The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Where to buy your next ski-chalet for £500,000 – or even less
Prices have been rising since the pandemic, but there are still bargains if you know where to look, writes Liz Rowlinson
France’s ski resorts have opened – and thankfully there’s plenty of snow. It’s been a patchy year or two for snowfall, but the Covid era has seen a steady stream of property sales as city dwellers hankered for mountain air and space.
The average price of a prime ski property – defined as one priced over €750,000 (£640,000) – is 41pc above pre-pandemic levels, according to Savills’ Ski Report. Property in Haute-Savoie, France’s alpine departement, has increased by an average of 4.4pc in a year, according to the portal Meilleurs Agents.
But don’t despair if you dream of a ski chalet or farmhouse in the mountains with a more reasonable budget of £500,000 (€578,000).
Looking beyond the big- name resorts you can find properties for sale in the French Alps, parts of Italy – or even Spain or Sweden if you’re sick of raclette and vin chaud.
Maurienne Valley, France The back door to Three Valleys
Away from the mainstream resorts, the Maurienne Valley is an hour and 40 minutes from Geneva, and will be on a new high-speed train linking Turin to Lyon. Part of the Vanoise National Park, there are 20 ski resorts of which Val Cenis, Aussois or Les Sybelles are the most well-known, and you can link into the Three Valleys via gondola from the small village of Orelle.
The still-traditional ski villages are popular with the French, Dutch and Belgians, but the British are “only just catching on” to the area’s appeal, says Benjamin Shinn, of Leggett Immobilier, “especially those priced out of the Tarentaise Valley”. He says you can find a chalet from about €180,000, but there is a lot more choice at €400,000. The agent is selling a stone three-bedroom chalet for €320,000 (see below).
Roccaraso, Italy Best hidden gem
Italian skiing isn’t always easy on the wallet, but those seeking more bang for their euro should head to the Abruzzo region and the biggest ski area of central Italy, where the resort of Roccaraso sits within 110km of wonderfully uncrowded pistes.
The après ski is low-key, yet when ski rep Fiona Spratley arrived there 12 years ago the beech- tree lined slopes and family- centred feel blew her away – then there’s the climate.
“It’s only 90 minutes from Naples yet its proximity to the Adriatic coast means great snow because of the easterly wind from the Balkans,” she says. With her husband Graeme, the Surrey-based couple bought a house in Castel di Sangro, 15 minutes from Roccaraso, and arrange ski holidays through Ski Abruzzo.
A three-bedroom stone house in the nearby village of Bugnara costs €95,000, says Dave Benton, of agent A Home in Italy: “Or there are more options in the popular town of Sulmona – half an hour along one road to the resort.”
The French Pyrenees Best for ski and spas
Less international than the Alps, the Pyrenees in south-west France attract far fewer British buyers despite having much lower prices. No, you won’t find a branch of the après bar- club La Folie Douce in these resorts – but you will see cyclists trying the climbs of the Tour de France every summer.
Choose between 45 resorts – within 90 minutes of airports at Biarritz, Pau, Tarbes or Toulouse – of which the biggest ski area is Tourmalet, including La Mongie and the spa town of Barèges, the second oldest French ski resort after Chamonix. Luchon is another elegant spa town, nearer the Spanish border. Close by you can find a detached four- bedroom house for €450,000 – there’s one at €370,000 from skifrenchproperty. com – or a five- bedroom village house for about €250,000.
Serre Chevalier, France Best green option
South of Grenoble, the southern Alps tend to be more low-key and less international than the northern Alps, so the prices are lower. Yet it’s popular with buyers from nearby Lyon and Grenoble and also Italians – it’s 20 minutes from the Italian border.
The historic town of Briancon sits in the Serre Chevalier area – also synonymous with road cycling – and there are 80 ski runs. You can find apartments in Briancon for €150,000, or standalone chalets for about €500,000, says Jackson Collins, of Leggett Immobilier. For sale now is a five- bedroom village house for €315,000 (through seloger. com). He adds: “The area has a renewable energy programme, including wind and solar powered chairlifts – and sustainability is now important for many property buyers.”
Sierra Nevada, Spain Marbs on ice
It might be Europe’s most southerly ski resort, yet Sierra Nevada offers plenty of snow, coupled with hours of winter sunshine – in fact rather too much with this week’s freak heatwave – and high-altitude tapas.
There’s also a touch of glitz: the former ski retreat of the King of Spain is now El Lodge, a mountain outpost of the Marbella Club, as is Maribel, a new hotel with DJ sets.
Marbella or Granada-based digital nomads drop in to ski, as do those who own homes in Andalusia.
Amongst them is Laura Hamilton, the television presenter of A Place in the Sun and a keen skier. “I love driving up through the mountains,” she says. “You can be on the slopes in the morning and the coast in the afternoon.”
In the resort you can get a four-bedroom duplex with views of the slopes for €525,000 (kyero.com) or a five-bed house on the fringes of Granada for €250,000 – it’s a €5 bus to the resort.
Sweden Best budget cabin
Finally – the Scandi wildcard. With the Swedish krona weak against the pound a ski holiday in Sweden is especially affordable, and snow uncertainty across central Europe over recent years has got people looking to the snow-secure slopes of Sweden.
Visitor levels are up on last year, according to Steve Robertshaw, a British former homeowner there who works for Visit Sweden.
“Skiers from Denmark, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands value the shorter lift queues, a warm welcome and family-friendly environment,” he says. His own family love Vemdalen, a ski area about 50km from Stockholm, where you can find a cute wooden cabin at Fjällby, a wind-powered ski village in the Björnrike ski area – priced at only 1.495m Swedish kronor