However, in 2007 sales started to slow, and although prices didnt fall, the rate at which prices went up fell to a modest 5% per annum. We in the industry attributed this to a number of obvious factors:

1) The over buoyant market forcing prices up a little too quickly.

2) The fall in the value of the pound against the euro making property prices more expensive to Brits.

3) The fall in value of stocks and shares and the cancellation of many city bonuses leaving potential purchasers with less disposable income.

When the credit crunch started to really take hold in the UK at the end of 2007, the media jumped on the bandwagon and forecasted doom & gloom including (but not limited to) house price falls and a general tightening of belts throughout the country. Out in France, we assumed that the obvious knock on effect would be that the property market would start to stagnate, prices would start to fall, and 2008 would be a pretty lean year.

How wrong we were! Almost from the word go, 2008 has proved to be an excellent year for ski chalet sales, bucking all forecasts and pushing up property prices in the Northern French Alps. We are not back to the boom time of 2005 and 2006, but we certainly arent far off.

So why should this be? We think we can attribute this to a couple of simple facts. Investors are currently wary about putting their money into the stock markets or even into banks. So property seems like an obvious safer investment option. However, with the UK property in a spot of disarray, investing in the French property market, especially in an area where prices have carried on going up, is once again an attractive proposition.

This may be quite a simplistic view of what is happening, but for those people with chalets to sell, the Credit Crunch isnt such a bad thing…