The average price per m² in Courchevel is 12 804 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. For a house or villa, it is 17 047 €/m². About 104 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmosphere illustration of Courchevel, a tiered resort in the Trois Vallées area, in Savoie.
The average price recorded in Courchevel stands at 12 804 €/m², a level that places the municipality among the most expensive markets in France. This figure reflects a stock dominated by tourist residences: prestige apartments, studios and resort units, from the lower levels up to Courchevel 1850. Houses and chalets, the heart of the prestige market, come out higher still, around 17 047 €/m². The altitude of the area, access to the slopes, aspect, view and level of finish explain considerable gaps from one property to the next. The values come from the DVF database (the French notarised sales database), which records sales actually registered with the notaries: in a market this narrow and this high-end, this municipal benchmark must be refined property by property.
House / villa : 17 047 €/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 Courchevel market follows a very different logic from that of ordinary municipalities: it is a prestige second-home market, largely disconnected from local employment and demographics. Demand is driven by a wealthy clientele, French and international, sensitive to the scarcity of well-placed properties and to the image of the resort. Belonging to the Trois Vallées area, the quality of the hotel trade and the renown of Courchevel 1850 keep up a lasting pressure on prices, with low transaction volumes but very high values.
In this type of market, the classic drivers matter less than the wealth and international climate: changes in large fortunes, the appeal of the French Alps, the taxation of second homes. The scarcity of buildable land at altitude, governed by the loi Montagne (the French mountain-planning law), limits new supply and concentrates trading on the existing stock. Energy performance and charges also become selection criteria, including at the very top end, where the renovation of the oldest residences is gradually becoming unavoidable.
A flagship address of luxury skiing, Courchevel compares above all with the other municipalities of its area: Les Allues, where Méribel is located, at a close level, and Les Belleville clearly below, while the valley remains far more affordable at Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
Courchevel occupies the heights of the former municipality of Saint-Bon-Tarentaise, in the upper Tarentaise. Before skiing, this was mountain pasture and hamlets. Everything changed in the aftermath of the Second World War: from 1946, the Savoie department launched on these slopes one of the first resorts designed from scratch for skiing, driven in particular by the town planner Laurent Chappis, a pioneer of high-altitude resort development. Courchevel became the laboratory of a new tourism model.
The resort is organised into tiered levels, today identified by their altitude: Le Praz, Courchevel Village, Courchevel Moriond and Courchevel 1850, the highest and most renowned. The altiport, opened in 1961 with its steeply sloping runway, became a symbol of the place. Above all, Courchevel is part of the Trois Vallées area, the largest linked ski area in the world, connected to Méribel, in the municipality of Les Allues, and to Val Thorens and Les Menuires, in that of Les Belleville.
From the 1970s and 1980s, Courchevel 1850 established itself as an international address for luxury skiing, with its very high-end hotels, its prestige-brand shops and a clientele from all over the world. On 1 January 2017, the former municipality of Saint-Bon-Tarentaise merged with La Perrière to form the new municipality of Courchevel, thus adopting the name of its resort.
According to INSEE (the French national statistics institute), Courchevel has around 2 290 permanent residents, a figure with no common measure with the population it welcomes in season. The housing stock is very largely made up of second homes: resort apartments and chalets intended for holiday rental or for leisure use. Buyers are above all investors and wealthy individuals, French and foreign, looking for a pied-à-terre at the foot of the slopes or a property offering a seasonal rental yield. The year-round resident population, employees of tourism, of the ski lifts and of services, remains limited and is partly housed lower down in the valley.
The average recorded price is 12 804 €/m², calculated from sales registered with the notaries and published in the DVF database. This municipal average hides very large gaps depending on the level of the resort: a studio in a lower area and a prestige apartment in Courchevel 1850 do not have the same value. Direct access to the slopes, aspect, view and level of finish make the price vary considerably. In a market this limited, a serious valuation relies on recent comparable sales in the same area.
Courchevel is made up of several tiered levels: Le Praz, Courchevel Village, Courchevel Moriond and Courchevel 1850. The top, 1850, concentrates the luxury hotel trade and the most highly valued properties, while the lower levels offer more moderate prices and a more village-like atmosphere. Immediate proximity to the lifts, orientation and the quality of the residence weigh as much as the level itself. These internal differences explain much of the spread of prices seen across the municipality.
The market for houses and chalets is the prestige segment of the municipality, with a higher average price, around 17 047 €/m². It caters to a very high-end clientele and remains extremely narrow, with few transactions per year. Apartments, more numerous, cover a wide range, from the holiday-rental property to the large prestige apartment. The choice depends on the intended use, a leisure home or a rental investment, and on the budget available.
Courchevel is reached by road from the Tarentaise valley, climbing up from Moûtiers. The Moûtiers station, down below, provides the rail connections, reinforced in the winter season, and a high-altitude airfield, the altiport, allows direct access by air. This service, combined with belonging to the Trois Vallées area, supports the appeal of the resort and the value of the properties best placed in relation to the slopes and the access points.
Buying in a high-altitude resort means checking several points: the classification as a mountain zone, which strictly governs building rights, the planning rules specific to each area, and the co-ownership charges, often high in tourist residences. The rental operating arrangement, any commitments attached to the property, and energy performance in a mountain climate deserve careful examination. In this prestige market, guidance from professionals of the sector is strongly advised.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).