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| Val Thorens, Europe’s highest ski resort, has incorporated eco-friendly measures such as hydroelectric power |
Keen skier? Thinking of buying a snow-covered chalet in the Alps? Then think hard before making a decision. According to a recent report from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, melting snow caps will result in the closure of many winter sports resorts in the coming decades. “Within 50 years all ski resorts below 1,200 metres won’t have a chance and will go out of business,” says Michel Revaz of the Liechtenstein-based Alpine conservation society Cipra.
It is a troubling forecast for such familiar names as Megève in France, Gstaad and Klosters in Switzerland and Austria’s Kitzbühel, which sit at lower altitudes – but some even feel that the prediction errs on the optimistic side. The Alps have been warming at a rate three times the global average, according to a report two years ago from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – findings that shook the ski world because, if correct, it spells the end for two-thirds of all ski areas in the Alps. With an average temperature increase of only 2°C, skiing at altitudes below 1,500 metres will become impossible within a matter of decades. Bad news for investors in, say, Les Portes du Soleil ski region, or Wengen and Crans Montana in Switzerland.
The New Scientist magazine reported last year that snowfall in the Alps had decreased by up to 60 per cent since the late 1980s and Christoph Marty at the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research says the average number of snow days during the past 20 winters is lower than at any time since records began more than 100 years ago.
And it gets worse. If global warming is threatening the existence of skiing, skiers themselves are contributing to their own fate as resorts are forced to build higher, clear more trees to make way for cable cars, build roads and rely on snow-making to prolong the natural season. Andrew Holden, professor of tourism and the environment at the UK’s University of Bedfordshire, says there has to be a behavioural change by resorts, developers and those planning to buy.
Average prices
Austria
One-bedroom apartment: €100,000
Three-bedroom chalet: €350,000
Switzerland
One-bedroom apartment: SFr410,000 (£240,000)
Three-bedroom chalet: SFr760,000 (£445,000)
France
One-bedroom apartment: €200,000
Three-bedroom chalet: €600,000
Sources: www.liveaustria.com, Erna Low
“Because the future of many of the lower-lying ski resorts is severely threatened, they will need to diversify,” says Holden. “Tourism is the main economic sector for most of them and it is hard to see an alternative, unless everyone is prepared to adapt. It also needs a behavioural change by the skier to reduce emissions by visiting their chalet less often and staying longer.
“Above all, cut back on using planes or cars. Unfortunately, although people are more environmentally responsible than 10 years ago, they are still reluctant to give up skiing because few can really take seriously something forecast for 30 years away.”
So can buyers invest in an Alpine property that will be sustainable enough to help ensure that their grandchildren will be left with a mountain to play on?
Take Val Thorens, France, one of the biggest, busiest and highest resorts in Europe. It has all the charm of a Paris banlieue with its tightly packed units – prices start at €98,000 for a tiny two-bedroom apartment – but it has woken up to the need to be environmentally sensitive, with lifts that are powered by renew-able hydroelectric energy; it has planted more than 200,000 trees in the past 20 years; the sewerage system has been rebuilt to prevent pollution; and its street lighting now uses low-energy bulbs.
Les Arcs, another French destination, has buried its power cables, banned cars from resort areas and limited off-piste skiing to protect the endangered black grouse. The resort removed the rocks on a piste to smooth the slope, then replaced the topsoil and planted it with hardy Alpine grass. The result is a slope skiable with only 5cm of snow, minimising the need for snow-making. It all helps. The cannons that spray slopes with artificial snow put a stress on the water supply, are hugely expensive and cause long-term damage to vegetation. In France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia combined it is estimated that artificial snow uses as much water each year as 1.5m people. More than 10 per cent of Swiss resorts use cannons and that rises to 40 per cent in Austria and Italy.
Developers too are thinking green. Undeterred by the credit crunch or threats of warming, the French company MGM has announced six new projects in resorts such as Samoëns, Les Carroz d’Arâches, Serre Chevalier and Chamonix. The company’s latest venture, an apartment block in Flaine, adheres to the principles of Haute Qualité Environmental (HQE) – the international construction industry standard defined at the 1992 Earth Summit – with south-facing rooms to maximise the use of natural light through glass-fronted balconies and double-glazed windows. It has details such as lighting activated by movement detectors, low-energy light bulbs in communal areas, geothermal heat pumps to extract energy from the earth’s core and underfloor heating.
“It is hard to be eco-friendly in the Alps – the amount of heating required is phenomenal – but we are increasingly using solar panels and double insulation,” says Richard Deans of MGM.
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| With snowfall down up to 60 per cent since the late 1980s, ski resorts such as Les Arcs in France are having to find new activities to attract visitors |
Erna Low is handling the redevelopment of a 150-year-old silk mill in Briançon, France. Known as La Schappe, it is being converted into luxury properties with green features such as geothermal heating and a wood burner to provide hot water for the spa. The windows’ high-spec glass traps sunlight to warm the building. Briançon is linked by lifts to Serre Chevalier, which has introduced special offers as rewards for holidaymakers arriving by train.
Which brings us to the train test. It takes 14 hours and three trains to get to Serre Chevalier from London. But consider the carbon emissions count: by train 11.11kgs are used, by plane 97.77kg and by car 222.59kg. (Carbon impact for other destinations are shown below). But will the keen London-based ski property owner eschew the seduction of a new two-hour flight from Stansted to Sion in the Valais? Crans Montana is a hop away from the airport – and even nearer is Haut Nendaz, which, at 1,600 metres, can boast that it is snow-sure, and where Savills Alpine Homes is offering 10 chic three- and four-bedroom apartments in its Mer de Glace development from SFr975,000 (£587,600).
Buying high, however, might not provide a long-term solution. Since 1850 Europe’s glacial area has reduced in size by almost half, with the prediction that by the end of the century most glaciers will have melted away.
So high or low, there is no easy answer unless, as Holden suggests, expectations are changed and behaviour patterns altered. One solution is to broaden appeal. Most resorts, such as Nendaz, Les Arcs and most of those at the at-risk levels, are already trying to attract a wider clientele with year-round activities such as hiking, mountain biking, tennis and golf. This approach is even more important in Austria, where 75 per cent of ski lifts are below 1,000 metres.
“It is worth buying in a ski resort where there is a host of year-round activities and which is also a working town so that whenever you visit your property there will be shops, restaurants and facilities open,” says Janet Shaw-Rutter of estate agency Live Austria. “People think of Zell am See as the obvious choice as a sound all-year bet but many find it over-developed and not as attractive as other areas such as the Salzkammergut – Austria’s Lakeland.”
The broadening of appeal and the lengthening of seasons also make renting more profitable for investors. Live Austria is handling the sale of a three-bedroom penthouse in the town centre of Schladming for €700,000; they can be rented at prices between €1,190 and €2,900 a week.
| Rail journey from London | ||
|---|---|---|
| To Saalbach in Austria: 17 hours and two trains | ||
| Train carbon emissions 12.90kg | Plane 114.27kg | Car 270.03kg |
| To Courchevel in France: 8 hours direct | ||
| Train carbon emissions 11.48kg | Plane 82.06kg | Car 220.14kg |
| To Crans Montana in Switzerland’s Valais region: 13 hours and four trains | ||
| Train carbon emissions 11.19kg | Plane 77.17kg | Car 203.40kg |
| Source: www.snowcarbon.co.uk | ||
Keen skier Andy Leivers, 38, and his wife, Lorraine, 30, moved from Devon, in south-west England, to Ramsau am Dachstein when he left the army to fulfil their love of the outdoor life.
“I have come to realise there is so much more to Austria than skiing,” says Andy, who is setting up a company, Austrian Alpine Activities. “It is an adventure playground in the summer – whether it is taking easy valley walks or mountain biking, rock climbing or paragliding.”
But Holden argues that agents, developers and resorts have to be more imaginative in their search for niche markets to attract buyers. “Health tourism is an option,” he says. “Historically, people came to the mountains for health cures. The writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was in Davos with his sick wife when he discovered skiing. It is an easy step from that to promote spas and wellness centres. There are also many associations with the poets and literary figures that make the idea of living in the Alps a romantic one.”
It was, however, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who, when he saw Mont Blanc in 1816, conjectured “that this globe ... will at some future period be changed into a mass of frost by the encroachments of the polar ice”. How wrong he was.
