Luxury property: the mountains are holding their own in the face of climate change – rising prices and year-round tourism

Among the trends in the mid-to-high-end residential property market, the mountains remain the most sought-after destination. Despite a 34 per cent decrease in snowfall in the Alps since 1920, the property market in the Alps remains remarkably robust. This trend is also fuelled by heatwaves, which are driving a growing number of tourists and buyers to seek refuge at high altitudes; as well as by the extension of the tourist season and the local investments made for the recent Olympic Games in Italia and the upcoming ones in France.

The figures speak for themselves: over the last five years, property values in the high-end segment have risen by almost 30 per cent in Switzerland, significantly outpacing France, where the increase was 12 per cent, according to Knight Frank’s latest Alpine Report. However, the trend across Alpine locations is not uniform: average prices for luxury properties in these areas have risen by 3.2 per cent, but the gap between the best- and worst-performing resorts has widened, rising from 11 percentage points last year to almost 18 in the twelve months to June 2026.

Gstaad remains the world’s most expensive Alpine property market, at 44,440 euros per square metre, whilst in terms of percentage changes, the resorts with the best price performance this year were Davos (+14.5%), Andermatt (+12.5 per cent) and Cortina d’Ampezzo (+10 per cent), which this year recorded a record residential sale of 11 million euros.

Altitude is also a factor: data from Knight Frank indicate greater pressure at lower altitudes. In resorts where the valley-floor town lies below 1,200 metres, the average annual growth in premium property prices has fallen from 8 per cent in 2022 to -1 per cent over the past year. However, the village’s altitude alone is not enough to determine performance. Villages between 1,200 and 1,499 metres recorded an average growth of 4.7 per cent, compared with 5 per cent for those above 1,500 metres.

However, the trend that is probably the most fundamental for the Alpine markets is the rise of year-round tourism. In some mountain destinations, summer tourism is now rivalling winter tourism, encouraging a shift towards a model of year-round ownership and investment.