Swiss ski resort town St. Mortiz saw the largest price growth in the year leading to June, outperforming world-class ski resorts in the French Alps for the first time, according to a Knight Frank report released Monday.
Based on a typical four-bedroom chalet in a prime central location, Knight Frank found that the median home price in St. Moritz was up 16.5% in the second quarter from a year ago, the largest rate of growth among the 20 top Alpine ski resorts tracked in its annual ski property index.
Four other Swiss ski towns, Klosters (14.4%), Davos (13.4%), Verbier (10.2%) and Leysin (7%), completed the top five on the ranking.
In Verbier, resale prices reached CHF30,000 per square meter (US$3,018 per square foot), a record unit price for the ski report, according to Knight Frank.
The overall market strength across Switzerland reflected the country’s response to the pandemic, Knight Frank said. The country decided to reopen its ski reports last December, the only European country to do so.
“This year has been an anomaly,” Kate Everett-Allen, head of international residential research at Knight Frank, said in the report. “We don’t expect this frenetic pace in Swiss resorts to continue. Supply constraints will ease as the Covid-19 landscape starts to normalize.”
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France’s Val d’Isere was the best performer in 2020, with an annual price growth of 2.9%.
This year, Chamonix (6.1%) and Megeve (4.7%) were the country’s forerunners, due to their proximity to cities such as Milan, Turin and Geneva, Knight Frank said.
“Mid-altitude resorts offering a viable base all year-round with a mix of activities are appealing to a broader range of buyers,” Roddy Aris, Knight Frank’s head of sales in the French Alps, said in the report.
France’s most expensive ski resort, Courchevel, saw prices rise only 1.7% year over year in the second quarter. But ski properties there still commanded the highest daily rental rates, according to Knight Frank.
