Buying a property on the snow

Lotana

Lotana

I am thinking of buying a unit on the snow (Falls Creek perhaps). For an investor these properties have some specifics that set them aside: short season, remoteness, presumably high running costs. I have no idea about capital growth and liquidity in such areas. Could anyone point me to some resources that would help analysing a snow property? Does anybody own one? The idea behind buying is to stay there for a week or two and rent it out for the rest of the season.

Lotana
 
snow bunny

Hi,
If you are interested in purchasing a unit in the snow -- I think you should be looking at a resort which offers facilities on a year round basis. Thredbo is also a summer resort and has I believe reasonable conference facilities. So the opportunity to reap a return over the major part of the year is enhanced. Also watch out for the type of title -- a lot of alpine property is built on crown land and this should form part of your DD.

Regards,
Helen :)
 
If you buy a property in Thredbo you will buy the building and be a tenant for the land, paying a substantial ammount of rent to the company that has the lease and acts as a sort of council. I love Thredbo but the "council rates" put me off buying there. Perisher is much better if snow is your thing, I was skiing there until a week ago and we even had snowfall on friday.
 
Most of the resorts have recognised the sortening of the snow season and are developing plans to keep themselves viable. They're starting to develop themselves as spring and summer retreats as well. Confrence facilities are also on the agenda.

Can you imagine the (golf) drive you could do from the sumit of Mt Buller? :D
 
marc1 said:
If you buy a property in Thredbo you will buy the building and be a tenant for the land, paying a substantial ammount of rent to the company that has the lease and acts as a sort of council. I love Thredbo but the "council rates" put me off buying there. Perisher is much better if snow is your thing, I was skiing there until a week ago and we even had snowfall on friday.
Click to expand...

I much prefer Thredbo for skiing as it has more black runs, better for advanced skiiers and more vertical.

Perisher is more for intermediate skiiers tho ive had some great days on Mount P and Mt. Blue Cow is good fun but pretty staid. (lots of Blue runs)

Of course this is just my opinion.
 
One thing you may want to think about - when to buy it.
Purchase after February or March - so when it settles you are right before the snow season starts....so you get the best part of the rental season straight away rather than very little rental income (during summer).
 
Hi,

What are your reasons for buying in the snow? The real question is, does it have to be in Australia?

A ski holiday to NZ is almost the same as a holiday in Oz.

Might pay to shop around, overseas even?

Just a thought
Michael
 
Thank you everyone who shared their thoughts. The main reason is to have your own place to stay with family and friends for a week or two each year. I also prefer places where you can actually walk to the lift and where non-skiing family members can have fun on the snow right in the village. So Jindy is out of question. NZ - a family trip for 4 would be more expensive than a 6 or 8-hour drive in Australia. Actually, we contemplate buying a place with 2 friends of mine (3 families 12 people altogether). If it is a 3-bedroom place with lots of bunks for the kids we can stay there together for greater fun and rent it out for the rest of the year. Global warming (GW) causing climate change is a great new twist - thanks Acey - I'll think about it much more carefully now. On the other hand - the fear of GW can drive the market down presenting good buying opportunities. Is anybody familiar with Falls Creek market? Or perhaps any other places where there is enough snow in the village to have fun?

Lotana
 
When we were in Falls last July (2003), we looked at a few - and I posted about it :
http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11986&highlight=falls+creek
"When ski-ing in Falls Creek in July, I checked out a unit that was selling for around 195k. It was expected to return 24k in rent, but there was 14k in expenses. That made the yield somewhere around 5 to 6%....likely capital growth was probably marginal..."
I would imagine it would be similar still (maybe a yields could be a little worse?)
 
perky29 said:
When we were in Falls last July (2003), we looked at a few - and I posted about it :
http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11986&highlight=falls+creek
"When ski-ing in Falls Creek in July, I checked out a unit that was selling for around 195k. It was expected to return 24k in rent, but there was 14k in expenses. That made the yield somewhere around 5 to 6%....likely capital growth was probably marginal..."
I would imagine it would be similar still (maybe a yields could be a little worse?)
Click to expand...

Oh well, $195K sounds like a dream today. 3-bedroom units are close to $400K there now!
 
Hi,
if global warming is a concern then perhaps you should look at purchasing a unit at Mt Hotham. I believe this is the highest (or one of the highest) resorts in Australia. Certainly, if you are going to find powder snow anywhere in Oz, then its going to be Hotham. I notice that you live in Sydney. Hotham does have regular flights from/to Sydney -- cuts down on travelling time and all the hassles like fixing chains etc.

Best to speak to an agent specialising in alpine real estate.

Regards,
Helen

PS sounds like you have a great plan there -- both an investment and opportunity for the family to get together and have some fun. :)
 
Lontana - this add is currently in the Melb Trading Post.

PS - nothing to do with me, just thought it was pretty cheap for Mt Buller.

But I know zippo about ski lodges.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MT BULLER APARTMENT within ski lodge, sep title, bathroom, TV, fridge etc, great location, sleeps 4/6, back on the market, $65,000 Chris (0419)590181
 
Oooohhhhh Ive been waiting for this topic.

/me looks across at the 6 boards in his travel bag =)

To say Im interested in snowsports would not be true, Im an addict :p

However I dont have a lodge membership nor own any alpine property. If the numbers stacked up Id be the first in line.

They look fine atm - infact some of the returns for the past few years have been fantastic - as has the cg - but be aware - it only takes one dud season (and we havent had one in a while) for your returns to be non existant.

Add to that the fact most alpine property is leasehold, maintainence charges are excessive, skibums trash places and global warming - IMO it just doesnt stack up.

ski.com.au forums have a few threads w/ returns etc

Having said all that if you want a lifestyle property go for your life, Ill even do regular inspections for you =)

101 days till another back to back season for me!!!
 
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