The average price per m² in Cordon is 4 884 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 14 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Cordon, a Haute-Savoie village nicknamed the Mont Blanc Balcony, above Sallanches.
The average price recorded in Cordon stands at 4 884 €/m². This level rests on a narrow market: the DVF database lists only about a dozen home sales over the reference year, which makes the average sensitive to each transaction. It should be read as an order of magnitude rather than as a fine market price. The stock consists overwhelmingly of chalets and upmarket apartments, often bought as second homes for the view over Mont Blanc: a renovated older chalet, a recent home in a tourist residence and a mountain-pasture farmhouse do not sell at the same level. 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 Cordon market is understood first through the place of second homes, which approach six dwellings in ten according to INSEE. The municipality is not a residential catchment but a holiday destination in the Pays du Mont-Blanc, where value rests on the view over the range, on the preserved setting and on the proximity of the large ski areas of the Arve valley and the Val d'Arly. This structure makes the market more dependent on outside demand and on tourism than on the local economy, with low sales volumes that amplify differences from one year to another.
Two forces frame the coming years. The scarcity of buildable land in a mountain zone and the pressure of holiday demand support levels, in an area where new supply remains constrained. Conversely, the cost of the energy retrofit of older chalets and the growing attention paid to controlling second homes in Alpine municipalities may weigh on bargaining margins. On a market this narrow, the individual quality of each property, aspect, condition and view, outweighs any general trend.
A balcony village geared to second homes, Cordon sits above Sallanches, the valley town it overlooks, and in the wake of its neighbour Combloux. It nevertheless remains clearly behind Megève, the upmarket benchmark of the area.
Cordon is a mountain village in the Pays du Mont-Blanc, in Haute-Savoie, clinging to a hillside above Sallanches and backing onto the Aravis chain. Its position earns it the nickname of the Mont Blanc Balcony: the village faces the range, of which it offers an open panorama. The municipality is tiered over a wide span, from the valley floor at around 600 metres up to more than 2 500 metres on the heights, with the inhabited village sitting at about 900 metres. Long turned towards mountain farming, the municipality has kept working farms, wooden chalets and traditional granaries that still mark the landscape, around the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption.
Tourism completed this rural economy without erasing the character of the village. Cordon equipped itself with a small family ski area, spread between roughly 1 000 and 1 600 metres, and positioned itself as a human-scale village resort, away from the large neighbouring ski areas. This twofold identity, farming and tourism, explains the present shape of the housing stock: chalets and holiday developments were added to the older buildings, without the municipality tipping into the dense urbanisation of the high-altitude resorts.
According to INSEE (France's national statistics institute), Cordon has a little under 1 000 inhabitants for around 1 200 dwellings. The particularity of the stock is striking: second homes account for close to six in ten, against a little over a third main residences. It is the typical profile of a mountain municipality where holiday demand outweighs that of permanent residents. Buyers are therefore first and foremost households looking for a base or a chalet facing Mont Blanc, often from outside the valley, rather than local first-time buyers. Year-round residents, farmers and workers in the services and tourism of the Pays du Mont-Blanc, form a narrower base, partly constrained by the price level and by the scarcity of properties affordable for year-round living.
The average price recorded is 4 884 €/m², calculated from transactions registered by notaries and published in the DVF database. In a municipality of this size, the number of annual sales is low, about a dozen: the average is therefore an indicator of trend, not a precise rate. The condition of the property, its aspect and the quality of the view over the Mont Blanc range explain a large share of the gaps from one property to another.
The Cordon market is not that of a village of residents, but that of a holiday destination in the Pays du Mont-Blanc. Demand comes from households looking for a chalet or an upmarket apartment with a view over the range, often as a second home. This pressure, combined with limited supply and scarce mountain land, pulls levels upwards, with no direct link to the municipality's population.
Both segments coexist. The chalet, detached and often old then renovated, matches the traditional image of the village and concentrates a large share of second-home demand. The apartment, in a recent development or a small block, offers a more affordable entry point and simpler management for seasonal use. The choice depends on budget, on time spent on site and on the willingness to maintain a property in a mountain climate.
The municipality is classified as a mountain zone, which governs development and extensions. The local planning document and the risk prevention plan should be consulted, as the slopes are exposed to natural hazards. Energy performance deserves particular attention in a stock of older chalets in a cold climate, as do access and snow clearance for properties higher up. Finally, aspect and orientation towards Mont Blanc weigh heavily on value.
Largely so. The municipality lives to the rhythm of a family village resort and of stay-over visitors, in winter as in summer. Transactions mainly involve second homes, which makes the market more sensitive to the leisure economy and to the purchasing power of outside buyers than to local employment. The low annual sales volume accentuates this dependence and explains the variability of averages from one year to the next.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).