The average price per m² in Huez is 7 789 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 166 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Huez and the Alpe d'Huez resort, in the Grandes Rousses range in Isère.
The average price recorded in Huez stands at 7 789 €/m². This average covers a stock made up almost entirely of holiday housing: 94,2 % apartments according to INSEE (France's national statistics institute), many of them studios and one-bedroom flats built on the piste front of the Alpe d'Huez between the 1960s and the 1980s. Houses and chalets, rarer, account for only 5,7 % of the stock and come out a little higher, at around 8 824 €/m². Altitude, view, distance to the lifts and energy condition widen the gaps from one property to another. These 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 Huez market is that of a large international resort more than of a village. The Alpe d'Huez, linked within an area of around 250 kilometres of pistes, attracts French and foreign buyers who purchase in order to stay, which explains why 89,3 % of dwellings are second homes according to INSEE. This holiday demand supports price levels among the highest in the Alps, even as the permanent population declines, from about 1 410 inhabitants in 2012 to 1 244 in 2023. The resort's renowned sunshine and the growth of its summer offer, from cycling to hiking, spread activity beyond winter alone.
New supply remains constrained. The loi Montagne and the scarcity of buildable land at altitude limit new developments, and activity shifts towards the renovation of tourist residences built between the 1960s and the 1980s, whose energy performance now counts in negotiations. Uncertainty over long-term snow cover also pushes the resort to invest in summer and in high altitude, which shapes the value of the homes most dependent on alpine skiing.
A high-altitude resort among the most highly rated in the Alps, Huez sits far above the Grenoble valley and the neighbouring Les Deux Alpes resort. It comes close to the dearest large Savoyard ski areas, such as Les Belleville.
The name Huez refers to the Ucenni, a Celto-Ligurian tribe that occupied the Oisans valleys before the Roman conquest. On the heights of the municipality, the Brandes site housed between the 12th and 14th centuries a silver mine drawn from galena: this miners' village, perched at around 1 800 metres, is presented as the highest medieval settlement in Europe, before being abandoned around 1330 after the galleries flooded. The rest of the municipality long lived off a mountain economy, farming and pastoral, on a territory tiered from 1 024 to 3 081 metres in the Grandes Rousses range.
In 1858, a fire that started in a farrier's forge destroyed almost the entire village, some hundred houses with thatched roofs, leaving hundreds of inhabitants without shelter. The rebuilding was matched, in the 20th century, by a turn to tourism. The Alpe d'Huez resort opened in 1936, the year Jean Pomagalski installed one of his first pole ski tows there and the road with its 21 hairpins from Le Bourg-d'Oisans was laid out. After the war, the hoteliers gathered in a development company launched in 1952 the cable car to the Pic Blanc, which opened the top of the ski area to high-altitude skiing.
The municipality entered sporting history in the same decade. The Alpe d'Huez hosted the bobsleigh events of the 1968 Grenoble Olympic Games, and its climb of 21 hairpins, ridden for the first time by the Tour de France in 1952 with Fausto Coppi's victory, became one of the best-known ascents in cycling. Now part of the Alpe d'Huez Grand Domaine, a linked ski area covering around 250 kilometres of pistes across seven municipalities, Huez draws most of its activity from winter and summer tourism.
According to INSEE, Huez has 1 244 inhabitants for 6 447 dwellings, of which only 651 are main residences, that is 10,1 % of the stock: second homes and occasional dwellings account for 89,3 %. Apartments make up 94,2 % of dwellings, houses 5,7 %. Among the households living here year-round, 56,2 % are owner-occupiers and 35,8 % tenants. The market is therefore driven above all by a holiday clientele, buyers often from Grenoble, Lyon or further afield, looking for a ski-in ski-out base. Alongside them, a small permanent population, working in tourism, the lifts and the resort's services, is housed in a stock where main residences have become a minority.
The average price recorded is 7 789 €/m², calculated from transactions registered with notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a municipal average, mixing the piste-front studio and the large renovated apartment. Houses and chalets, rare in the municipality, come out at around 8 824 €/m². The location within the resort, the view over the Grandes Rousses, the aspect and proximity to the slopes explain most of the gaps. A reliable valuation rests on comparable sales, not on the average alone.
Most of the stock is concentrated at the Alpe d'Huez, the resort perched at around 1 850 metres, dominated by holiday blocks, studios and tourist residences close to the lifts. The historic village of Huez, lower down on the road of 21 hairpins, keeps traditional and more scattered mountain housing. A ski-in ski-out home, on the piste front or near the start of the slopes, does not trade at the same level as a property further out or dependent on a shuttle.
The municipality is reached by the road of 21 hairpins from Le Bourg-d'Oisans, a climb of about 14 kilometres made famous by the Tour de France. Grenoble is some sixty kilometres away, a little over an hour outside winter conditions, through the Romanche valley. No railway climbs to the resort: the car and shuttles from the valley remain the rule, which adds value to parking and garages, rare at altitude.
Supply is very unbalanced. According to INSEE, houses account for only 5,7 % of dwellings, against 94,2 % apartments. Chalets and houses are found mainly in the original village or slightly back from the resort, with varying floor areas and plots. Sales there are few, which makes valuing a house more dependent on its location, its view and its condition than on the municipal average.
The municipality falls under the loi Montagne (France's mountain-planning law), which governs development and the appearance of buildings at altitude, and the territory is exposed to natural hazards specific to high mountains, avalanches and ground movement in particular. As the vast majority of properties are intended for seasonal letting, letting a furnished tourist property requires a declaration at the town hall, and the taxation of second homes is worth anticipating 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).