Alps ski market prepares for selling snowball

The Alpine ski market is stabilising ahead of an expected sales snowball later this year, according to agents.

In the second quarter of 2015, prices of ski properties across the French Alps remained steady, as changes in prices across the region and property types evened out, according to the latest Leggett Immobilier report.

The price indices for apartments and chalets remained steady, but houses had a second positive quarter registering growth of 0.2 per cent in values. Apartments have similarly seen prices stabilise or rise modestly for five of the last six quarters.

In the year to June 2015, the price of apartments edged down by 0.2 per cent, a big improvement on the 2.4 per cent fall registered in the year to June 2014. This balanced out a 0.9 per cent ease in chalet values and a 2.2 per cent dip in house prices.

The majority of resorts in the Alps have seen small increases in prices during the quarter, led by Portes de Soleil, where prices increased by 2.3 per cent, and Hautes Alpes, which saw a rise of 1.6 pe cent.

The proportion of properties showing increasing prices, though, has jumped in the first half of 2015 compared to the same half of 2014, up from 24 per cent of all properties to 52 per cent. The proportion of properties with static prices fell dramatically to 19 per cent from 59 per cent.

"This supports the impression of a more active market with more owners and buyers coming ‘off the fence’," says Leggett.

The agency forecasts that the stabilisation of prices across the Alps means that transactions can continue to grow in the coming months.

"As more buyers return to the market and the property market increases interest, we are seeing more new builds which is keeping the prices of the resale's stable," adds the agency, "but sooner or later the market it going to return to being a seller's market and we feel this will happen in the most popular resorts during the coming winter season."