Best Ski Property Investments
As the ski season starts to a get underway it looks as though France is going to continue to dominate the ski property investment market. Bearing out this fact is the statistic that French locations hold the top four positions in the most recent Knight Frank Prime Ski Property Index.
This quarterly report analyses the performance of luxury residential property prices and during the second quarter of 2012 this makes happy reading for French ski resort property holders.
Author of the report, Kate Everett-Allen, who is a research associate at the Knight Frank property agency explained why the French alpine resorts were enjoying this success, “The fact that property prices in the French Alps appear to have stabilised faster than in some of the key North American resorts can be attributed to a number of factors.”
Ms Everett-Allen was able to break the information down into a number of logical factors, some of which could be attributed to climate. “Firstly, many French ski resorts are located at high altitude, which makes them generally more reliable in terms of snowfall. Secondly, the French resorts are well established, most offering an array of sports and activities beyond skiing.”
She was also able to point to some recent financial factors, “Finally, significant investment over the last five years has been ploughed into these alpine resorts, which has improved the quality of skiing, accessibility and infrastructure.”
Another factor in the success for the properties in these locations was due to the level of activity that they had seen in the last year. Matthew Hodder-Williams, head of the French Desk at Knight Frank, detailed the places with the strongest performances, “The 2010/2011 season proved to be surprisingly robust with a strong level of sales activity in the French alpine resorts. Courchevel, Méribel, Megève and Val d’Isere performed well with the best properties attracting interest from more than one buyer which enabled sales to be completed at or near the asking price.”
The top 10 Ski Property Performers
- South Lake Tahoe, US: This Californian resort sits in close proximity to the Nevada border. Its highest point is at the Heavenly Mountain Resort standing 3068 metres above sea level.
- Revelstoke, Canada: When it is completed this Mountain Resort will have the longest vertical descent and will be one of North America’s biggest resorts. Located in British Columbia, the highest point stands at 2,225 metres above sea level.
- Gstaad, Switzerland: Located near Bern in the German-speaking district of Switzerland this resort is a popular location for celebrities and royalty. The resort stands around 1050 metres above sea level.
- Zermatt, Switzerland: This peaceful mountaineering resort is most famous for the fact all combustion-engine cars are banned. It is situated at 1,608 metres above sea level.
- Chamonix, France: The first of the French resorts in the top ten is the Mont-Blanc site, which was home to the legendary 1924 Winter Olympics. This resort, located at 995 metres above sea level, is famed for its iconic cable car.
- Verbier, Switzerland: This is one of the highest and largest resorts in the Swiss Alps, with its highest peak, Mont Fort, rising to a staggering 3330 metres above sea level.
- Courchevel 1850, France: This is the biggest connected ski area in the world and home to one of France’s six-star hotels.
- Val d’Isere, France: With an incredible elevation of 3,599 metres above sea level this resort regularly hosts the World Cup alpine championships.
- Méribel, France: This resort’s rise to prominence was heightened recently when it staged the Altitude Festival.
- Megève, France: Topping the bill is the first purpose-built resort in the French Alps. It was created in the 1920′s and originally launched as an alternative to St Moritz in Switzerland.
Guest article by Alpine Angel, Ski Chalets in Morzine