the market THE STATE OF
By gareth jefferies
Marketing Director at alpine-property.com
I’m writing this report during the second week of May 2021 and this is important to know because, thanks to the rapidly changing property market right now, these market reports need updating weekly! We are currently in the middle of an extremely active market and whether or not this is a bubble that is about to burst is not something anyone will know. Changes on the horizon could make the market even hotter. But I’ll come back to those! The winter that never was - or was it the winter of our future? All our bars and restaurants remained closed for visitors, all the ski lifts remained closed for recreational skiers. However, the peak holiday weeks seemed just as busy as ever. The carparks and the roads seemed full and the mountains were covered in people cross country skiing, hiking, hiking up to ski down, hiking with snowshoes, sledging and riding bikes on the snow. It really did show us that people still appreciate the mountains for what they are, and can deal with the lack of lift assisted skiing. As I utter these words I will be drowned out by howls of protest from the ski industry, and that’s because that is where all the money is. I’m not disputing that.
74
the state of the market
//
“Changes on the horizon could make the market even hotter.”
The other big event that has happened since I wrote my winter market report for Morzine Source Magazine is Brexit. If there has been an effect on the property market from Brexit, we’ve not felt it yet. Any change has been swamped by COVID. Some of our Britishbased customers are buying via virtual visits, but they are in the minority as the vast majority of our sales are in the French market. New enquiries from Brits are about the same as usual yet French enquiries are swamping them 2 to 1 at the moment. Brexit has made a couple of changes generally, however. It is now much harder to come to France to work, yet that hasn’t really affected the property market. You can