The average price per m² in Bourg-Saint-Maurice is 5 845 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 230 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Bourg-Saint-Maurice, in the Savoyard Haute-Tarentaise.
The average price recorded in Bourg-Saint-Maurice stands at 5 845 €/m². This average brings together two very different markets on one territory of 179 km², which counts some thirty villages and hamlets. On one side the valley chief town, at 840 metres, with its post-war blocks, its old houses and its buyers who live there year-round. On the other the high-altitude villages of Les Arcs, between 1 600 and 2 000 metres, where holiday housing dominates and pulls the average upward. The municipal stock is 88,6 % apartments according to INSEE (France's national statistics institute). The figures come from the DVF database (the French record of notarised property sales), which lists the transactions actually registered with notaries.
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 depends first on the visitor numbers of the ski area. Since the opening of the Vanoise Express cable car in 2003, Les Arcs form with La Plagne one of the largest linked areas in France, which anchors the demand for holiday housing and seasonal rentals. The ratio between 7 270 permanent inhabitants and 9 804 second homes according to INSEE shows how far the market is driven by buyers who do not live in the municipality year-round. The departure of the 7th battalion of Alpine hunters in 2012 also removed from the chief town a permanent, renting population that it has not entirely replaced.
New supply remains constrained. Buildable land is limited by the terrain, by natural hazards and by the rules that apply in mountain zones, which shifts activity towards renovation, notably of the resort buildings put up in the 1970s and 1980s, whose renovation and energy-performance needs now weigh on sale prices. In the chief town, activity is driven by tourism employment, public services and hydroelectricity, with a recurring challenge of housing seasonal workers, which takes up part of the rental stock and leaves little supply for year-round households.
The gateway to the Les Arcs area, Bourg-Saint-Maurice sits at a price level close to that of the major Haute-Savoie resorts, a little below Les Gets, above a lakeside town such as Annecy. The gap is clear with a valley prefecture such as Chambéry.
The site was occupied as early as the Neolithic and became, under the Romans, the station of Bergintrum, on the road of the Graian Alps that linked Milan to Vienne over the Little St Bernard pass. The Romans also worked a salt mine at the Roc d'Arbonne. The current name refers to the cult of Saint Maurice, very widespread in the Alpine valleys. Over the Middle Ages, the neighbouring communities disputed the high pastures and the woods: a ruling of the Senate of Savoy in 1675 settled the conflict between Montrigon and Séez by setting armorial boundary stones. In September 1795, a fire destroyed almost the whole of the town, which was then rebuilt on a reorganised plan.
The 19th century remained marked by the same fragilities: the village of Vulmix lost two thirds of its houses in a fire in 1854. The railway arrived on 20 November 1913, the terminus of the Tarentaise line, decided for military as much as economic reasons, the Italian border being close. Hydroelectric power drawn from the Isère and its tributaries then added to the local resources. The municipality merged with Hauteville-Gondon on 15 December 1964. The 7th battalion of Alpine hunters was garrisoned there from 1962 to 2012, before its transfer to Varces, which long weighed on the demographics and housing.
From the 1960s, the river and the mountain became facilities. The white-water basin of the Isère, developed gradually and become the Claude-Peschier stadium, hosted the world canoe-kayak slalom championships in 1969, 1987 and 2002. On the heights, the resort of Les Arcs rose from the ground under the impetus of Roger Godino, with Charlotte Perriand involved in the architectural design: Arc 1600 in 1968, Arc 1800 in 1970, Arc 2000 in 1979, then Arc 1950 in 2003. The Arc-en-Ciel funicular has linked the centre to Arc 1600 in seven minutes since February 1989. The Vanoise Express cable car, opened in 2003, connects the area to La Plagne.
According to INSEE, Bourg-Saint-Maurice has 7 270 inhabitants for 13 610 dwellings, of which only 3 654 are main residences, around 27 % of the stock: second homes and occasional dwellings account for nearly 72 %. Apartments make up 88,6 % of dwellings, against 11 % houses. Among main-residence households, 47,2 % are owner-occupiers and 48,5 % tenants. Two buyer profiles therefore coexist. At Les Arcs, a holiday clientele, French and foreign, who buy a resort apartment and let it for part of the season. In the chief town and the hamlets, permanent residents, workers in tourism, services and the ski lifts, more often looking for a house or a family home.
The average price recorded is 5 845 €/m², calculated from transactions registered with notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a municipal average, mixing the valley-floor market and that of the high-altitude villages of Les Arcs. Altitude, access to the slopes or the funicular, aspect and the year of construction create wide gaps from one area to another. A real sale price always calibrates on nearby references, not on the municipal average.
These are two distinct markets on the same municipality. The chief town, at 840 metres, lives year-round: shops, secondary school, station, services, and a stock ranging from the old hamlet house to the post-war blocks. The villages of Les Arcs, between 1 600 and 2 000 metres, are resorts created from scratch from 1968, geared towards holidays and seasonal rentals. The seasonality, the charges and the mode of use are not the same there.
The municipality is the terminus of the Tarentaise railway line, opened in 1913, with direct links strengthened in the winter season. From the station, the Arc-en-Ciel funicular climbs to Arc 1600 in seven minutes, in service since February 1989. The road connects Albertville via the Isère valley and Italy via the Little St Bernard pass, closed in winter. This direct rail service explains part of the demand coming from Paris, Lyon and abroad.
The supply is narrow. According to INSEE, houses account for around 11 % of the municipality's dwellings, against 88,6 % apartments. Houses are concentrated in the chief town and in the villages and hamlets of the valley, such as Hauteville-Gondon, Vulmix or Montrigon, often in old buildings to renovate. Sale references are therefore few and search times longer, which makes the valuation of a house more dependent on its condition and its exact location than on the municipal average price.
The territory is classified as a mountain zone, which governs the extension of urban development and the growth of the resorts. A natural-hazard prevention plan applies: avalanches on the slopes, floods and torrential mudflows along the Isère and its tributaries. To be checked before any purchase, along with the co-ownership charges at altitude, often high because of heating, snow clearance and the upkeep of the resort buildings. The taxation of second homes is also worth anticipating.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).