Where to buy in the French Alps: chalets and apartments, resort by resort

Where to buy in the French Alps: how is the region laid out?

The prestige French Alps lie in two départements. Haute-Savoie brings together the Mont Blanc country, the Aravis range and the Portes du Soleil, villages that live all year round about an hour from Geneva; Savoie lines up the great high-altitude resorts of the Tarentaise valley, from the Three Valleys to Val-d’Isère and Tignes.

Across sales over the 12 months to end of June 2026, the median in Haute-Savoie stands at €4,400/m² for apartments and €4,500/m² for houses, over 14,015 sales; in Savoie, at €3,800/m² and €3,300/m², over 8,562 sales (DVF / DGFiP via data.gouv.fr, October 2026 release, 12 months to end of June 2026). These figures mix valley towns and resorts: in a resort, prices are read commune by commune, often street by street.

Decide how you will use it before you choose the resort

• Skiing first: the Tarentaise generally offers the longest seasons and the most ski-in ski-out properties.
• Year-round life and short stays: Megève, Chamonix, Saint-Gervais, Morzine and La Clusaz stay alive out of season, about an hour from Geneva.
• Summer as much as winter: hiking, mountaineering, golf, lakes and cycling keep Chamonix, Megève, Morzine or Méribel busy outside the ski season.

Our page on buying a chalet in the French Alps presents the properties Home Select looks for there; the buyer’s agent in the French Alps page brings the resorts together.

The Mont Blanc country: Megève, Saint-Gervais, Chamonix or Les Houches?

This is the oldest and most varied Alpine market, open all year round and linked to Geneva by the A40 motorway, known as the autoroute Blanche. Combloux and Passy, which have no dedicated page, are searched on a bespoke basis.

Megève, the village of the prestige chalet

Conceived in the 1920s by Baroness Noémie de Rothschild, Megève has remained a village: pedestrian streets at its heart, chalets on the slopes of Mont d’Arbois and Rochebrune, the sunshine of Le Jaillet. Buyers come for family chalets, often handed down through generations, and village-centre apartments: across sales over the 12 months to end of June 2026, the median apartment price stands at €9,400/m², with the top decile starting at €15,600/m². Chalets sell too rarely for a reliable median, and the finest change hands without a listing. See buyer’s agent in Megève and buying a chalet in Megève.

Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, the spa resort

A spa resort since the 19th century, Saint-Gervais rises from Le Fayet, with its railway station, its thermal baths and the Mont Blanc tramway opened in 1909, up to Saint-Nicolas-de-Véroce, and shares the Mont d’Arbois ski area with Megève. It is the most accessible way into the Mont Blanc country: €5,300/m² as the median for apartments, €7,700/m² for houses. See buyer’s agent in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains.

Chamonix and Les Houches, the valley facing Mont Blanc

Host of the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924, Chamonix is a real mountain town, where people buy a view as much as a property. From Les Praz to Argentière, character chalets are rare: €13,800/m² as the median for houses, a top decile from €21,600/m², and €10,000/m² for apartments. In Les Houches, where the valley begins, the Prarion and Bellevue ski area is more family-oriented, and apartments sell at €7,600/m². See buyer’s agent in Chamonix, buying a chalet in Chamonix and buyer’s agent in Les Houches.

The Aravis: why choose La Clusaz?

Half an hour from Annecy, the Aravis have kept their farming villages. La Clusaz has some 2,100 residents, working farms, reblochon cheese and a ski area spread over five linked massifs; Le Grand-Bornand, its neighbour, is searched on a bespoke basis.

Buyers look for village chalets, renovated farmhouses and apartments close to the centre or the Confins plateau, at a median of €7,800/m², with the top decile starting at €10,400/m². With 91 sales in twelve months, every comparable counts. See buyer’s agent in La Clusaz.

• A farm sold with agricultural land may be subject to pre-emption by the SAFER, the public body that oversees farmland sales.
• Turning a barn into a home requires a local plan (PLU) that allows this change of use.
• Isolated hamlets often rely on private septic systems, inspected before the sale.

The Portes du Soleil: Morzine, Avoriaz and the Chablais

Morzine sits at the heart of the Portes du Soleil, a ski area linked across the Swiss border, and its commune includes Avoriaz, the car-free resort opened in the 1960s: from 1,000 m in the village to 1,800 m in Avoriaz. British buyers are very present, and the valley lives in summer too.

Buyers look for village and hamlet chalets, and ski-in ski-out apartments in Avoriaz: the median apartment price for the commune stands at €7,400/m², with the top decile starting at €10,300/m². Les Gets, Montriond and Châtel are searched on a bespoke basis. See buyer’s agent in Morzine.

The Three Valleys: Courchevel, Méribel or Val Thorens?

In the Tarentaise, the Three Valleys (Les 3 Vallées) form the largest linked ski area in the world: three resorts linked on skis, three distinct markets, with Moûtiers station as the gateway.

Courchevel, the top of the Alpine market

Built from 1946 onwards, Courchevel rises from Le Praz to Courchevel 1850, the summit of the French Alpine market: ski-in ski-out chalets around the Jardin Alpin, palace hotels, an altiport, a worldwide clientele. The median apartment price stands at €11,800/m², with the top decile starting at €20,500/m²; chalets are negotiated case by case. Moriond, Courchevel Village and Le Praz offer characterful alternatives within the same ski area. See buyer’s agent in Courchevel and buying a chalet in Courchevel.

Méribel, the chalet charter

Founded in the late 1930s by the Briton Peter Lindsay, Méribel owes its look to a rare architectural charter: wood and stone, two-pitched roofs, no tall buildings. Its British clientele is loyal; the median apartment price reaches €11,400/m², the top decile €22,100/m². See buyer’s agent in Méribel.

Val Thorens, altitude first

At 2,300 m, Val Thorens is the highest ski resort in Europe: a market of ski-in ski-out apartments, in the commune of Les Belleville, together with Les Menuires and Saint-Martin-de-Belleville. The median apartment price for the commune stands at €7,600/m²; chalets are rare. See buyer’s agent in Val Thorens.

Val-d’Isère or Tignes: which to choose in the upper Tarentaise?

At the head of the Isère valley, on the edge of the Vanoise National Park, Val-d’Isère and Tignes share the Espace Killy, one of the highest ski areas in the Alps, about three quarters of an hour from Bourg-Saint-Maurice station.

Val-d’Isère, a village at 1,850 m

Val-d’Isère has kept its baroque church, its chalets of wood and stone and genuine village life, with some 1,600 year-round residents; the Critérium de la Première Neige ski race has been held here since 1955. The median apartment price stands at €14,700/m², with the top decile starting at €32,300/m², and chalets are rare. See buyer’s agent in Val-d’Isère and buying an apartment in Val-d’Isère.

Tignes, the lake resort

Tignes was born after the dam: the old village was submerged in 1952 beneath the Lac du Chevril, then the resort was built around the lake and at Val Claret, at around 2,100 m, at the foot of the Grande Motte glacier. It is an apartment market, at a median of €10,000/m², where chalets remain the exception. See buyer’s agent in Tignes.

Further down the valley, Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise, Les Arcs and La Plagne are searched on a bespoke basis.