They’ve been busy in Courchevel Le Praz. The Alpinium centre and new high speed gondola direct to 1850 are a significant enhancement for the village.
Frequently overlooked and driven through on the way up to the upper villages of the Courchevel ski area, Courchevel Le Praz is a thoroughly pleasant village in itself. With one nice hotel and spoilt for the choice of restaurants, property buyers and those renting for a ski holiday have a good selection of chalets and apartments to consider. There has always been a ski-lift up to 1850, but it was slow, had limited capacity, and the disembark point was less convenient for onward journeys.
The new ski-lift and the Alpinium centre, to us, is a holistic approach to improve life for not only the residents of Le Praz itself, but also the whole ski area. The core of the €26m investment is a huge underground car park with 500 places, joined with the new high-speed gondola that will whisk 2400 passengers per hour (previously 955) directly to 1850 for the first time in less than 6 minutes (previously 7 mins). Furthermore, the lift now finishes just below the Croisette – APi took it, we can confirm a remarkably quick and efficient journey.
Thousands of cars drive up to Courchevel every day during the winter – less time spent in the car and less traffic on the roads further up the mountain is certain to be appreciated by everyone. With a ski pass, Saturday parking will be just €5 per day. The Alpinium centre offers more space to buy ski passes and book ski school; it has a kids play area, a multimedia library, a games room for teenagers, 120 ski lockers, and a snack bar is planned. The site will host the organisation and media centres for major ski and other sporting events such as the World Ski Championships in 2023. In the summer, a section of the car park will even be dedicated to an electric go-kart circuit. The building is sleek and blends in well and has a sports ground on the roof – it looks like it has always been there. You could say they’ve thought of everything!
Alpine Property intelligence is about property in the Alps, so let’s consider what this means for owners, prospective buyers and a holiday rental. Property values per square metre in Le Praz are around €11k, this compares with around €16k in Courchevel Moriond and Courchevel Village, and up to €30k in 1850. Rentals are some 5-10% cheaper than Moriond and Village. We can see that Le Praz can become a more significant ‘hub’ in the area than before, the whole ski area is easier to access, there is less reason to pay more to be higher up than there was before. All this makes Le Praz an interesting proposition, and not forgetting it is directly attached to the largest and most diverse fully linked ski area in the world.
