The Times Weekend - UK (2020-08-01)

Bricks&Mortar 27

This week he has sold four properties

— two in Morzine and two in Austria —

with an average sale price of €1.5 million

(£1.3 million). Three buyers out of four

are British, Rollason says, and all have

visited the properties in person. “We

would rarely sell to a second owner

who hasn’t visited,” he says. “Even

with video and 360-degree

tours people still want to see

and touch what they buy.”

If you are desperate to ski in the

summer, try Val d’Isère in the Savoie

region. Tess Sparrow, of Free Spirit

Alpine, says the area has a “surprise

element” for Brits. “It’s one of the few

places you can [now] still ski in the

French Alps — on the Grand Pisaillas

J

eremy Rollason is sitting in
the sun on a terrace looking
up at Mont Blanc in the ski
resort of Chamonix, France.
“It’s 28C,” he says over the
phone. “The village is bustling
— all the restaurants and
shops are open, ice cream is
being served, hikers and walkers pass by.
Happy days. No one would ever think
there’d been a global pandemic.”
Rollason might be enjoying the sun,
but he is not on holiday. This is his first
sight of the slopes since Christmas. He is
the head of ski properties at the estate
agency Savills and he is there to work,
selling properties priced between
£400,000 and £20 million.
He is not alone. This is the busiest
summer he has known in a 15-year
career. The prospect of boarding a
packed plane, going through lengthy
security checks or facing quarantine is
pushing people to the Alps, which can be
reached by car or train.
There are a lot of domestic tourists,
Rollason says, but also an increasing
amount of international ones. “The
borders opened on June 3, and 27
countries were able to travel around:
British, Dutch, German, Italian etc.”
Morzine, in particular, is full of
British-registered Land Rovers, Rollason
says. The ski resort is close to the Swiss
border. “From Calais it’s between eight
and ten hours to get here,” he says.
“Geneva is only seven hours.”
Travelling by train offers a
comfortable alternative. “Snow
trains”, either at night or
during the day, travel
between London and
Bourg-Saint-
Maurice in the
Auvergne-Rhône-
Alpes region in
southeastern
France. They take
between eight
and ten hours.
However, some
direct trains have
been cancelled and
you might have to
change at the Gare du
Nord in Paris.
Andrew Beale, the managing
director at the estate agency Free Spirit
Alpine in the French Alps, says: “Usually
the summer season is busy, autumn is
quieter while winter is our main selling
season. However, I suspect we shall see a
continuous selling ‘season’ from now
until winter. There’s a significant amount
of catching up to be done.”
Beale says that during lockdown they
had “phenomenal” interest from British
buyers, for inquiries and sales. They also
experienced a trend: Brits were looking

for properties within the resorts, but also

in hamlets near by. “One of the buyers I

showed round Saint-Martin-de-Belleville

last week was looking for a slightly

bigger apartment as they discovered

they could work well remotely, and

wanted a second home they could spend

more time in — during the summer too.”

Beale says the Alps are “really rolling

out the carpet” for househunters like

this. “Previously, when somebody

inquired about a ski property, nine times

out of ten they wanted to know

about skiing,” he says. “Now

they ask what they can

do in the warmer

months, which is

influencing their

decision as to what

to buy and when.”

Elyse

Constantin, the

general manager

of the estate

agency Alpine

Homes in the Swiss

Alps, says his firm

has implemented a

“summer in the Alps”

campaign in lockdown that

proved popular with the British.

“So many people haven’t realised how

great it is out here during the warmer

months,” Constantin says. “There are

endless outdoor options including

cycling, hiking, water activities and

adrenaline-fuelled fun, plus wonderful

views, nature and wildlife.”

People are not skiing at this time of

the year, “but they’re doing everything

else,” Rollason says, including hiking,

mountaineering, cycling — and buying

second homes.

Buy in the Alps this summer

Britons are not just

hiking, cycling and

skiing here, they are

snapping up second

homes too, says

Emanuele Midolo

glacier. The skiing on the glacier goes up

to 3,200m, which means even in August

you will find winter snow up there to

enjoy. The glacier in Tignes is also open

for skiing in October, so homeowners

are able to enjoy their second homes

more throughout the year.”

Val d’Isère, though, is one of

the most expensive places to

buy a second home in the

French Alps. The average price

per square metre is just over €17,000

for a chalet or €11,570 for an apartment,

according to Free Spirit Alpine.

“If you are prepared to drive or walk a

short distance, you can make substantial

savings on a resort where you may be

looking at twice the price for a similar

property,” Beale says. One example is Le

Miroir, where the agent has a chalet for

sale for €1.85 million. “If we were to pick

that up and put it in Val d’Isère, 20

minutes away in the car, you’d pay

almost twice the price,” he says.

The tourist boom could lead to a rise

in prices even in cheaper locations, such

as Villarabout in France, which is just

above Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, but

where prices per square metre are about

€10,000 compared with €14,500 in Saint

Martin. In Switzerland, locations such as

Champex-Lac, Anzère and Les Masses

offer the best value for money, according

to Alpine Homes.

Back in Chamonix, Rollason is taking

in the view before returning to Britain.

He says people come to these resorts “to

have an active life, fresh air and quality

of life”. He adds: “The Italian lakes and

the French Riviera are not far away if

people want to incorporate that with the

seaside. As the French say: “Il faut en

profiter [better take advantage of it].”

FRANCE

SWITZERLAND

ITALY

Geneva

25 miles

TH

E^

AL

PS

Anzère

Champex

Chamonix

Mont Blanc

Saint-Martin-

de-Belleville

Morzine

Bourg-Saint-

Maurice

Val d'Isère

This four-bedroom chalet with a sauna, which is on the southwest-

facing side of Morzine in France, is €1.88 million through Savills

Le Miroir chalet is a 20-minute drive from Val d’Isère and, at €1.85 million through Free Spirit Alpine, is half the price of property in the popular skiing resort

This week an agent

sold four properties with

an average sale price

of £1.3 million