Savoy and Upper Savoy, acclaimed by the locally employed

United since 2006 under the shared tourist denomination, “Savoie Mont Blanc”, Savoy and Upper Savoy are comprised of iconic resorts, but also lesser-known towns and villages.

While Courchevel, Méribel and Val Thorens, Annecy, Thonon-les-Bains, Chamonix and Megève, crowned by the legendary Mont-Blanc, are addresses drawing the most attention from the media in these two “départements”, other communes hold their heads high and offer their residents living conditions of enviable quality. Families, both French and Swiss, are the main players in this local dynamism.

“The project for a ski-lift linking it to Courchevel will make Bozel an even more sought-after address,” explains Sarah Denney of RMP Bozel. Near Pralognan-la-Vanoise and Champigny-en-Vanoise, in the valley of La Tarentaise, this commune with 1,900 residents offers a diverse property market comprised of chalets, houses, studios, and barns in need of renovation. Some become holiday homes, others provide year-round accommodation for families. As for investors, they mostly rent out their properties in the winter season. More reasonable than in the region’s uppercrust resorts, prices of chalets and village houses of 100 m2 start here at around 420,000 €. As for barns in hamlets, they enchant devoted fans who undertake renovation work, often quite substantial, to turn them into warm homes that are easy to live in. Lively year-round, benefiting from a full array of amenities, Bozel and its surrounding area draw buyers from different horizons : locals, clients from Paris, Lyon and Grenoble who can live far from major cities thanks to teleworking, as well as foreigners.

“The communes of Bossey, Collonges-sous-Salève, Saint-Julien-en-Genevois and Archamps are highly-prized by the actively employed and their families,” says Christian Petament of the Affair Immo agency. Their main asset : a privileged setting less than 5 km from Geneva. Slightly further away - between 11.3 and 22 km -, Cranves-Sales, Vetraz-Monthoux and Neydens attract a similar clientele, mostly Swiss, ready to spend a few more minutes in their cars in order to also benefit from a village atmosphere, with all the amenities of a town as a bonus. New or older houses up for sale offer living space of 125 to 200 m2 in gardens ranging from 400 to 1,500 m2, some with pools. In this buoyant market, supply is, however, struggling to meet demand. Future buyers dispose of budgets of 600,000 € on average, not enough to acquire the properties they are targeting. But optimism remains the order of the day, with the Swiss franc soaring against the Euro and opening up new prospects for buyers.