It is close to midnight on a Saturday night, 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland, and the karaoke machine in the wood- panelled Yllashumina restaurant and bar is humming. Most of the performers opt for Finnish tango, a melodious if somewhat improbable mix of Nordic and Latino culture that is highly popular with the locals. But then a British voice mangling an old Gloria Gaynor number sounds out through the clink of glasses.
Courchevel, Chamonix or St Anton it ain’t, but Akaslompolo, a little Lappish village in the shadow of the Ylas fell, whose name translates as “a bend of the river, where the reindeer graze”, is an intriguing alternative for those looking for guaranteed snow without the hustle and bustle of the Alps.
Introduced to Lapland on trips to Father Christmas’s post office in Rovaniemi, to the south, Britons are now also buying property in this northernmost corner of Europe, drawn not just by the pristine forests and lakes and the prospect of a glimpse of the aurora borealis (northern lights), but also by Finland’s steadily appreciating property market. A house near Santa’s, it seems, can be for life — not just for Christmas.
Like many British buyers, Colin Brunt, 45, a chartered surveyor from Ingatestone, Essex, discovered Lapland when he took his children on a Santa holiday in December 2002. Out for a walk in Akaslompolo one day, he came across a half-built cabin in the snow. He got talking to the owner and was so impressed by what he saw he started to think about buying.
“After going back to Britain we tried to do some research on the internet, but it was impossible to find anything in English, so we went back the following summer and spent two weeks touring around,” says Brunt. “We ended up going back to the original ones we had seen half-built and bought one.” He paid £93,000 for the three-bedroom cabin, taking possession in February 2004.
When told by the locals that he was the first Briton to have bought in the resort, Brunt had an idea: if he loved Lapland so much he wanted to own his own place there, then wouldn’t some of his fellow countrymen, too? His company, Above the Arctic, was born.
“The first year, we only sold one property and, like with any new business, we felt like giving up,” he says. “But we persevered and the following year sold 10 or so. This year it is likely to have been about 40.”
Indeed, Brunt is so keen on Lapland that he and his wife Beverley, 40, intend to move to Akaslompolo in February, putting their children Fabian, 10, Tristan, 9, Blythe, 5 and Osbourne, 3, into the local school.
“There is definitely a group of people who love snow and want to have their main holidays in places like Lapland,” he says. It may also be a good investment. Restrictions on building have helped property prices in the area rise more than 50% in the past six years — with annual growth now close to double figures. Brunt’s own experience reflects this: he recently sold his original cabin for £141,000, has since bought another two-bed one and is on the lookout for a larger three-bedder.
So, Santa Claus apart, why come to Lapland? If downhill skiing is your main interest, then it is probably not worth making the trip all the way from Britain, more than three-and-a-half hours away by plane. Yllas, the local ski resort, in use since 1927, when reindeer were used as a natural ski lift, is the biggest in Finland, with 57 slopes and 27 lifts, but that is not really saying much. The slopes are not especially challenging and the summit a mere 2,355ft high.
But that is not really the point, says Mauri Kuru, managing director of Yllas Travel Service, a local rental agency that is branching into property development. “Lapland is something exotic,” he says. “People may come to ski if they are beginners or intermediate, but it is more about the snow and the huskies, the ice fishing and the snowmobile safaris.”
And, of course, the reindeer — encountered either on the snow-covered roads (local drivers always carry a knife to put the poor beasts out of their misery in case of an accident) — or, less traumatically, on your plate: the local restaurants do a fine smoked reindeer soup that can be followed with poor Rudolph, either sautéed and covered in loganberries, or filleted and served in cream sauce. The more adventurous eaters might prefer the bear or wild boar — although vegetarian alternatives are available.
“I love the romance of the cold, the snow and the log fire and the peace and then to be able to get on a Ski-Doo and go across the lake at 70mph,” says Steve Bird, 48, a parking consultant from Harrow, Middlesex, who together with his wife, Tracy, 41, signed up last week to buy a two-bedroom cabin in Akaslompolo for about £121,000. “It takes me back to my childhood.”
The couple also first came to Lapland in 1997 on an organised Santa tour with their children, Stephen and Natasha, then seven and four, on what was meant to be the trip of a lifetime. They liked it so much they have been back every December since, discovering Akaslompolo in 2000 and making a number of Finnish friends.
Their only concern — apart from the fear that too many British will follow in their footsteps — is global warming. “Since we have been coming here, it has been getting an average one degree hotter every year,” says Bird. “Some times we have been here and it’s been below -40C. But when we arrived at the airport last night it was raining.”
Like many of the Britons buying, the Birds plan to use their cabin, which should be completed in February 2008, for only a week or so a year. The rest of the time they hope to rent it out. Local rental agents put the season realistically at 20-25 weeks, which should ensure a rental yield of 6%-8%.
The rental market is a varied one. In December, when the sun never even makes it above the horizon, it is dominated by Britons on Santa tours. Finns, French and Germans tend to come up to ski from February to May, when the days get longer, or visit in September to appreciate the brilliant autumn colours. June and July when the sun barely sets at all, is much quieter — not least because of the mosquitoes that emerge from the swampy ground.
And then there are the Russians, who have such a filthy reputation that one of the local letting agencies allows owners to stipulate they don’t want their property let to them. Part of it is historical: many older Finns, in particular, have never forgiven their giant eastern neighbour for annexing a large chunk of Karelia after the 1939-40 Winter War. But nor does the behaviour of many of the modern-day Russian tourists endear them to the locals.
“We’ve had cases when, rather than going to get more wood for the fire when they run out, the Russians just chop up the furniture and use that instead,” said the agency’s owner, who did not want to be named for fear of upsetting potential clients. “And they ruin the cross-country ski tracks by driving their snowmobiles over them. A lot of owners just won’t have them.”
The majority of Above the Arctic’s properties for sale are in Akaslompolo. Flats start at £57,175 for a 33sq m studio up to £90,750 for a 55sq m two-bedder. Most British buyers prefer wooden cabins, which also rent more easily, especially outside high season. A 56sq m one-bedder made out of kelo logs — a very hard kind of pine several hundred years old — will cost £91,600, while £114,150 will buy a 76sq m two-bedder. The company also has a massive four-bed, four-bath 130sq m cabin with 54sq m mezzanine for £303,100. All properties, the smallest studio included, have their own sauna. The off-plan ones come with euro mortgages of up to 60% loan to value, with interest rates that can be 4% or below.
The company is also looking at selling in Yllasjarvi, another village on the other side of the fell and in nearby Levi, a slightly livelier resort that caters for a younger crowd more interested in bars and nightclubs than family restaurants.
Still not quite exotic enough? Next year Above the Arctic is hoping to begin marketing modern two-bedroom traditional Lapp teepees in the nearby Lainio Snow Village, the centrepoint of which is a hotel made entirely of snow and ice, that is built every winter and gradually melts away in the summer. The hotel, which features beds, chairs and tables made of ice, is a popular tourist attraction; teepee owners would most likely be able to rent out their properties through the village to tour operators, generating good rental returns.
But why confine yourself to Yllas and Levi? In theory, those with a little initiative should be able to pick up somewhere away from the big resorts, although finding a property from Britain may not be easy.
Brunt, meanwhile, has his eyes on Swedish Lapland, which lies a short drive away. The company has been considering projects in Overkalix, a popular ski resort set in spectacular scenery just south of the Arctic Circle, where prices are expected to be substantially lower than in Finland. Those in search of complete isolation, meanwhile, should be able to pick up a cabin by a lake for as little as £10,000-£20,000. Again, how easy it is to find one for sale remains to be seen. And there is unlikely to be a karaoke bar anywhere near once you get there — which, on reflection, may not be such a bad thing after all.
Cabin fever
A one-bed 48sq m “Kopara” log cabin in Akaslompolo, near the Yllas resort, for £91,600, with Above the Arctic (01277 824 200, www.abovethearctic.com).
Like most Finnish properties, it has a sauna This three-bed 100sq m “Kurunkolo” log cabin, in Akaslompolo, has a mezzanine that can make a sleeping area. It is for sale for £200,600 with Above the Arctic, 01277 824 200, www.abovethearctic.com
