Moscow. April 27, 2011 – Based on the opinion of the experts in the tourism industry, in the winter of 2010-2011 the growth of the Russian tourist flow to mountain skiing European resorts was more than 25%. At the same time, based on the evaluation of the International real estate agency Gordon Rock, the growth of Russians' interest to buying skiing vacation property abroad was even more significant – the number of requests grew by more than 40% compared to the previous season. The popularity rating leader among Russian buyers of residential mountain skiing vacation real estate became France in the majority of the “nominations”, which took up more than 35% of the market. The hotel real estate segment at mountain skiing resorts was indisputably led by Austria, since more than 50% Russians' requests to purchase a hotel or a mini-hotel in the mountains specifically deal with this country.

France became the leader not only in the number of Russians' requests for residential mountain skiing real estate within the budget of over 100 thousand euros – in this real estate budget more than 35% of Russians' requests were for the French mountain skiing resorts. The leadership of France is also indisputable in the following categories: the accessibility of mortgage crediting, state-supplied buyer discounts and investment attractiveness.

Mortgage interest rates in France have been at their minimum since the middle of the past century. Russians can receive a mortgage for 20 years in the amount of 70-80% with the interest rate of 2.9% per year to buy apartments in mountain skiing French resorts. Buying French real estate on a leaseback scheme, Russians receive not only a guaranteed income from leasing, but also do not need to pay VAT taxes (19.6%). Due to using mortgage, a minimum amount of downpayment, necessary to buy 4* apartments in the French Alps is now 50 thousand euros, and the income for the investment goes up to 10% per year even without taking into account 3-5% growth of real estate costs.

Russians are not alone in their preferences. The same way, among the English, playing an active role in the investment market into foreign real estate, more than 40% of the buyers of mountain skiing real estate choose France. The growing interest from Russian and CIS countries' buyers was not left unnoticed by the French builders. The builders assigned special quotas for our countrymen's purchases from the assortment of the new projects. The quota system is quite worthwhile – the most “symbolic” leaseback projects in the French Alps completely sell out at the stage “before the foundation”.

Based on Gordon Rock's evaluations, within the budget of over 100 thousand euros other than in France, in high demand for Russians is the real estate in the mountain skiing resorts of Austria (15% of requests), Italy (10%), Germany and Switzerland (5% each). The leadership of mountain skiing real estate in France might not have been so indisputable, if buying residential real estate in Austria by non-EU citizens was not limited by a number of “restrictive” measures. This way, for example, buying Austrian residential real estate by a Russian is only possible by a company that should be specially opened for these purposes. If there hadn't been any limitation of this sort, the position of Austria in the rating would have been higher, because Austria is the indisputable leader in the Russian mountain skiing tourism, it is ahead of France in its popularity among mountain skiers.

Mountain skiing real estate within the budget of 100 thousand Euros is the prerogative of the Eastern and South-Eastern European countries. After Bulgaria, that kept the leadership in the economical budget countries for many years, come Slovenia, Turkey, Czech Republic and Montenegro. There is an interest among Russians to buying real estate property in the Ukrainian mountain skiing resorts in the Carpathian Mountains.

If the limitations on buying real estate property in Austria lower the demand from Russians, then Russians' love to the Austrian mountain skiing resorts is fully reflected in purchasing the hotel-based sector of this country's real estate. More than 50% of requests from the Russian investors for buying hotels and mini-hotels in the mountains are done specifically in Austria. France is lagging behind quite a bit (15% of the requests from the Russians to purchase hotels in mountain skiing resorts), then is Italy (10%), Germany and Switzerland (5% each).

Stanislav Zingel, the President of the International real estate agency Gordon Rock, comments, “The leadership of Russian real estate buyers at mountain skiing resorts of a number of Eastern European countries has not been surprising for a long time. But a nice surprise of 2010 was the fact that buyers from Russia and CIS countries were included in three leading countries in the market of mountain skiing real estate in France, after the French and the English”.

For additional information, please, refer to:

+7 (495) 220-2827, Stanislav Zingel, the President of the International real estate agency Gordon Rock

The International real estate agency Gordon Rock offers a complete set of services on investments into hotel, commercial and income property. Gordon Rock is the official representative of more than 150 leading foreign builders, implementing developer projects in the area of real estate in 30 countries.