Buying a ski chalet or apartment in the French Alps: the buyer’s guide

How much does an apartment or a chalet cost in the French Alps?

Prices depend first on the resort, then on the slope and on access to the pistes: based on 2025 sales, the median for apartments stands at €11,800/m² in Courchevel and €5,100/m² in Annecy (DVF / DGFiP via data.gouv.fr, April 2026 release, 2025 sales).

To put these figures in perspective: the median for apartments in the Haute-Savoie department (Megève, Chamonix, Annecy, Évian-les-Bains) stands at €4,900/m², against a median of €9,900/m² in Paris (DVF, April 2026 release).

A median indicates a level, not the price of a property. In Chamonix, the top decile for houses starts at €21,500/m²: the most sought-after chalets are found in this upper end of the market.

Volume matters too: the fewer sales a commune records, the more weight each comparable carries and the longer the resale of an atypical property can take.

Chalet or apartment: what is the difference for the buyer?

They are two different purchases: with a chalet, you buy a plot of land, a roof and, depending on the local urban plan (PLU), a right to build; with an apartment, a share of a building, service charges and co-ownership regulations.

The luxury chalet

A luxury chalet is judged by its location (slope, access to the pistes or the village, view), by its plot, and then by what cannot be seen: structure, roof, energy. A spa, an indoor pool or staff accommodation weigh on the price, and on the running costs too. Each market has its own logic: to buy a chalet in Megève is to buy a village; a chalet in Courchevel, a plateau and its altitude; a Chamonix chalet for sale, a valley and its hamlets. The largest are often sold without being advertised: the guide to buying an off-market property explains how to gain access.

Resort, village or valley: where should you buy in the mountains?

Buy where the place fits your intended use: the high-altitude resort for skiing, the village for character and year-round life, the valley or lakeside town for living there. In Courchevel, the choice is made from one plateau to the next, from 1850 and its ski-in, ski-out properties to the village of Le Praz, as the property finder in Courchevel page explains.

Ski-in, ski-out and the snow front

A “ski-in, ski-out” property lets you set off and return on skis from the door; the “snow front” (front de neige) is where the pistes arrive in the heart of the resort. You pay for this position, in price and in noise (snow groomers at night, ski lifts, après-ski), and the way back to the door should be checked at the end of the season, when the lower pistes may be the first to close.

Adret, ubac and winter sun

The adret is the sunny slope, the ubac the shaded one. In winter the sun passes low: neighbouring high ground can deprive a chalet of direct sunlight for weeks. In Megève, the Jaillet is the sunniest slope (see the Megève property finder page); in Chamonix, winter sun changes from one hamlet to the next, as the property finder in Chamonix page shows.

Winter access and year-round life

Gradient of the road, public or private snow clearance, a garage or covered parking space (valuable in a resort): a chalet at the end of a steep private road is a different proposition in January. As for year-round life, Megève keeps its residents, and its schools and shops stay open out of season, while Chamonix, Annecy and Évian-les-Bains live twelve months a year. Haute-Savoie lies within reach of Geneva international airport, and Annecy is served by the TGV from Paris.

Does altitude protect the value of a mountain property?

Altitude helps, but it is not enough: natural snow cover is becoming more irregular, first at low and middle altitudes, and the value of a property also depends on what the commune offers outside winter. Rather than forecasts, look at what can be verified:

• the altitude of the ski area, not just that of the village: a low-lying village linked to a high-altitude ski area keeps its access to snow;
• the orientation of the pistes: north-facing slopes hold their snow for longer;
• the ski area’s snowmaking equipment;
• the summer season (hiking, golf, lakes, cycling) and year-round life (schools, shops, healthcare), which sustain demand when the winter disappoints.

The lakes are a different proposition: Annecy and the French shore of Lake Geneva offer water, a town and proximity to Geneva, with resorts within reach. As these lakes cover more than 1,000 hectares, the Loi Littoral (coastal law) applies to them too: the guide to buying by the sea sets out its effects. For a house, see buying a house in Annecy and buying a house in Évian-les-Bains.

Can you build or extend a chalet? The Loi Montagne and local rules

Not freely: the Loi Montagne of 9 January 1985, the local urban plan (PLU) and the risk prevention plan decide what can be built, extended or subjected to a change of use class (changement de destination).

• Continuity: development takes place in continuity with existing towns, villages and hamlets; outside that continuity, the law allows the limited extension of existing buildings and the construction of outbuildings of limited size, if the PLU permits.
• Large tourism projects fall under the regime of the new tourism units (unités touristiques nouvelles): ask at the town hall about projects authorised or under study near the property.
• Restoring an old alpine pasture chalet (chalet d’alpage) requires a specific authorisation from the State; if it has no winter access, an easement may prohibit its use in winter.
• The natural parts of the shores of bodies of water under 1,000 hectares are, in principle, unbuildable within 300 metres.
• The PLU can set the height, pitch and material of roofs, or the proportion of timber on façades.
• The risk prevention plan (avalanches, rockfalls, landslides, torrential floods) can make a plot unbuildable or impose conditions on it.

Converting a barn or a former farm into a dwelling requires the PLU to allow it; in an agricultural or natural zone, this change of use class is strictly controlled. A farm sold with land may also fall under the pre-emption right of the SAFER, the rural land agency.

Buildings at altitude: what to check before buying

A mountain building is under more strain than elsewhere: snow, frost, damp and temperature swings wear down the roof, the utility networks and the insulation, items that weigh on both the budget and the negotiation.

• The roof: covering (sheet metal, wooden shingles, stone slates called lauzes), roof frame and how it holds under snow load, snow guards above walkways. A poorly insulated roof melts the snow from underneath; the water refreezes at the roof edge and seeps in.
• The structure: retaining walls, drainage of a sloping plot, exposed timber (balconies, solid timber beams, cladding).
• Heating: the condition of the boiler and the flue. Since 2022, an oil-fired boiler can no longer, barring exceptions, be replaced by a new oil-fired boiler; in the communes covered by the atmosphere protection plan (plan de protection de l’atmosphère) for the Arve valley, including Chamonix and Megève, an open fireplace can no longer be used, even as supplementary heating.
• The energy performance certificate (DPE): a house rated F or G has had to be sold with an energy audit since 2023, and a house rated E since 2025. For long-term lets, a G-rated home has been barred from new leases since 2025; F follows in 2028, E in 2034.
• Water: pipes protected from frost, a private spring to be analysed, non-mains drainage (assainissement individuel) inspected less than three years ago, with works to be done within the year following the sale if it does not comply.
• The diagnostic reports: asbestos if the building permit predates 1 July 1997, as for many resort buildings; the risk report (état des risques), handed over from the first viewing, which mentions, depending on the commune, avalanches, ground movement, seismicity or radon.

Resort co-ownership and managed tourist residences: what are the pitfalls?

In a resort co-ownership, the price is only part of the cost: the service charges, the major works voted or to come and the regulations weigh just as much. In a managed tourist residence (résidence de tourisme), the commercial lease in force changes the very nature of the purchase.

Service charges and works

Communal heating, snow clearance, lifts, swimming pool: service charges should be compared per year and per square metre. Many buildings put up during the boom years of the resorts are reaching the age of major works. Read the minutes of the last three general meetings, the service charges of the last two financial years, the works fund, the multi-year works plan if there is one, and the regulations: they may restrict tourist letting, and the law of 19 November 2024 made it easier, under conditions, for the general meeting to ban it.

The managed tourist residence and its commercial lease

An apartment in a managed tourist residence is often sold let to an operator under a commercial lease, concluded for at least nine years: you are buying a rental income and, depending on the lease, a few weeks of occupation, not the free use of the property. With your notaire, the public officer who draws up the deed, check the expiry date and renewal (declining to renew a commercial lease in principle exposes the owner to eviction compensation), the soundness of the operator, the rent history and the property’s VAT position: in some cases, leaving the lease can require part of the VAT recovered on a new-build purchase to be repaid.

Can you let your chalet or apartment in the mountains?

Yes, as a furnished holiday let, rented to short-stay guests who do not take up residence there, within the framework tightened by the law of 19 November 2024 and according to the rules of the commune and the co-ownership.

Mountain letting runs in two seasons: winter, with its school holidays, then summer, which is longer in four-season resorts; in Chamonix, demand does not stop between the two. What the 2024 law changed:

• generalised registration of furnished holiday lets;
• stronger regulatory tools for communes;
• a letting period for a main residence that the commune may lower to 90 days a year;
• less favourable taxation, and energy performance requirements specific to furnished holiday lets, which tighten in stages.

On top of this come the tourist tax (taxe de séjour) and the residence tax on second homes (taxe d’habitation), which a commune classed as a high-demand area (zone tendue) may raise by 5 to 60%. Do not build a financing plan on a promised occupancy rate: ask for the actual statements if the property is already let, and allow for cleaning, linen, repairs and commissions.

The second home guide details the budget and financing. Between stays, the Home Select concierge service looks after the property: check visits, seasonal opening and closing, coordination of works, billed by time spent and on quote. It is not a management mandate: Home Select oversees and reports back, and vetted providers carry out the work.

When should you buy in the mountains, and how do you negotiate?

Often out of season, in spring and autumn: sellers are no longer buoyed by the crowds, and the property can be seen without snow, roof and plot included. Winter, for its part, shows the access, the low sun and the noise: a spring viewing is complemented by photos or a video of the property under snow.

On a narrow market, the negotiation relies on the commune’s DVF sales, address by address, more than on an average. Works voted by the co-owners, the roof, the DPE and the furniture also weigh on the price: have the works to be done costed by a builder or an architect before the offer. Home Select negotiates 6% off the asking price on average, across all searches.

Sold furnished, a resort apartment can have its furniture valued separately in the deed, listed and priced item by item: this portion in principle escapes transfer duties, provided it reflects its real value, which the tax authority can check. Acquisition costs (commonly called “notary fees”) run at around 7 to 8% of the price on existing homes, 2 to 3% on new-build (calculate them); on the resale of a second home, the capital gain is taxed, with allowances for length of ownership (capital gains calculator).

How Home Select searches for a chalet or apartment in the mountains

Home Select runs the search in the mountains remotely, under the direction of its management, and draws on a network of 15,000 professional partners: you travel only for the decisive viewing, grouped into a single trip.

1. The briefing, by video call or phone, then a written brief: use, slope, access, budget, letting or not.
2. The hunt across the whole market: Home Select monitors 1,700 listing sites, calls on its network for off-market properties and makes its first proposals within 48 hours of the mandate being signed.
3. Vetting on the documents: planning rules, natural risks, co-ownership, any lease in place, DPE, energy.
4. Commented video pre-viewings, with an analysis sheet and the price set against DVF sales.
5. The decisive trip: Home Select brings the viewings down to 3 on average, against 40 or more for a buyer searching alone.
6. The offer, the negotiation and a secured preliminary sale agreement (avant-contrat: compromis de vente or promesse de vente), then the coordination of the notaire, the mortgage broker and the diagnostic surveyors through to the deed, and afterwards.

Home Select charges 2.5% incl. VAT of the net purchase price on the Exclusive offer (minimum €10,000 incl. VAT), across the whole market. The Confidential offer, at 1.5% and reserved for projects of €2m and above, presents only off-market properties, with the same full service. Nothing is due before the authentic deed: the detail is on the fees page, the approach on the method page.

Since 2011, Home Select has guided more than 1,200 buyers and is rated 4.8/5 on Google (130+ reviews). Its search also covers the surroundings of each resort (Méribel and the Three Valleys for Courchevel, Combloux and Saint-Gervais for Megève, Argentière and Les Houches for Chamonix), and the other resorts of the northern French Alps, from Val d’Isère to La Clusaz, are searched on a tailor-made basis. The Alps and Rhône-Alpes pages bring together resorts and lakes.