A rare find: the draw of new-build properties

What type of properties are customers looking for in resorts?

Today’s demand is for spacious flats with a large living room, two or three bedrooms, carefully decorated and ideally located at the foot of the slopes or, failing that, in the centre of the resort. These properties are rare, as 75% of second homes and furnished rentals in the mountains were built before 1990, and in most resorts, new building contracts are few and far between, and land is scarce.

What impact will this have on older buildings?

The new-build market is supporting the old-build market. In La Rosière, for example, where the average price is around €7,000/sq.m, new developments are fetching €10-11,000/sq.m. But when they sell, this naturally leads to renewed interest in older properties, which can fetch between €300 and €1,000 per square metre. There is also another phenomenon at work: In order to mirror the characteristics of new-builds, owners are now completely renovating their properties.

So, would you recommend new or old?

Beyond the quality of the property itself, the most important factor is its location. In Val d’Isère, if you want to invest in the old village, you have to buy an old property – even if you were originally planning to buy a new one. For the same type of property, a flat with ski-in/ski-out access or located in the resort’s centre can offer an additional 5-10% when let or resold.

New meets old

“For developing new property projects while renovating older spaces, building upwards is the solution of the future,” says Romain Dadat. “This helps to create additional surface area without consuming land, and not only gives us a new top floor property to market – a highly sought product among our customers, with chalet-like, rooftop atmospheres – but also enables us to meet the renovation needs of ageing local housing stock.”

Romain DADAT Sales Director Haute-Tarentaise