Beyond the piste: a new vision of Alpine luxury

The mountain property market has rarely looked so robust, or so uneven. Skier visits have reached a record 399 million globally, including 168.5 million in the Alps. 

Yet residential price performance in these markets is diverging sharply. Almost 18 percentage points separate the strongest and weakest resorts in our Mountain Property Price Index, released yesterday as part of The Alpine Report 2026/27. It is a market driven increasingly by resort-specific fundamentals.

Switzerland makes the point most clearly. Prime prices across its resorts are 29 per cent higher than five years ago, compared with 12 per cent in France. The story is as much about wealth preservation as lifestyle: a strong currency, geopolitical stability and, crucially, more than a decade of constrained supply following the Lex Weber law, which generally prohibits new second homes in Swiss municipalities where they already account for more than 20 per cent of the housing stock. In Val de Bagnes, home to Verbier, sales above CHF10 million (US$12.3m) have surged with Gstaad, at €44,440 (US$51,500) per sq m, remaining at the market’s summit.

The second season

The leaders are pulling away. Davos (14.5 per cent growth), Andermatt (12.5 per cent) and Cortina d’Ampezzo (10 per cent) top this year’s rankings, each with a distinct story: snow reliability and rental yields in Davos; a critical Lex Weber exclusion in Andermatt; and an Olympic dividend in Cortina.

France, meanwhile, is broadening its appeal, led by Courchevel Village (6.1 per cent), Courchevel Moriond (5.2 per cent) and Val d’Isère (5.0 per cent), as its buyer base widens to include the first wave of serious demand from Asia. The 2030 Winter Olympics add a further catalyst.

Climate change is the obvious challenge. Average Alpine snowfall fell by 34 per cent between 1920 and 2020, yet visitor numbers and prime values in leading resorts continue to climb. Investment in snowmaking, lifts and slope management is protecting the core product and creating a premium for resorts with the altitude, scale and resources to adapt. Around 90 per cent of Alpine skier visits are concentrated in large and major resorts.

The most striking shift is the rise of the second season. Summer flight schedules into five mountain gateway airports are expected to reach 92 per cent of winter volumes, while Switzerland recently recorded 25.2 million summer hotel nights, against 18.6 million in the winter. Heatwaves elsewhere in Europe, flexible working and a broader offer of hiking, cycling, wellness and dining are turning ski homes into year-round bases.

Starbursting

Of course, the data doesn't tell the whole story. For this year's report, we sought out some of the more colourful tales that reflect something deeper about the shifting definition of luxury.

For today’s HNW traveller, luxury is less about another week in a five-star chalet and more about doing something bespoke, unique – and perhaps adrenaline-fuelled or wellness-focused. Think private heli-skiing, remote mountain expeditions, river rafting or hiking and wildlife spotting with expert local guides (p.34). Join us as we explore "starbursting" (p.30): helicopter trips stopping five or six times in a day for coffee on a summit, off-piste skiing and lunch on a glacier, before returning to a single base.

All of this reflects some fatigue with more typical images of luxury, a theme that has run through our flagship reports this year – see p.28 of The Residence Report, for example. After a decade or two of the best suites, clients are “increasingly numb” to hardware, and gold taps no longer move them, Nick Davies of Cookson Adventures told us. What does is people, and time: access to insider knowledge, being with family and the chance to make scarce time off count.

Architects of possibility

This has broad ramifications. Ana Brant, Global Head of Customer Experience at Cain, notes that clients increasingly want what she calls authentic sanctuary: homes and buildings that strip away distraction to make room for connection. For developers, she argues, the task is to move beyond gadgetry and become “architects of possibility”, creating spaces where meaningful relationships form naturally.

The argument is developed further by Mark Schatzker, whose book The Dorito Effect charts how the modern economy has learnt to manufacture ever more immediately compelling but ultimately unfulfilling experiences. Schatzker keeps photographs of a Dolomites spa hotel he visited almost 20 years ago: natural woods, modernist restraint, a place that “hasn’t aged at all”. His description of it is the brief for the perfect mountain home. “The hiking’s great. The food’s great. And the views are spectacular.”

As specification and amenity become easier to replicate, value is migrating towards less tangible things: time, privacy and a sense of place. Few locations are better placed to benefit from this shift than the mountains, where these increasingly precious commodities come with the territory.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts or ideas with me. I hope you enjoy reading the report, ideally while admiring the view from a mountain terrace, whatever the season.

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