 2020. This is the same for both French and UK based buyers. Our customers are looking for a place to escape to, they are looking to protect their savings from inflation, and for some they are moving their money from sterling into the Eurozone. These pressures come up against an historically low number of properties for sale. The recipe is always the same, an increase in prices.

Our latest properties for sale on YouTube

Before I go on, I’d just like to make a point. Many people assume that a healthy property market is one in which prices increase, and this is something that will make an estate agent happy. That’s not necessarily the case. Ideally there would be an even balance between buyers and sellers, and a good range of properties available for sale. Price increases would track inflation, sellers could sell in a timely manner (in around 3 months) and buyers would not feel under pressure to make a decision. Unfortunately life is rarely that simple!

Currently we have a number of competing issues that are starting to slow the market down. But maybe not as much as we first feared.

The first is mortgages. Mortgages are obviously a key component of any property market. In France, there are regulations that govern mortgage lending. The government sets a maximum rate that the banks can charge for a mortgage (taux de l’usure), the banks need to be able to borrow money on the financial markets for less than this, otherwise they are left with no margin to make a profit. That is currently hard to do. The consequence of this is that French mortgages available for French residents are hard to get and for foreign residents they have pretty much disappeared. There was a crisis point in October (that coincided with the UK government’s kamikaze budget) that scuppered a number of sales. However, there were still sufficient buyers looking who didn’t need mortgages, so we were able to rescue most of these deals. Currently the mortgage situation is not improving very quickly. Most of the brokers we speak to say we will need to wait until the new year before we can expect this situation to ease..

Another issue that is causing uncertainty is Inflation. This has both positive and negative effects on the property market. Inflation does drive people to invest in property, it’s a safer bet than keeping money as cash or as stocks and shares. The negative is that it makes us all poorer which makes people more cautious with their money and their life decisions.

I don’t like to talk about the future of the market. My predictions are about as useful as the predictions for how much snow we’ll get for the upcoming season. If the papers predict a bumper season you’d do just as well betting against them as agreeing with them. At Alpine Property we like to look at the number of new customers getting in contact on a monthly basis. Historically that has been our best bellwether for our future. Currently our new enquiries are down on 2021 and 2020, but up on all years prior to that. The post Covid years have felt very weird, so maybe we are just settling back to a new normal?

If you own a property in the Alps and wondered what it is currently worth. Head over to our property valuation page, it’s free and accurate.

https://alpine-property.com/sell/get-a-valuation

And to see the latest chalets we have for sale, click on the following image.

The latest Alpine chalets we have for sale

Brexit and buying a property in France

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Brexit and buying a property in France: Some FAQ’s

The UK’s departure from the EU has a number of consequences for British nationals buying and selling properties in France. Below we have set out some of the main changes and how we think they will impact our customers.

If I am looking to buy in France, does Brexit make it more expensive for me?

No, there are no additional costs for non-residents looking to purchase in France after 1 January 2021. Acquisition costs will remain at about 7 to 8% for an existing property and around 2.5% for a new-build home.

What changes if I want to sell my property in France?

This is where the changes are. It’s all to do with Capital Gains Tax.

Capital Gains Tax (CGT)

CGT has always been payable if your property has increased in price. Don’t forget that, if your sale attracts tax, this indicates an increase in value in your property, which is largely a positive outcome!

Primary residences are still exempt from CGT. 

If a second home has increased in value, CGT is levied on the increase. In France, there are two payments due on a capital gain, the CGT and a social levy.

The standard CGT on the sale of a property will remain at 19%. The standard social levy charge for EU residents with a second home in France is currently 7.5% but this has increased to 17.2% for British homeowners from 1 January 2021. This means the total tax now due on a capital gain will be 36.2%, up from 26.5%.

BUT a taper relief also exists for both CGT and the social levy. For CGT the rate decreases from 6 years of ownership, with no CGT due after 22 years. The social charge taper also starts at year 6 with no charge applicable after 30 years of ownership. You can see this in the table below.

To deal with these taxes, in the majority of cases, a non-EU resident selling a second home in France will be required to appoint a fiscal representative. There are exemptions where the sale price is under €150,000 or if the property has been owned for 30 years or more. The fee for this can range from 0.5% to 1% of the property’s sale price, payable out of the sale proceeds but deductible as part of the CGT calculation.

We have another blog post on the subject of how to spend more than 90 days in France.

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/

French Mortgage

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So you’d like to obtain a mortgage to help buy your French property? That seems reasonable, especially as rates are so low. You might have heard that the lenders have tightened up their criteria since the 2010 banking crisis. It’s true they have, though things are more reasonable now. I’ve put together a little checklist on the mortgages available as of April 2015.

chaletcrestvole_2

Mortgage types.

  • Repayment (most common)
  • Interest Only (rare and fairly short term, so no more than about 14 yrs)
  • A 50/50 combination of Interest Only and Repayment (new to the market!)
  • Mortgages periods up to 25 years and LTV (Loan to Value) 85%

Interest rates. 2.5 to 3.6%

  • 2.6-3.6% fixed
  • 2.5-3% variable
  • 2.65% interest only​

Other Mortgage requirements

You are tax resident in one of the following countries.

  • UK
  • Belgium
  • Netherlands
  • Belgium
  • Italy
  • Ireland
  • Switzerland
  • Norway
  • Germany
  • France
  • You have an “expatriate / international” contract for an international company.
  • You work on a Superyacht.

Are you mortgageable? Points in your favour.

  • The property is residential (ie non-commercial).
  • The property is habitable.
  • If you are moving to France will you earning situation remain the same?
  • Do you have a regular salaried income, on a permanent contract and are out of any trial period?
  • If you are self employed or are a owner/director, do you have at least 3 years of accounts?
  • Do you have cash that will cover the 15% deposit and the Notaires Fees and Stamp duty (so about 8%), so total cash of 23% of the purchase price.
  • Is the mortgage for more than 50,000€

Points that counts against you.

Don’t despair, these don’t always make the process impossible. Just harder!

  • Renovation properties.
  • Businesses and small hotels (catered chalets).

So f you are after a mortgage and you think you will qualify drop us a line here.

Alpine Property join FNAIM

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Alpine Property is now a member of the France’s Estate Agency Confederation, La Fédération Nationale de l’Immobilier or FNAIM as it is generally known. Its logo, a yellow diamond, is often seen on the doors of the traditional French high street Agence Immobiliere. You can now see the logo on the welcome page of our website.
So, why have we, an international internet based Estate Agency taken this step and why is our membership relevant to our clients?

FNAIM-Logo small

Estate Agency in France is a highly regulated and scrutinised profession. You can’t operate in France as an Estate Agen​t without the relevant licence. Once you have the relevant licence you must abide by a series of regulations or risk losing your licence, being fined or​,​ in rare cases​,​ sent to jail.

Over the last 12 months the French government has passed a new law (the Loi Alur) which extends and strengthens these regulations. This new law has been passed to increase consumer​ protection against the actions of over zealous Estate Agents. As an example, when you sign a contract agreeing to sell your house through a particular Estate Agent you now have a 14 day period in which you can change your mind.
Another example is that all properties must now be advertised inclusive of agency fees. In the past some unscrupulous agencies have advertised properties net of their fees.

And just to complete the picture, a little more context but this time about the Estate Agencies themselves. Since the advent of the internet many new agencies are now starting up on​-line, just like Alpine Property. No bricks and mortar office, just a website. In itself this poses no problem for the consumer if the operation on the ground is professional and trustworthy. However, many of these new agencies have been using their virtual existence​,​ and loopholes in the old legislation​,​ to avoid its full impact and operate unprofessionally, to the detriment of clients, both buyers and sellers. We, at Alpine Property, have become increasingly aware of this issue through our clients and have been looking to support any initiative to curb the activities of such unscrupulous agencies.

These new laws have been brought in to close the loopholes and prevent the rogue agencies from operating. They have been designed in collaboration with the FNAIM. This has been our first reason for joining the FNAIM​ – to support ​its work to make our profession more professional!

The second reason we have joined this organisation is that as members of the FNAIM we receive information and training on changes in the law which ensures that our agents are fully ​up to date on of all aspects of the law covering property transactions.

We hope that our membership of the FNAIM will assure our clients, both buyers and sellers​, of the continuing professionalism of Alpine Property​.