La Rosière features at the start of MGM’s golden year

As MGM celebrates its Golden Jubilee in 2013 – half a century on from the year when French builder Maurice Giraud constructed his first chalets in the French Alps – the Annecy-based firm has revealed that already plans are in hand for the new developments the company will build in the next three years.

They will occupy sites within the region stretching from Chatel in the north of the French Alps to Montgenèvre in the south as well as the area around Lake Annecy.

MGM has been active for many years in some of the most popular ski resorts, like La Rosière where the remaining apartments still for sale in its newly completed ski-in, ski-out résidence de tourisme, Lodge Hemera, are expected to be snapped up quickly following the news of major improvements to the ski slopes.

La Rosière’s 160 km of pistes are set to be extended by 40 km and the construction of two new ski lifts in the Les Eucherts area of the resort will give skiers access to the new slopes during the winter of 2016-17.

Richard Deans of MGM’s London-based UK sales office (tel 0207 4940706) reports that all but 13 of the 38 properties it has built at Lodge Hemera, just 250 metres from the nursery slopes, have been sold.

Prices of the remaining two-bedroom leaseback apartments range from €270,000 to €420,000 depending on size and position. These prices, which exclude French VAT of 19.6 per cent, waived under the leaseback scheme, include underground parking and cellar storage as well as use of locker rooms, a laundry and drying rooms.

Occupying the site of the former ’sixties-built Roc Noir Hotel in the centre of the Haute-Tarentaise village, Lodge Hemera features traditional external finishes of timber, render and natural stone. Apartment owners have use of all the four-star facilities in the résidence, including an indoor pool, fitness suite, gym, sauna, jacuzzi and steam rooms, as well as a beauty centre with a variety of massages and treatments on offer.

While the apartments at Lodge Hemera are ready to occupy now, buyers of those in MGM’s newest development in La Rosière – Le Chalet Anastasia, close to the site of the proposed new chair lifts – will have to wait until the next ski season to move in. Already more than half of the 11 new apartments have been sold off-plan. They are being built alongside MGM’s established résidence de tourisme, Les Cîmes Blanches, which opened for business more than two years ago.

The fully-furnished leaseback properties still available range from one-bedroom properties priced at €250,000 to two-bedroom apartments at €338,000, excluding VAT which is waived. Owners will have use of four-star leisure facilities similar to those at Lodge Hemera.

La Rosière was built on the former Roman road through the Petit Saint Bernard Pass linking France with Italy. Occupying a sunny south-facing mountain ’balcony’ at an altitude of 1,850 metres, the resort has access to pistes within the Espace San Bernardo ski area which embraces La Thuile in Italy.

Getting there: La Rosière is a 40-minute drive from Bourg St Maurice, the destination for Eurostar trains direct from London’s St Pancras International station during the ski season. The nearest airport is at Chambery, 90 minutes by road. Geneva Airport is two hours away.

• For details of the MGM apartments available to buy in La Rosière call 0207 4940706, email [email protected] or visit the website www.mgmfrenchproperties.com