The average price per m² in Arâches-la-Frasse is 4 881 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. For a house or villa, it is 6 473 €/m². About 163 transactions are recorded each year.
Ambience illustration of Arâches-la-Frasse, home to the Les Carroz resort on a plateau overlooking the Arve valley, in Haute-Savoie.
The average price recorded in Arâches-la-Frasse stands at 4 881 €/m². This average covers a stock made up mostly of resort apartments: according to INSEE, apartments account for close to 85 % of homes, most of them built for stays in Les Carroz and Flaine. Houses and chalets are rarer and trade at a markedly higher level, with an average price for houses and villas of 6 473 €/m². Altitude, exposure, proximity to the slopes and the energy rating of the property widen the gaps. The figures come from the DVF database, which lists transactions actually recorded by notaries (DVF is the French notarised sales database).
House : 6 473 €/m²
Prices from the DVF file (Demandes de valeurs foncières, published by the DGFiP), transactions actually recorded at the notary at municipality level. Cross-referenced with the Notaires de France - INSEE indices. Learn more about our methodology.
The local market rests on a single function: that of a twin holiday resort. Some 40 kilometres from Geneva and the Lake Geneva basin, Arâches-la-Frasse captures second-home demand that supports prices even as the resident population stays below 1 800 inhabitants and edges down. With more than 87 % second homes according to INSEE, most sales involve dwellings that will not be lived in year-round. The Grand Massif ski area, summer footfall on the plateau and the southern exposure of Les Carroz spread activity beyond the ski season alone.
New supply remains constrained. The Mountain Act and the scarcity of available land on the plateau limit sprawl, and activity is shifting towards the renovation of tourist residences, whose energy performance weighs ever more heavily in negotiations. Uncertainty over snow cover at mid-altitude, above all in Les Carroz, also pushes buyers to value summer activities and the best-located homes, while Flaine, higher up, keeps an altitude advantage. Proximity to Geneva and the Arve valley remains the bedrock of demand.
A holiday resort some forty kilometres from Geneva, Arâches-la-Frasse sits above the valley town of Sallanches, at a level close to neighbouring ski towns but well below the most sought-after resorts in the area.
The present municipality was born from the 1973 merger of the two former communes of Arâches and La Frasse, which took the name Arâches-la-Frasse on 1 January 2000. The territory brings together several villages and hamlets, including Arâches, La Frasse, Treydon and Ballancy, tiered between 560 and nearly 2 470 metres of altitude on a sunlit slope above the Arve valley. The name Arâches is said to trace back to a root meaning a cleared place, that of La Frasse to scrubland in a mountain area. Until the 1930s the economy remained agricultural and pastoral, turned towards livestock and the use of high mountain pastures.
The turning point came with winter tourism. The Les Carroz d'Arâches resort was created in 1936 on a south-facing plateau, when the hamlet of Les Carroz was still just a cluster of farms. The development of ski lifts gradually turned the village into a resort-village, with chalet architecture that contrasts with the later built complexes.
In 1968 Flaine was added, a high-altitude resort designed as a concrete architectural ensemble by Marcel Breuer, on the upper part of the municipality. Les Carroz and Flaine are now linked to the Grand Massif ski area, which also brings together Morillon, Samoëns and Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval and gives access to a vast skiable area peaking around 2 500 metres. This twin resort, some 40 kilometres from Geneva, has long fixed the holiday vocation of the municipality.
According to INSEE, Arâches-la-Frasse has 1 764 inhabitants for around 7 129 homes, of which only 860 are primary residences, close to 12 % of the stock: second homes and occasional dwellings make up more than 87 %. Apartments account for nearly 85 % of homes, houses about 15 %. Among households living here year-round, close to 60 % are owner-occupiers and a third are tenants. The market is therefore largely driven by holiday buyers, often from the Lake Geneva area, Geneva or Annemasse, looking for an apartment near the slopes of Les Carroz or Flaine. Alongside them, a minority of households live here all year, around local services, tourism and the season, more often seeking a chalet or a large apartment.
The average recorded price is 4 881 €/m², calculated from transactions registered by notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a municipal average, mixing the resort studio and the hamlet chalet. The average price recorded for houses and villas reaches 6 473 €/m². Location, altitude, access to the slopes, exposure and year of construction explain most of the gaps. A serious valuation relies on comparable sales, not on the average alone.
The two resorts form a single market but are not alike. Les Carroz, a south-facing chalet resort-village at around 1 140 metres, attracts family holiday-home demand. Flaine, a high-altitude concrete ensemble designed in the late 1960s, offers mainly ski-in ski-out apartments at a higher altitude. Property type, atmosphere and the condition of the building weigh as much as floor area in a home's value.
The municipality is above all a holiday destination. According to INSEE, second homes and occasional dwellings exceed 87 % of the stock, against barely 12 % primary residences. Almost all transactions therefore concern homes that will not be occupied year-round. This structure explains the tightness of the market and the low vacancy: properties change hands mainly between leisure buyers.
Supply is unbalanced. According to INSEE, houses account for only about 15 % of homes against close to 85 % apartments. Chalets are concentrated in the hamlets and on the hillsides, with widely varying floor areas and plots, and sale references there are few. The price-per-square-metre gap with apartment blocks is clear, which makes valuing a chalet more dependent on its condition, its view and its access than on the municipal average.
The municipality falls under the Mountain Act, which governs urbanisation, extensions and the appearance of buildings in mountain areas. Natural hazards are recorded across the territory, to be checked via the risk statement before any purchase. On use, letting out a furnished tourist rental requires a declaration to the town hall, and the taxation applying to second homes, in the majority here, deserves to be anticipated before buying.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).