Press Centre

'Elegance Revived: A fledgling residential tourism market is taking hold in the Austrian ski resort of Bad Gastein. Laura Henderson reports

Boasting over 200km of downhill skiing up to an altitude of 2600m across four main ski areas, the Gastein region forms part of the vast Ski Amade circuit, offering 860km of skiing on one pass. A combination of 48 lifts - an array of gondolas, cable cars, a funicular and high-speed chair lifts - means there's plenty of terrain to explore over a couple of weeks' skiing.

Fewer than 20,000 people live in the valley, yet more than two million visitors come for the holidays. The British account for just three per cent of the total, but the number is growing thanks to tour operators expanding their portfolio and a solid network of no-frills flights from UK regional airports.

The resort also enjoys a long season from December to May and a good snow record thanks to tis high altitude.'

'A trio of Irish investors have bought into chic Piedmont. Catherine Murphy clips on her skis and tackles the rough and the smooth

Forget the recession for a moment and imagine a ski holiday where the cable car is metres from your chalet and takes you to 50km of private pistes, then on to a further 400km of pisted runs. Imagine the luxury of a private heli-pad just yards from your suite, a parked chopper ready to whisk you off to the region's purest powder.

This is not exclusive Beaver Creek in Colorado, famous for its gated resort communities and wealthy residents: this is the Kempinski Pragelato Village in Italy's Piedmont region, the brainchild of Irish investors and one of Europe's first private ski mountains.'

Property prices in the Alps have hardly been affected by the see-sawing world markets reports Simon Malster, managing director of Investors in Property. He has specialised in selling property in the Alps for over 20 years and remembers the crash of 1990-1992. Malster recalls that although the volume of sales at that time fell dramatically, property prices in the Alps were hardly affected. "We had some bank repossessions in the 90's but most were at the very bottom end of the market; studio apartments and poor quality property in second rate resorts. The Swiss market was particularly robust. Most clients who buy in Switzerland have good liquidity and are buying for the long term so when things get tough they do not need to sell.

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With fabulous views and year-round appeal, the Alps are the perfect place to buy a holiday home. By Laura Latham

While the Brits flock to the coast during the summer and keep the mountains for winter pursuits, Europeans discovered long ago that there's more to the Alps than skiing.

Jessica Delaney of Investors in Property, which specialises in Alpine homes, can't understand why Brits don't spend summer in the mountains. "There are lovely areas with wonderful scenery and stunning lakes, the weather's great and there's lots to do."

Delaney is a fan of Austria, and the Carinthia province in particular. This region, south of Salzburg, is known as Austria's lake district, yet has been largely overlooked by second-home owners...

Our summer press trip to the Austrian lakes and mountains was fantastic! Six journalists joined us to visit Austria's southernmost lakes, we visited the site for the Gerlitzen chalets which overlook the beautiful lake Ossiachersee and offer views as far as Italy. We had dinner at the Schloss Velden on the banks of Lake Worthersee and stayed in a traditional lakeside hotel. The following day explored the Gastein Valley and its famous spa as well as viewing our two new developments: The Alpen Apartments (our best seller this month) and also Resort Gastein a new development to be unveiled this month!

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"In Austria, Simon Malster recommends the spa town of Bad Hofgastein for it's dual seasonality - a sunny valley an hour from the small, ancient city of Salzburg with it's low-cost airline routes.

The new-build Alpenparks Apartments start from 260,000 euros (£207,000) for two-beds, and Bad Hofgastein even has a water cinema as part of it's aquatic offerings

With 180 days of sunshine a year it is great for boating and summer holidays, says Jessica Delaney from Investors in Property, which has a project in Gerlitzen offering three-bed chalets bult to order with lake views from £293,000. This project offers flexibility for the buyer - they can rent it out through a tour operator but if they don't want to they can keep it as a proper second home, she says."

"Although foreign buyers are allowed to buy in most ski resorts there hasn't been a 'buy-to-sell' climate in Austria. However, it has the fastest-growing tourism levels in the EU and Irish investors are particularly keen on summer rentals, especially in Carinthia, says Jessica Delaney of Investors in Property. Also popular is the ski area near Salzburg (flights from Dublin with Aer Lingus and Ryanair) where three-bed-new-build chalets are available for 240,000 euros in the Alpendorf Village."

The Austrian Alps is a perfect location for an all year round holiday home or investment property. Not only can you enjoy skiing, sleigh rides and mulled wine in the winter, you can also enjoy swimming in the lakes, horse riding, cycling and hiking in the summer! The Alps offers the chalet owner two very different types of holiday depending on the time of year they visit, and also gives the investor two high seasons for rental in just one year...

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Although prices are falling in the UK and on the Costa's, Simon Malster, managing director of Investors in Property reports that prices are holding up in the Alps. He has specialised in selling ski property for over 20 years and remembers the crash of 1990-1992 when the Swiss ski property market proved to be particularly robust.

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Our press trip to Salzburg was a great success. Journalsits representing most of the major national newspapers came and viewed the Holzern Chalets in St Martin in Lungau. Ths is the first "eco-friendly, self sustaineable village in the Alps" and the journalists were quite taken with developer Herbi's tour of the site. In the evening they visited the christmas fair in Salzburg before dining in one of Europe's oldest traditional restaurants.

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We had a lot of interest in this one. Journalists from all the major newspapers and a couple of the ski magazines were keen to check out this new 5* Kempinski managed resort. Some of the journalists had their first ski lesson while others lazed around in the spa. They were all very impressed by the high standard of the resort. We are planning a summer press trip for the reopening in July following extension of the spa and the building of the new tennis courts and golf course. Please contact if you are interested in receiving an invitation.

The Times February 08
Pragelato Press Cuttings

Where to buy in the Alps

Simon Malster, Managing Director of the leading ski property specialists, Investors in Property has been selling in the Alps for over 20 years. Here are his tips for where to buy in 2008.

Their hottest seller last year was the Verbier ski area in Switzerland but demand to buy in Canton Valais is so high that the canton has limited the number of foreign purchase permits..."

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Top 10 Ski Developments

Two of our developments made it into the top 10!

• Le Belvedere, Tignes Les Brevieres, France


• Alpendorf Village, Dachstein West, Austria

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"Affordable luxury is on offer at the ski paradise village of Veysonnaz

Investing in Swiss property is no longer just for multi-millionaires. A new development in Veysonnaz in the French speaking canton of Valais offers luxury at a relatively modest price. The development is due for completion in December 2009 and is being marketed by London-based InvestorsinProperty.com who have been specialising in skiing locations for the past 20 years..."

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