International Luxury Real Estate Specialists

Austria offers everything a buyer of a ski property could ask for: superb skiing, charming villages, stunning scenery and summer temperatures to rival the Mediterranean.

Add to that a stable government and a central location in the heart of Europe and you wonder why, despite a 10-year boom in sales of Alpine property, ski property for sale in Austria has not taken off with overseas investors in the same way as France and Switzerland.

One reason for Austria’s delayed growth is the perception that it is difficult to buy property in Austria. While non-nationals wanting to make Austria their permanent home don’t tend to have too much difficulty, ownership of a second home in the Alps raises some issues. Restrictions are very tight and specific to each of the nine regional councils and permission for a Tyrolean ski property is allocated on the property itself and is only given where there is spare capacity in a community. There is no distinction between Austrians and non-nationals when it comes to second-home purchase in the Tyrol. To complicate matters, some properties have permission for sale to second-home buyers with the provision that owners let the property when not being used.

However, there is now a surge of interest in Austrian ski property from buyers keen to get more for their money and there is a definite demand for Austrian ski property in the Tyrol with second-home permission.

Among the Austrian ski resorts, trendy and fashionable Ischgl, well established as one of Europe’s top ski resorts, offers a fantastic combination of impressive, high altitude skiing and superb nightlife.

In the last couple of years, Ischgl, which is only a 90-minute drive from Innsbruck, has gained a reputation as the hottest party place in the Alps. The resort attracts skiers and snowboarders by staging big-name, open-air rock concerts at the start and close of the 5-month ski season.

In recent years Elton John, the Scissor Sisters and Rihanna have been joined by the likes of Rod Stewart, Sting, Diana Ross, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Lionel Richie, Leona Lewis, Kylie Minogue … even Tina Turner.

The skiing in Ischgl is as legendary as its nightlife, with more than 230km of groomed pistes served by heated gondolas and high-speed chairlifts with wind shields. A new ski lift linking Kappl (a hamlet 4km from Ischgl) to neighbouring St Anton, planned for winter 2011, will add 280km of groomed ski runs and 180km of off-piste skiing, forming the biggest ski resort in Austria. With north facing slopes and 90% of the skiing between 2,000m and 2,872m this snow-sure resort has guaranteed skiing from the end of November to the beginning of May.

The village, the scenery and the skiing are all fabulous – Ischgl is definitely top of the rocks.

View alpine property and ski property for sale in Austria at International Luxury Real Estate.