Evian-les-Bains : demand for new homes

On the shores of Lake Geneva, known all over the world for the mineral water produced by Danone, Evian plays host to 8,150 inhabitants north-east of Geneva. Largely fuelled by “frontaliers”, its market for new homes is particularly active.

Benefiting from an SNCF train station, Evian also has a funicular railway nicknamed the “petit métro évianais”. 67.5 % of the acccommodation consists of main residences, 22.5 % of holiday homes, with the remaining 10 % remaining vacant. Two-thirds are comprised of apartments. In June 2003, Evian hosted the G8 summit meeting. Four years later, the Minister for Tourism welcomed the inaugur­ation of the congress part of the Palais Lumière. This town in Upper Savoy with schools up to secondary level also prop­oses several events on its annual agenda such as “Les Escales Musicales” and “L’Académie Musicale d’Evian” and its Festival. Since 1994, it has held the Evian Masters tournament for women golfers. Recently treated to a facelift, the course now caters for both amateurs and professionals. In parallel, the Evian Thonon Gaillard football team generates yet more interest in the town.

“New developments in Evian have their fans, especially among people living in France but employed in Lausanne,” explains Hervé Dupraz of Neowi. “Many of them pay from 3,500 to 4,500 €/m2 for 2-bedroomed apartments of about 65 m2 facing the lake, ie. around 250,000 €.” While both Evian and the area between it and Thonon-les-Bains are active job-wise, the first owes its success to Switzerland’s economic hubs, Lausanne and Geneva. The sloping urban layout offers sweeping views of the lake. High-end budgets are mostly found among foreigners looking for holiday homes. The afore-mentioned developments thus offer penthouses with personalized decor and amenities. One would need to pay from 700,000 to 800,000 € for such an apartment of 100-130 m2 prolonged by an open-air terrace of 100 m2 overlooking the lake. Building land is also in demand. A plot of 600-800 m2 in a rural area, without a lake view, starts at 130,000 €, as compared to 200,000 € for a plot in Evian or Thonon. Villas are also of interest as long as they can come up with irreproachable technical fittings. Since 2008, buyers have been much more vigilant, with energy performance constituting a weighty argument in negotiations, especially as neighbouring Switzerland is more advanced in this respect. Offering a good technical file, a villa of 120 m2 with a garden of 800 m2 will be priced from 2,000 to 2,500 € per sq. metre. In the case of old properties, the best locations still exercise evident appeal. On the other hand, some are criticized for a certain shabbiness and a lack of technological equipment... Complaints which work in favour of new properties.

For Valérie Leguay of Feelimmo, the current year owes its salvation to new developments “in a tight context due to the financial crisis, a harsh climate and tax policies which are hardly inciting, and even quite dissuasive.” The holiday home segment is the first to bear the brunt of all these factors. Among her most recent sales, Valérie Leguay mentions a villa of 200 m2 in grounds of 1,300 m2 on the hills offering a glimpse of the lake, that a foreign client acquired for 600,000 € intending to transform it into a guest-house, an old apartment in the centre, which sold for 280,000 € as a main home, and new apartments at the heart of Evian pegged at 4,500 €/m2, shared out be­tween retirees and people employed in Switzerland.