CLUB CLASS Alpine property pays off all year round

Advertising Supplement | Monday, April 20, 2015 | Gulf News
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Gulf News | Monday, April 20, 2015 | Advertising Supplement
PRIME PROPERTIES
PRIME PROPERTIES
7
Alpine property pays off all year round
■ On the back of a weak euro and promises of
unbeatable returns on investment, owning a dreamy
chalet in the Alps has never been more lucrative
B K   J. F     
Editor — GN Focus
tumbling out of the
MooserWirt after dark,
I’m exhausted, happy
and well fed and watered. At the après-ski in Sankt
Anton in the upper reaches of
the Tyrol, I’ve met and mingled with crazy characters from
all over the world over the past
few hours. Each skier has their
own compelling war story, and
eventually, I leave with new
friends and followers and even
some business cards. I could get
used to this, I think.
Many tourists feel the same
way, prompted by the euro’s
sharp drop since the beginning
of this year, and are ringing
brokers to discuss more permanent investment options in the
Alps. “Properties in Austria are
15 per cent cheaper than last
year with the weak euro versus
the US dollar and the British
pound,” says Paul Kleinekorte,
Owner and Director of Pure
S
Supplied
■
The popular après-ski venue, MooserWirt, in St Anton
International, an estate agent
with investment-grade properties in ski resorts and on beachfront locations in Europe and
North America.
Pure has had interest from
both Arab nationals as well as
expats living in the UAE, and
enquiries have also come from
Qatari buyers.
“We see that Middle Eastern
investors like the combination
of skiing in the winter and the
mild climate in the summer,”
Kleinekorte says. “On top of
this Alpine property is a safe
Percentage of ultra-high-net-worth individuals interested in owning a ski home
Select countries
25%
■
An Austrian ski chalet
for a summer home is an
enticing proposition for
Middle Eastern buyers
CHINA
20%
20%
19%
17%
15%
11%
11%
10%
The US
INDIA
INDONESIA
RUSSIA
The UAE
SINGAPORE
HONG KONG
The UK
Source: Attitudes Survey, Knight Frank Wealth Report 2014
CLUB CLASS
TO P C HOI CES
Private five
A60, New York: This club
offers views of the Empire
State Building. Entry is
allowed with a booking
at Sixty Soho Hotel
but membership is by
invitation only.
Soho House, Berlin: With
a lobby created by Damien
Hirst, this is the latest of the
Soho House group of clubs
with others in London and
New York. Not so exclusive
though — booking a room
in the hotel gets you in.
Club Silencio, Paris: The
only club that can claim
David Lynch as its designer,
this is a clone of the club
in his film Mulholland Drive.
You might get a table after
midnight, but membership
is tricky business.
Oasis Clubhouse, Buenos
Aires: This is a private club
par excellence. You won’t be
given its address until you are
on the guest list. Look out for
Andy Warhol originals.
The Hospital Club, London:
One of the many new
networking clubs in a city
crammed with PMCs.
— A.W.
■ Private members clubs are now all the rage, and
developers are keen to capitalise on the trend
B A  W
Special to GN Focus
T
he astonishing growth
in private members
clubs or PMCs is a curious by-product of
urban life, which can be lonely. “When I lived in London
I belonged to a private club in
Mayfair,” says interior designer
Caroline Haughton. “It was like
having a really smart place that
I could call home and where I
could mix with like-minded
people. Clubs answer a need in
a busy city where people don’t
make much eye contact.”
So clubs help overcome the
anonymity of modern cities.
They provide a common bond
and mark you as an insider, and
while much has changed, this
basic, almost tribal principle,
goes back to early days.
“They are a safe haven for
global movers and shakers,”
says Lady Carol Parsons, a property entrepreneur and racehorse breeder who moves between homes in the Caribbean
and Westminster and belongs
to several clubs. “I can usually
be sure of meeting someone but
I’d never reveal their names.”
The craze really began in
18th-century London. Everyone of note belonged to a private
club and demand was so great
that by Victorian times there
were more than 400 across the
city. They ranged from uberexclusive Brooks’s and White’s
to establishments where the
common man could gain entry, like The Reform Club. They
were almost exclusively men-
only, places to escape domestic
life and mix with one’s peers,
and had bedrooms, butlers, libraries, smoking, gambling,
and, of course, dining rooms
and bars. They were discreet
and maintained their exclusivity by a complicated and nepotistic membership policy. You
couldn’t buy your way into a
club like White’s and still can’t.
New age PMCs
With the demand for private club memberships surging
again, a new wave has sprung
up around the world. Whereas
●
Developers have
seen a new
opportunity and
luxury complexes
in London such
as The Heron and
Battersea Power
Station all have
private clubs.
once talking business in a PMC
like Brooks’s was banned (people were actually thrown out if
they dared mention the dirty
word, trade) now they’re all
about networking.
In Dubai, the invitationonly Capital Club in the heart
of the financial district allows
members to network, dine and
party, host meetings and attend events about arts, culture,
media, investment and more.
These new clubs are often de-
signed for an international and
cosmopolitan crowd of all persuasions, with edgy interiors
that make them places where
people want to be seen.
Examples include Rifat Ozbek’s dining room at 5 Hertford
Street and Zaha Hadid’s bar at
the revamped Home House on
Portman Square, both in London. Berlin’s new Soho House
has a graffiti-covered entrance
foyer created by Damien Hirst.
The most unusual design, however must be at Club Silencio in
Paris, designed by film-maker
David Lynch as a replica of the
set in one of his films.
The winning formula when
it comes to layout appears to be
usually two bars, a restaurant
and function rooms. Today’s
members naturally have very
different needs from those of
the Victorian and Edwardian
eras. A butler may be helpful
but Wi-Fi is essential, and they
should have gyms and cinemas.
Another trend is reciprocal
membership, where joining one
club confers access to a whole
network across the globe.
Membership rules
But getting your foot in the
door itself is often no easy task.
The club 5 Hertford Street in St
James, founded by Robin Birley,
son of Annabel’s owner Mark,
blazed the trail for this new
image. Birley’s club — where
founder memberships cost
£20,000 (about Dh107,535) —
appealed to celebrities, Mayfair
hedge fund managers, Conservatives and oligarchs alike
but prospective members still
Getty
Entering space age
■
The House bar in London designed by Zaha Hadid.
Contemporary private members clubs are characterised
by swanky interiors, often designed by celebrities
had to be personally approved
by Birley to get in. It now enjoys
a huge waiting list.
Groucho Marx famously
said he would “never join a
club that would have me as a
member” and with the trend
of newer clubs going by more
liberal entry and membership
policies, you could end up with
some undesirable companions.
Taki Theodoracopulos, the notorious socialite and columnist,
once remarked, “The trouble
with clubs is not the staff who
are wonderful but the members
who are awful.”
Some clubs are only attached
to hotels, so all you need for a
temporary member’s card is to
book a room for the night. In
other cases, it suffices to write a
sufficiently large cheque.
However, there are still
clubs that exercise a restrictive policy one way or another.
The membership secretary at
the Traveller’s Club says, “Our
nomination process acts as a
waiting list.” Argentina’s Oasis
Clubhouse uses another delaying tactic — only members are
given the full address.
With demand so high, developers have seen an opportunity to cater to those who want
to enjoy the membership of a
PMC. New luxury complexes in
London such as Battersea Power
Station, Ten Trinity next to the
Tower of London and The Heron, near Shoreditch, all have
PMCs. Lillie Square in Earl’s
Court is the latest development
to announce a clubhouse for
residents, complete with pool,
spa, lounge, private dining
room and cinema. Only more of
the same can be expected as the
rage for PMCs grows further. ■
investment that generates income via rental returns.”
Returns can often be better
than from more established assets. Real estate broker Knight
Frank says investment yields
from an off-plan ski chalet in a
resort such as Courchevel average 6.7 per cent a year, comparing favourably with prime Central London, at 2.8 per cent. Its
calculations are based on a 14week occupancy for the chalet
and year-round tenancy for the
London property.
“Buyers are no longer waiting
to see the development coming out of the ground. There is
a willingness to purchase offplan — not evident a few years
earlier,” real estate advisory
Savills says in its 2014-15 Alpine
Property Market report. “[They]
are [also] recognising the yearround appeal of the Alps.”
Sankt Anton and the nearby
villages of Lech and Zürs, all in
western Austria’s Arlberg area,
are repeatedly ranked among
the top ski resorts in the world.
They are magnets for the jet set
and royals. Jordan’s King Abdullah is a fan, the Dutch royals
return each year to the Gasthof
Post hotel, and Lady Diana
skied here with her sons. In
the summer, the Alps provide a
wonderful escape from the oppressive heat of the GCC, with
plenty of family activities such
as hiking and mountain biking.
Yet, prices here, less than two
hours away by car from Zurich,
are €20,000 (about Dh78,269)
less than at the better-marketed Gstaad and St Moritz resorts.
The euro has shaved a further Dh200,000 off the lowest
price, bringing an entry-level
apartment of €195,000 close
to three-quarters of a million
GUI DE
Asset choices
Pure International’s Paul
Kleinekorte lists some merits
of buying into the Alps.
* Those buying chalets in
Arlberg can use the property
and benefit from rental returns.
* In France, those buying
into leaseback projects with
limited personal usage can
get guaranteed returns as
well as a rebate on VAT.
* At Chalech, foreigners can
invest in a professionally
managed chalet through
an EU company with annual
returns projected from
5-7 per cent.
— K.J.F.
dirhams. That price fetches a
one-bedroom apartment in
the picture-postcard village of
Wald am Arlberg, a new development 15 minutes from
Lech and Sankt Anton. Chalets
here are relatively affordable
at €475,000, and close to the
slopes and golf courses. They
are a rare exception to the ghost
resorts rule that all new developments must be rented out
for specified periods so villages
aren’t deserted during the low
tourist season. Pure can arrange
mortgages with local banks.
At the other end of the market are super chalets more befitting those accustomed to the
UAE’s lifestyle. Chalech is a set
of four three-storey chalets set
just off the pistes in Lech. From
three to five bedrooms in size,
each has a private pool and
wellness area, and the interiors
Pictures: Rex, Shutterstock and Supplied
■
Facilities at the luxurious Chalech will be provided by Russian
oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s Hotel Aurelio
can be finished to the owner’s
standards. The facility will be
serviced by the staff of Oleg
Deripaska’s ultra-luxe Hotel
Aurelio, with shared amenities
including a lounge, restaurant,
reception area and spa (where
you can try molecular cosmetologist Dr Barbara Sturm’s
vampire facial).
Chalet prices range from
€6.2 million to €7.4 million,
and developer Reinhard Wolf
says the hotel will let them as
needed, and share the proceeds
with the owners. Double rooms
at the 18-unit hotel go for €850
in the pre-season period and
€2,100 during the high season.
“Nowadays, the rich are richer and expect the same level of
comfort in the mountains as
at home,” says Roddy Aris of
Knight Frank in London. And
the super-chalet, once restrict-
■
Paul Kleinekorte, Owner
and Director, Pure
International
ed to Courchevel and Megève, is
fast spreading to other parts of
the Alps as these resorts adapt
to new demands.
Features such as TVs in every
room, en-suite bathrooms in
every bedroom, a pool and spa
area, staff quarters and covered
parking are all de rigueur now.
“This market is largely stagnant
with very little activity, the result being that it is now a buyers’ market,” Aris says. “There
are opportunities to pick up
large, prestigious chalets for
a fraction of what they were
worth three years ago.”
Among the factors pushing
Alpine property to new peaks
is limited availability of land to
build, which puts an increasing
strain on existing stock. Also
worth considering are developments at a local level, says Aris,
like which majors are investing
and where they’re doing so.
So what do investors need to
guard against? “Drinking too
much glühwein,” Kleinekorte
quips, referring to the popular
winter beverage. More seriously, he advises against buying
before understanding usage restrictions. “France and Austria
are much more regulated when
it comes to buying ski property, and buy-to-let projects are
much more common than in
Switzerland,” he says.
“People looking to buy in
these countries will, in 95 per
cent of cases, have to rent out
their property.” Kleinekorte
adds that Switzerland is now
also following suit with restrictions such as the recent Lex
Weber cap on second homes.
Currency fluctuations, particularly with the Swiss franc,
can also pose a major problem,
and buying at low altitudes can
work against investors since
such properties come with the
risk of poor snow conditions,
which will cause tourists to go
elsewhere for their après-ski.
Central to a property investment in any resort is the question of tourists. Seasonal demand determines rental yield
Savills Kakao Index 2014-15
The price of a hot chocolate on
the mountain
■ Ultra prime resorts
Gstaad
Megève
Courchevel
St Moritz
Zell am See
Saalbach
Saas-Fee
Méribel
Val-d’Isère
Lech/St Anton
Andermatt
Flaine
Klosters
Davos
Chamonix
Zermatt
Villars
Crans-Montana
Wengen
Champéry
La Plagne
Kitzbühel
Grindelwald
Verbier
Nendaz
Grimentz
Flims
Obertauern
Morzine
Bad Gastein
€0 €1 €2 €3 €4 €5 €6 €7
Source: Savills World Research
and continued infrastructure
investment shapes long-term
attractiveness. “Popularity is
often determined by the size of
the ski region, snow records,
diversity of facilities, etc,”
says Kleinekorte. “The Arlberg
region is rated highly on all
[these] aspects. We always advise buyers to invest in popular
tourism regions.” ■