When they began looking for a place in the Alps three years ago, Jay Nagley
and Maria Frantzi had no intention of restoring a ruin. “Originally, we
wanted somewhere next to a ski lift,” says Nagley, 46, an internet publisher
from London. “We’re both keen skiers and, just like everyone else, we
started looking for properties in mountain resorts – but we soon discovered
how little we could get for our money.”
The couple, with a modest budget of €200,000 (about £150,000 at the time),
quickly dropped the idea of buying in their favourite resort, Verbier, in
Switzerland – much too expensive – and switched to the Aosta valley, across
the border in Italy. A spectacular and underrated spot that culminates in
the 4,800-metre peak of Mont Blanc, it is home to several ski resorts.
Even here, though, they were dismayed by the prices. “We ended up looking in
the town of Aosta itself, which is linked to the resort of Pila by a
gondola, and found all we could get was a boxy two-bedroom flat,” Nagley
says.
Worse still, that wasn’t in Aosta’s handsome historic core, but in its
industrial suburbs. “It’s not exactly living the dream, is it?” he says.
“Flinging open the shutters of your ski pad each morning to be greeted by
the sight of a disused ironworks and a couple of warehouses. We realised
that if we wanted something in a nice setting, with a nice view, we’d have
to buy something called arustico.”
The termrusticowould be translated by agents here as “charming rural property,
in need of some restoration work”. The rest of us might call it a wreck.
Nagley and Frantzi found theirs on a winding road above Aosta: a
350-square-metre farmhouse that hadn’t been properly inhabited since the
second world war. It was set in half an acre, surrounded by pasture and
woodland, and looked straight over the valley towards Pila. The price? Just
€218,000.
“It’s not what you’d call ‘ski in, ski out’,” Nagley admits, “but the gondola
to Pila is only 15-20 minutes away and there are six other resorts within an
hour’s drive. What’s more, it has the kind of Alpine atmosphere that is
almost impossible to find in the big ski resorts – unless, of course, you’re
a gazillionaire.”
At this point, a couple of friends said they’d like to get involved, and a new
plan was born: they’d convert the building into six flats, keep two
themselves, sell one or two of the others and rent the rest to other skiers.
Suddenly, the dream was becoming reality.
The same initial problem faced Lisa Kendall and her husband, Jonny, when they
began looking for a chalet in the Chamonix valley in France. Though their
budget was higher – about €800,000 (£540,000 at the time) – it still wasn’t
enough. “We’ve always liked properties with character,” says Lisa, 41, who
used to work in event management. “We settled on the village of Les Bois, a
mile or so out of town. There, we found only one finished chalet within our
budget, and that was nothing special – small and functional.”
Just round the corner, however, was something much more interesting – a
semidetached 18th-century farmhouse. It was enormous – 260 square metres –
and the ground floor was habitable. Above it was an unused hayloft, eight
metres high. “This was the house where people in the village used to cure
hams and bake bread, and it had an enormous chimney,” Lisa says. “I couldn’t
understand why nobody else had converted it, but it seems they’d been put
off by the chimney – which was the size of a small room – and by the fact
that it was semidetached. For us, however, it was perfect. We could live on
the ground floor, and tackle the restoration slowly as the funds became
available.”
After 27 months, the house, which they have renamed Chalet Bibendum, is
nearing completion, with a mass of char-acterful touches such as panelling
made using wood taken from the roof, an old door from Alsace and a copper
bath bought on eBay.
The idea of rebuilding a battered old Alpine farmhouse or barn is one that has
occurred to many mountain-lovers over the years. It has become more
attractive recently, however, as prices in the big-name ski resorts have
grown.
Take the resort of Courchevel 1850, also in France, which has become the
favoured playground of the Russian oligarchs. There, the estate agent Knight
Frank (www.knightfrank.com) is offering a newly built five-bedroom chalet
for an eyewatering £16.2m. Compare this with the price of a barn on offer in
the small village of La Thuile, about 20km away by road. It comes with
planning permission for development into a four-storey, five-bedroom chalet
with a double-height living room – and costs just £92,000 (www.
immobiliere-courchevel.fr). Restoring it should cost about £210,000.
Of course, there are precious few rustici (or their French, Swiss or Austrian
equivalents) near ski lifts these days, which means looking instead in
villages at lower altitudes or on the other side of the valley – not an
immediately appealing idea to those who are accustomed to clicking into
their skis at the front door of their chalet and sliding straight onto the
piste. Rental incomes will also tend to be lower further from the slopes.
There are compensations, though. While most purpose-built resorts are dead out
of season, traditional communities are open all year round. They also tend
to be on the sunniest, south-facing slopes – unlike the resorts, which are
often built in more shaded north-facing areas in order to maximise snow
cover.
At the very least, any such extra sunshine will make the process of buying and
converting a property, which can often be long and tortuous, much easier.
For Nagley and Frantzi, the early days were certainly difficult. They
already knew that their property above Aosta was owned by two separate
people – but at the last minute, a third “owner” popped up. It appeared that
one local landowner had a strip of land right next to one of the farmhouse
walls. “It was only 10 square metres of scrub, but she wasn’t minded to sell
unless we could come up with the right offer,” Nagley says. “So we had to
swap her patch of scrub for 100 square metres of prime grazing land next to
hers.”
The day of completion bordered on farce, too. “It started with the notary
claiming half the money transferred from the UK hadn’t arrived and ended
with him demanding a bigger fee,” Nagley recalls. “What’s more, one of the
sellers refused to hand over the keys because he hadn’t got round to packing
up. Thank goodness our superb estate agent was there, and able to smooth
things over. Otherwise, we might have settled the deal with fisticuffs.”
Even more frustrating was the three-month wait for planning permission,
despite a verbal agreement at the start of the process. In the end, it
arrived just days before the chosen building company left for the summer
holidays.
Once work got under way, however, in September last year – 16 months after the
couple had first made an offer on the property – progress was rapid. Nagley
attributes this to “finding people you can trust to do the work – then
trusting them” – and has nothing but praise for his local team of architect
and builders. The couple moved in 10 days ago.
The only problem has been the falling pound. They planned the build on an
exchange rate of €1.48-€1.50 to the pound, but in the past few months it has
dropped below €1.20. As a result, the total conversion cost, €520,000, has
grown by £80,000 in sterling.
Has this dampened their enthusiasm? Not at all. “The evening we moved in,
there was the most fabulous sunset over the mountains,” Nagley says. “It
turned all the snow pink, and we stood there, agreeing this is as good a
view as you’ll ever find in the Alps. Provided we can make a little money on
the sale of the other flats, it’s going to be perfect.”
For more details of Nagley’s project, visit visit www.terra-alpina.com
. For the Kendalls’ house, see www.chaletbibendum.com
ALPINE STARS
Three rustic properties with mountains of potential
Italy £275,000 In a mountainside hamlet between Aosta and Pila – the ski lift
is two miles away – this renovated house is divided into two flats, one with
one bedroom, the other with two. The larger resort of Courmayeur is also
nearby. Included in the priceis a neighbouring stone and timber cottage,
which is ancient andin need of restoration; it can be bought separately for
£63,000. Casa Alpina; 01304 832797, www.italianskiproperty.co.uk
Austria £86,000 In St Stefan, a 20-minute drive from Nassfeld and near the
Presseggersee lake (great for ice-skating), this three-bedroom, two-bathroom
house has recently been renovated. If, however, you’re hankering after a
restoration project, a large adjoining barn could be transformed into living
space. The house has a 500-square-metre garden. Carinthian Properties; 00
43 664 286 5000, www.carinthianproperties.com
France £245,000 This ancient farm near the village of Bozel, a short drive
from the skiing mecca of Courchevel, is made up of three buildings that all
need to be restored, but between them offer about 500 square metres of
living space. About 10 bedrooms could be created. The property has about
four acres of farmland, and mountain views. 2savoie Immobilier; 00 33 609
971 562, www.2savoie-immobilier.fr
