The average price per m² in Sallanches is 3 704 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 224 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Sallanches, in the Arve valley in Haute-Savoie.
The average price recorded in Sallanches stands at 3 704 €/m². This average covers a municipality of nearly 66 km², stretched from the floor of the Arve valley, at around 515 metres, up to the mountain pastures rising to 2 749 metres. The stock is about 73 % apartments according to INSEE (France's national statistics institute), with a centre rebuilt on a grid after 1840, apartment estates from the 1960s to the 1980s and hillside hamlets built of detached houses. A studio near the station and a house with a view over the massif do not belong to the same market. 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 Sallanches market is driven first by its role as the main town of the Mont Blanc country. The population rose from around 16 100 inhabitants in 2017 to 17 319 in 2023 according to INSEE, an increase of nearly 8 % in six years, fed by local employment and by the proximity of the Geneva area. The municipality concentrates the hospital, the secondary schools, the retail park and the services that the neighbouring resorts lack. This role sustains year-round demand for main residences, markedly less seasonal than in the high-altitude municipalities of the same area.
The local economy remains marked by industry. Precision machining in the Arve valley still employs widely, but the ski factory inherited from Dynastar, the last ski manufacturing site in France, had its closure announced in 2025: the productive fabric is being recomposed. Tourism plays alongside, with the Sallanches-Cordon ski area attached to the Portes du Mont-Blanc and the route towards Chamonix and the tunnel. Building land remains constrained by the relief and by the hazards tied to the Arve, which steers part of activity towards renovation of the existing stock.
A valley town with a residential and industrial vocation, Sallanches sits well below the Haute-Savoie resorts such as Le Grand-Bornand and below the Annecy urban area. Its price level is closer to that of a lakeside town such as Thonon-les-Bains.
Sallanches appears early in the history of the Faucigny: excavations carried out in 1992 under the Saint-Jacques collegiate church brought to light burials from the 5th and 6th centuries, a sign of very old settlement. The first franchises were granted to the inhabitants in 1310 and the church became a collegiate church in the 14th century. The marriage of Agnes of Faucigny and Peter II of Savoy brought the region into the Savoyard orbit, confirmed by the Paris agreements of 1355. Two convents then settled there, the Capuchins in 1619 and the Ursulines in 1630. Built of timber on a valley floor, the town suffered a long series of fires, in 1520, 1669, 1696, 1768, 1773 and 1783.
On 19 April 1840, a fire destroyed 268 of the town's 273 houses in a few hours. King Charles Albert of Sardinia committed exceptional funds to rebuild it. The engineer François Justin drew a grid plan in Sardinian neoclassical style, with regular blocks, symmetrical facades and balconies overlooking the street. In barely six years, the new town was finished. The town hall, raised between 1844 and 1846, remains its symbol, and the Saint-Jacques collegiate church was rebuilt. This plan explains the appearance of today's centre, regular and open, very different from the neighbouring mountain towns that kept a medieval layout.
The town then modernised in stages: the Arve quays in 1863, place Saint-Jacques in 1866, the road from Cluses to Saint-Gervais in 1886, the drinking water network in 1889, electrification in 1901. Sallanches - Combloux - Megève station was brought into service on 15 June 1898 with the rail section from Cluses to Le Fayet. Sallanches was recognised as a tourist resort in 1921. Watchmaking and then precision machining supported the valley, and the ski brand Dynastar was born there in 1963. The opening of the Mont Blanc tunnel in 1965 placed the municipality on an international route. The former municipalities of Saint-Roch and then Saint-Martin-sur-Arve were merged into it in the 1970s.
According to INSEE, Sallanches has 17 319 inhabitants and 10 727 dwellings, of which 80.4 % are main residences, 11.9 % second or occasional homes and 7.8 % vacant. The municipality is therefore not a resort: it is a valley town lived in year-round. Apartments account for around 73 % of the stock and 58.3 % of households own their main residence. Buyers are first local households, employees of industry, of the Mont Blanc country hospital, of retail and services, joined by cross-border workers employed towards Geneva and by second-home buyers looking for access to Mont Blanc at a price level below that of the neighbouring resorts.
The average price recorded is 3 704 €/m², calculated from sales registered by notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a municipal average: it brings together the apartments of the centre rebuilt after 1840, the developments of the 1960s to 1980s, recent homes and the houses of the hamlets. Altitude, aspect, the view over the Mont Blanc massif and the condition of the property create noticeable gaps from one address to another.
The centre, rebuilt on a grid after the 1840 fire, concentrates the shops, the Saint-Jacques collegiate church and the town hall: it is the area densest in apartments. The hillside hamlets, Luzier, Blancheville or Saint-Roch, keep a village layout and detached houses, with open views over Mont Blanc. The area around the Cavettaz lake and the surroundings of the station form two other well-identified centres.
Both markets exist, but not in the same proportions. According to INSEE, apartments account for around 73 % of the municipality's 10 727 dwellings, against 27 % houses. The supply of houses is concentrated in the hillside hamlets and stays narrow, which lengthens search times and leaves fewer references. Apartments cover a wider range, from the studio near the station to the recent home facing the massif.
Sallanches - Combloux - Megève station, opened in 1898, receives regional trains, the Léman Express and seasonal main-line services. The A40 motorway puts Annemasse about thirty-five minutes away, Geneva and Annecy under fifty minutes, Lyon and Grenoble under two hours. This dual access explains the presence of cross-border buyers working in Switzerland and of second-home buyers from the large cities.
The municipality lies in the Arve valley, covered by an air-protection plan that notably governs wood heating: grants exist for replacing older appliances and the heating system weighs in the energy performance certificate. Sallanches is also classified as a mountain area, which limits the extension of built-up areas, and is exposed to natural hazards, flooding of the Arve and landslides, to be checked before any purchase.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).