“We were looking in La Plagne and all we could afford was a tiny one-bedder,” says the 36-year-old accountant. “So we widened the search, and someone mentioned Mont Tremblant in Quebec.” They flew out to take a look, loved the scenery and the bilingual culture, and bought a big, two-bedroom flat in the Versant Soleil development (marketed in Britain by Erna Low, 020 7590 1624, www.ernalowproperty.co.uk) for £136,000.
That was two years ago. Since then, rental income from the property has more or less covered their mortgage payments, and they have had some great holidays in both summer and winter. They recently bought a two-acre plot in the resort and are planning to build their own chalet.
It is no surprise, really. North American ski resorts have long been known for the amount of space they offer holidaymakers — on the slopes, in the lifts, even in the size of the hotel rooms. Now, investors are waking up to their attractions, too.
By no means all of them are as cheap as Mont Tremblant — far from it, in fact. The attraction of resorts on both sides of the 49th parallel has increased in recent years, however, amid growing concern about the reliability of snow in the Alps. The recent slump in the US dollar, now close to the magical mark of $2 to the pound — coupled with a weaker Canadian currency — is adding further to their appeal.
Here’s the best of what is on offer.
America
Fancy a ski pad in Aspen, Colorado? Does your budget run to £2.3m? According to Paul Menter, finance director of Aspen town council, that is the average price of a freestanding family home in the world’s most prestigious ski resort, up from £1.5m two years ago.
It’s not just in Aspen that prices have gone through the roof. The elite club of American resorts is growing, and several can now boast the magic ingredients for runaway success (and runaway property prices): a pretty town, stunning scenery, highly rated skiing and a celebrity fanbase. Telluride, also in Colorado, was one of the first to follow Aspen into the stratosphere, with Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey buying into the valley. Christie’s Great Estates (020 7389 2551, www.christiesgreatestates.com) is offering a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 13-fireplace property on the slopes there for £7m. Other A-listers include Jackson Hole in Wyoming and Vail and Beaver Creek in Colorado.
At a more modest price level, you need to go one of two ways. The first is to aim for capital growth — and bet on the future prospects of an up-and-coming area. The most obvious option is the combined resorts of Moonlight Basin and Big Sky in Montana, which joined forces last winter to create the largest ski area in America.
There has already been significant price appreciation there — and yes, Montana is a long way from anywhere: flying from London will involve at least one change and could take up to 18 hours. The skiing is sensational, however. In Moonlight (the prettier of the two resorts), a three-bedroom house close to the slopes will cost about £860,000 with the Montana Real Estate Company (00 1 406 995 3992, www.montanarealestateco.com).
If it is reliable rental income you are looking for, then aim for an established resort with a reliable season and find a property as close to the lifts as possible. Breckenridge in Colorado is one of the safest bets: a big, high, intermediate-friendly area close to Denver and its international airport. There, a one-bedroom flat in the ski-in, ski-out Mountain Thunder Lodge is on offer (through Slifer Smith & Frampton, 00 1 888 531 3800, www.summitcountyrealestate.com) for £270,000, with rental returns, through the resort’s rental pool, of about 4%.
Anyone buying in America now should be aware of the broader economic context: not only is the dollar falling, but so, too, is the property market, with average prices expected to end the year slightly down on 2005. Buying opportunity or reason to hold off a little longer? The jury is still out.
There are certainly some grounds for optimism, at least in the more popular resorts. Estate agents in Vail, Breckenridge, Telluride and Jackson Hole say a shortage of land and property has been supporting prices there (in contrast to nearby cities, such as Denver, where, according to the National Association of Realtors, the average price of a family home has dropped 1% in the last year).
“Properties in the $5m-$20m bracket (£2.5m-£10m) are most often purchased when a buyer has recently sold a company or has cashed in a substantial stock option package,” says Ted Steers, of Vail estate agency Sonnenalp. “These buyers are most active when the stock market is high and the merger and acquisitions market is busy: very much like America’s current financial environment.”
We will have to wait until the end of the ski season to see if his confidence is justified: it’s in April, when the snow has melted, that most mountain homes are put on the market.
Canada
Western Canada is skiing’s new frontier, home to several expanding resorts and one entirely new one, Kicking Horse in British Columbia.
Set against the eastern face of the Purcell Mountains, Kicking Horse offers a mix of supersmooth cruising and stomach-in-your-mouth steeps — and, crucially, there is the potential to expand the terrain on offer once visitor numbers are up. The drive from Calgary airport is a long one (three hours), but it also follows one of the world’s most scenic highways, through Banff National Park.
Four years ago, there was nowhere to stay at the bottom of the lifts there, but now a modest series of properties is being developed — with good potential for capital growth. Slopeside, three-bed condominiums are on the market for £135,000-£180,000, while two-bed “town” (ie, terraced) houses go for less than £135,000 (call 00 1 250 439 5470, or visit www.kickinghorseresort.com for more information).
Of course, there is no need to make a bet against the future rise of a resort if you don’t want to: in Canada, as in its southern neighbour, you can always buy into an area that already has a reputation and an established customer base.
Mont Tremblant, where the Pitman-Rowes bought, is one, although the better skiing is to be found out west in the Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta.
Beautiful Banff National Park, for example, is home to not one but three lift systems — Mount Norquay, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise — and attracts even more visitors in summer than winter.
Several new developments are on offer at the park’s eastern gate, around the town of Canmore, Alberta, with potential for both healthy rental returns (as much as 8% annually) and capital growth. Pure International (020 7331 4500, www.pureintl.com) is currently marketing two-bedroom flats at the Blackstone Mountain Lodge there, priced from £174,500, with the chance to opt into a rental pool operated by Bellstar Hotels & Resorts.
What’s more, unlike America, there are also fewer question marks hanging over the property market. According to Canadian government statistics, demand across the nation is healthy, with analysts predicting average price rises of 5% next year.
The only worry is the Canadian dollar, which has been yo-yoing about all over the place of late. Closely linked to commodity prices, it soared to a high of $1.975 to the pound in March, but has been dragged back to $2.25 by the falling US dollar.
One recent purchaser, Dave Armstrong, who bought into Blackstone, saw an investment initially valued at £750,000 swing between £650,000 and £800,000 because of the fluctuating Canadian dollar. Under the circumstances, you would be mad not to take advice from a currency specialist such as Baydonhill (020 7594 0594, www.baydonhill.com).
On the market
Close to Breckenridge, Colorado, this four-bed, furnished chalet is for sale with Slifer Smith & Frampton (00 1 888 531 3800, www.summitcountyrealestate.com) for £455,000
A two-bed flat at Timberline Lodges in Canmore, Alberta, is for sale for £234,000. Newfound Property International, 020 8605 9550, www.newfoundproperty.com
Going global
Looking for the next winter property hot spot? Sean Newsom checks out the slopes from Chile to the Himalayas, via Bulgaria
These days, skiing is a global pastime. And if the Alps and the Rockies are beyond your budget, there is a whole world’s worth of other resorts out there to explore. Just don’t expect the infrastructure or, in many cases, the quality of snow and terrain to match the likes of Jackson Hole or Verbier.
At the moment, Bulgaria, due to join the European Union next month, is the hottest of these second-tier destinations. Bansko, a couple of hours’ drive south of Sofia, the capital, offers high mountains and a cut-price skiing experience. Typical of the current upmarket offerings is St George’s Lodge, through Savills, where studios start at £48,500 (020 7016 3740, www.stglodge.com), or White Fir Valley, in the Razlog Valley near Bansko (0845 257 9787, www.whitefirvalley.com), where one-bed flats start at £65,000. Also worth considering are Pamporovo and Borovets.
Be wary of extravagant promises of capital gains, though. Although prices are undoubtedly rising, the sheer scale of building means there could be a glut down the line.
Slovenia is the second most serious contender for title of the Next Big Thing. Its mountains are a part of the Alps, too, which adds extra skiing cred, and the proximity of the pretty capital, Ljubljana, is the apparent icing on the cake. But the resorts here are small and not very high — Kranjska Gora is the biggest, but offers only 19 miles of pistes — and property is expensive: in excess of £2,500 per square metre for a new flat.
Romania, set to join the EU at the same time as Bulgaria, is also trying to get in on the act. Two-bed flats close to the slopes in Poiana Brasov and other resorts in the Prahova Valley start at about £32,000, according to Romanian Properties (0870 224 2942, www.romanianpropertiesltd.co.uk), which says that interest from British buyers is growing by the week. If you want a chalet, you will need to travel away from the slopes: it has a five-bed chalet near Bran in Transylvania on its books for £185,000.
Tax-free Andorra is another possibility, with a loyal following in Britain and a better infrastructure. What’s more, the ski resorts of Soldeu and Pas de la Casa have recently joined forces, offering an impressive 115 miles of piste in total. But property is not cheap: in Soldeu, Andorra Property (00 376 751 900; www.andorra-property.com) has a three-bed flat for about £250,000.
Looking for something more exotic? Let’s pass over the resorts of Lebanon and Iran, neither of which could be called a safe bet at the moment. Further east, in the Caucasus, the Russians are busy developing resorts above the town of Sochi in support of its bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Russian government recently backed a £6 billion blueprint for the town’s development, while, nearby, private developers are ploughing £150m into the resort of Roza Khutor.
Greenpeace is fighting the plans, but President Vladimir Putin has thrown his weight behind the bid, and if the Russian economy continues to boom, this could be the next big thing in skiing. Two-bed flats are being offered off-plan at £160,000 (with Krasnaya Polyana Real Estate, www.377333.ru).
Another region to watch is the Himalayas. Gulmarg in Kashmir is the most high-profile resort, and with the Indian economy roaring ahead, the long-term potential looks good. Just don’t expect to be able to jump in just yet: last month there was a general strike in the area in protest against attempts to lease land to foreigners.
Further afield, the resorts of Chile are acquiring an international reputation, although most British buyers looking for an endless winter will be more comfortable buying in New Zealand’s adrenaline capital, Queenstown, home to four ski areas. Frankton Real Estate (00 64 3 441 4100, www.franktonrealestate.co.nz) has a two-bed semi there for about £145,000.
