Chalets Kiora in Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe: A 2026 Buyer’s Guide to the Espace Diamant’s Most Talked-About Chalet Development

For a long time, Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe was one of those French Alpine villages the property-buying world didn’t really notice. It sits in the Val d’Arly between the Aravis and the Beaufortain ranges, a twenty-minute drive from Megève and forty minutes from Albertville, linked to the Espace Diamant ski area with 192 kilometres of connected pistes across six villages. It has a twelfth-century church, a small weekly market, a handful of good mountain restaurants, a baroque bell tower that can be seen from halfway up the Cernix chairlift, and a year-round population of around 530 people. Until 2023 it was quieter, less fashionable and meaningfully cheaper than its Val d’Arly neighbour Megève — and that gap is exactly why the Chalets Kiora development started showing up in our client conversations.

Chalets Kiora is a new-build scheme at the top of Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe village, built and delivered in a classic Val d’Arly vernacular style — heavy pitched roofs in lauze-style slate, oversized timber beams, stone plinth detailing and deep south-facing balconies pointing toward Mont Charvin and the Aravis range beyond. The development has been picked up as a case study in the VEFA (vente en l’état futur d’achèvement) new-build market because it demonstrates almost every argument for buying into a mid-market Val d’Arly village in 2026: recoverable VAT, classified meublé de tourisme potential, access to the Espace Diamant, and prices that are half of what the equivalent specification would cost twenty minutes up the road in Megève.

This 2026 guide walks through the development itself, the wider Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe market, the ski-area context of the Espace Diamant, the price dynamics across the Val d’Arly and the mechanics of buying a classic VEFA chalet here as a British, Irish or American buyer. It’s the guide we now hand to every Domosno buyer who is specifically asking about the Val d’Arly — and increasingly to Megève buyers who are looking for the same lifestyle at a different price point.

Chalets Kiora is a small cluster of individual chalets at the top of Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe, above the village bakery and about 350 metres from the Mont Rond chairlift which is the village’s main ski access to the Espace Diamant. The scheme is delivered in phases and the chalets themselves range from three-bedroom family units of around 100m² to larger five-bedroom villas of around 175m². Every chalet has a double garage, a ski room with direct external access, a stone-clad ground floor and a timber-clad upper level in the traditional Val d’Arly idiom.

The interior specification is squarely in the upper-mid end of Val d’Arly new-build. Oak herringbone floors in the living areas, stone slabs in the entrance hall and ski room, underfloor heating via a mix of air-source heat pumps and wood-pellet stoves in the main living space, triple-glazed windows to meet the RE2020 regulation, a fully fitted designer kitchen with Quooker tap and induction hob, and four-metre vaulted ceilings in the main room. Each chalet comes with a cellar, a dedicated wine room, and — in the larger units — a small spa corner with sauna and shower.

The prices reflect a specific position in the market. The three-bedroom units have been released at around €1.10 million to €1.35 million excluding VAT, and the five-bedroom villas at €1.65 million to €2.00 million excluding VAT. Including VAT at 20% the headline prices are €1.32 million to €2.40 million — but as we explain in the financing section, the VAT is reclaimable on qualifying investment structures, which brings the effective net-of-VAT cost back in line with the headline excluding-VAT figure. Our Domosno new-build listings show how these prices compare to comparable developments in Megève, La Clusaz and Les Saisies.

Phasing is the other thing to understand. The first chalets have been delivered and are occupied; the second phase was under construction through 2025 and was handed over to buyers in early 2026; a third phase of smaller chalets is due for completion in winter 2026/27 with reservations already open. Buyers coming in now are typically choosing between a small number of remaining phase-two stock units and the phase-three reservations, which means the normal VEFA lead time of 18–24 months between reservation and delivery.

Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe is an authentic working Alpine village rather than a purpose-built resort. The daily life of the village revolves around a small central square with the baroque church, the bakery (the Boulangerie de la Place, which makes its own croissants and has been run by the same family for three generations), a butcher, a small épicerie, a florist, a Tabac-Presse and two cafés. There are four mountain restaurants within the village boundary and another eight on the pistes of the immediate Espace Diamant linking area. The weekly market is on Tuesday mornings in the summer and shifts to Saturday in the winter.

The village has a primary school, a small medical centre with a doctor and a pharmacist, and a public sports hall with indoor tennis, climbing wall and a small fitness room. The nearest secondary school is in Flumet, 12 minutes down the valley, and the nearest hospital is in Sallanches, 25 minutes toward Chamonix. The nearest train station is Albertville (45 minutes) with TGV connections to Paris. The nearest international airport is Geneva at 90 minutes, followed by Lyon at 140 minutes. These travel times are slightly longer than Megève’s but not meaningfully worse for a weekly or biweekly trip.

The summer offer is where the village over-performs relative to its winter profile. The Val d’Arly has a dense network of summer hiking trails, a full Nordic walking centre, horse-riding at a nearby stable, three via ferratas within half an hour, road cycling routes onto the Col des Saisies and Col des Aravis (both classic Tour de France climbs), and the region’s best trail-running route — the Tour du Mont Charvin — starting from the village centre. Summer accommodation occupancy has grown to around 9 weeks per year in Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe, which substantially improves rental economics for holiday-home owners.

Culturally the village is genuinely Savoyard. It celebrates the Fête de Saint-Nicolas on the first Sunday in December, runs a Christmas market in mid-December, hosts a Reblochon cheese fair each October and a classic-car rally each September. The population rises from around 530 year-round to nearly 4,000 in peak weeks of winter and summer, but never loses the feeling of being a lived-in village rather than a tourist cluster. This matters for the rental guest experience and it matters for the long-term livability of a second home.

The Espace Diamant is the shared ski domain of Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe, Crest-Voland/Cohennoz, Flumet, Les Saisies, Hauteluce and Praz-sur-Arly. It has 192 kilometres of linked pistes, 77 ski lifts and a top altitude of 2,069 metres at the Mont Clocher above Les Saisies. That makes it one of the ten largest ski areas in the French Alps and meaningfully larger than many better-known resorts (Megève-Mont d’Arbois is 143km, La Clusaz 135km, Les Gets 120km). The combined pass for the six villages is €305 for six days in 2025/26 — around 20% cheaper than the Evasion Mont-Blanc pass and 30% cheaper than the Les 3 Vallées pass.

Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe’s own ski sector sits between 1,150m (the village) and 1,933m (the top of the Mont Rond chairlift) with a dedicated front-de-neige at the village centre. The village is linked by chairlift into the main Espace Diamant via the Mont Rond and Cernix lifts, giving access to Crest-Voland, Les Saisies and Hauteluce on a single day trip. Skiers can easily cover four of the six Espace Diamant villages in one day and return to Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe in time for dinner.

Snow reliability is the honest debate. The top of the linked area at Mont Clocher is 2,069m which is a reasonable ceiling by French Alpine standards, but the village itself sits at 1,150m which is below what most snow-security models consider safe for end-of-century projections. The resort operator has invested heavily in snow-making since 2021 — roughly 40% of the piste network is now artificially covered and the key return-to-village pistes are fully equipped. For the 2020s and 2030s, snow cover is very likely to remain reliable across a full December-April season; beyond 2040 the picture is less certain.

The Espace Diamant has also been investing heavily in year-round tourism. The Les Saisies Nordic area is one of the best cross-country skiing centres in France (hosting the 1992 Olympics biathlon events), and the summer hiking and mountain biking network across the six villages has been significantly expanded since 2022. The combination of winter ski + Nordic + summer trails now supports the sort of 28-week rental calendar we see in the stronger Haute-Savoie resorts, and that change alone has lifted new-build prices by 15–20% over the last five years.

The single biggest argument for Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe versus its better-known Val d’Arly neighbour Megève is price. New-build chalets in Megève’s central village sit at €14,000–€22,000 per m² in 2026, and the top end of the Mont d’Arbois above the village regularly reaches €25,000–€35,000 per m². In Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe the same-specification new-build sits at €10,000–€13,500 per m² — roughly half the Megève figure. For a buyer focused on the daily experience (ski in the morning, lunch on a sunny terrace, spa in the afternoon, dinner in a well-run Savoyard restaurant), the lifestyle experience is essentially identical; the price gap is a pure function of brand.

Against La Clusaz, another well-known Val d’Arly cousin, the Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe premium is smaller — La Clusaz new-builds sit at €11,000–€15,000 per m² in 2026 — but there is still a meaningful 10–15% discount. Against Les Saisies, at the southern end of the same Espace Diamant ski area, Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe is priced within about 5% of the equivalent spec. Against Crest-Voland, the next village along the link, Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe is slightly more expensive (about 8%) because the village has better year-round amenity and a more authentic core.

The resale market tells a similar story. A three-bedroom Val d’Arly resale chalet in good condition sells for €650,000–€950,000 in Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe in 2026, versus €1.1 million–€1.8 million for the equivalent in Megève. The resale market is thin — typically 15–25 chalet transactions per year — so buyers focused on specific criteria often have to wait a season or commit to a new build. This is part of why Chalets Kiora has sold so strongly: it’s one of the few places in the Val d’Arly where a specific-quality chalet can be ordered on demand rather than found on the second-hand market.

Mortgage finance is the other piece. French non-resident mortgages in 2026 are typically available at 65–70% LTV for new-build VEFA at fixed rates of 3.9%–4.3% over 15–20 years, depending on the lender and the borrower’s profile. On a €1.35 million chalet, a 70% LTV mortgage is €945,000 at, say, 4.1% over 20 years — a monthly payment of around €5,780. That level of borrowing is comfortably supported by the 28-week rental calendar if the chalet is classified and well-marketed, which is the base case our Domosno buyers target. Our French mortgage calculator models the exact numbers.

One of the most important features of a VEFA new-build in France is the reclaimable VAT. The Chalets Kiora headline prices (€1.10m to €2.00m excluding VAT) become €1.32m to €2.40m including VAT at 20%. If the chalet is bought on a qualifying investment structure — typically a sale-and-leaseback to a managed rental operator or a para-hotelier personal structure — the 20% VAT can be reclaimed in full from the French Treasury. On a €1.35 million chalet that’s €270,000 of VAT returned, which is usually the single biggest number in the deal.

The two routes to reclaim are sale-and-leaseback (bail commercial) where the owner leases the chalet to a specialist rental operator for 9 or 11 years in exchange for a guaranteed net rent, and para-hotelier personal structure where the owner runs the rental themselves but offers three of the four hotel-like services (breakfast, cleaning, linen change, reception) and charges 10% VAT on rental income. Both routes require specific paperwork at notaire level and both are best set up in the first weeks of ownership. Our Domosno new-build buying process covers both routes in detail.

The para-hotelier route is the more flexible and is increasingly popular with Val d’Arly buyers who want to keep personal use of their chalet. It requires the owner (via a conciergerie) to offer the four hotel-like services at a minimum level and to collect 10% VAT on each rental. In exchange, the owner reclaims the 20% VAT on the purchase — a 10-point net benefit — and retains full control of when the chalet is available for personal use versus rental use. The structure works well for chalets in the €1.0–€3.0 million range which is exactly the Chalets Kiora price band.

The sale-and-leaseback route is simpler but less flexible. The owner leases the chalet to an operator like Madame Vacances, MGM or Odalys for a fixed number of years at a fixed net yield (typically 3.5%–4.2% net), reclaims the VAT and uses the chalet for personal weeks under a fixed-week allocation. This is a good choice for hands-off owners who want guaranteed income and no operational involvement, but it does reduce personal-use flexibility. For buyers who value the freedom to use their chalet whenever they want, para-hotelier is usually the better answer.

The rental economics of a high-spec three-bedroom chalet in Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe are well-documented because the Val d’Arly has enough operators to produce meaningful benchmarks. In 2025/26 the average three-bedroom new-build chalet in Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe achieved a gross rental income of €42,000–€58,000, with the Chalets Kiora specification on the upper half of that range. A typical calendar splits 18 weeks of winter, 8 weeks of summer and 3 weeks of shoulder, totalling around 29 weeks of occupancy — roughly 56% of the year.

Within the winter sector, the four peak weeks (Christmas, New Year, French February half-term and UK February half-term) typically clear at €4,500–€6,500 per week for a three-bedroom Chalets Kiora unit, based on comparable local listings we track. The eight core winter weeks sit at €2,800–€3,800, and the six shoulder winter weeks at €1,800–€2,500. Summer peak weeks (July and August) are €2,200–€2,800, summer shoulder €1,500–€1,900, and the early-autumn MTB and trail-running season adds another €3,500–€5,500 of gross income.

After operating costs (conciergerie 20%, utilities €3,000, condo charges €4,500, insurance €1,200, OTA fees 15%, local tax and taxe de séjour) the net rental income is typically €24,000–€34,000. After the classified meublé de tourisme micro-BIC 50% allowance and 20% minimum income tax plus 7.5% UK social charges, the after-tax net income is €20,000–€28,000. Against a net-of-VAT purchase cost of €1.1 million, that’s a 1.8%–2.5% net yield, which is roughly in line with the French Alps new-build average.

The yield looks modest compared with a Morzine or Les Gets new-build at 2.5%–3.5% net, but the argument for Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe is not the yield — it is the capital preservation and the lifestyle value. The Val d’Arly property market has been one of the most stable in the French Alps over the last twenty years, and the gap between Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe and Megève has been narrowing as the Espace Diamant improves. Buyers here are primarily looking for long-term hold and family enjoyment, with the rental income as an offset to the running costs rather than a primary return.

Chalets Kiora is not the right buy for every Alpine investor. It is the right buy for a specific profile: a buyer who wants a high-spec new-build at a reasonable per-m² price in a village with real, year-round life, who values the authenticity of the Val d’Arly over the brand of Megève, who plans to use the chalet 8–12 weeks per year personally, and who wants the rental income to cover roughly the running costs plus a modest net contribution. For that profile the development is probably the best single opportunity in the Val d’Arly in 2026.

It is less suited to buyers chasing maximum rental yield (Morzine, Les Gets and Val Thorens offer better), to buyers who want the most aggressive capital appreciation (Megève, Chamonix and Courchevel offer more upside), or to buyers who prioritise high-altitude snow reliability over lifestyle (Val Thorens, Tignes and Val d’Isère are safer bets). Understanding which buyer profile you are is the single most important piece of Alpine property planning, and it is the first conversation we have with every Domosno buyer.

On the operational side, buyers should expect VEFA delivery 18–24 months from reservation, staged payments at 5% on reservation, 30% at foundations, 35% at roof-on, 25% at completion of interior and 5% at delivery. Legal fees (notaire) on a new build are 2–3% of the headline price, meaningfully lower than the 7–8% on a resale — another reason new builds dominate the Val d’Arly price-per-m² comparisons. The mortgage lender will typically follow the same staged release.

The practical next step for a serious buyer is to visit in person during the 2026/27 winter season and walk both the completed phase one and the soon-to-be-completed phase three. The developer runs open days each February and again in June. A visit lets buyers feel the village, meet the ski school, test the restaurants and validate the ‘lived-in village’ claim we’ve been making throughout this guide. We can co-ordinate a visit with the developer’s sales agent and a Domosno property-finder can accompany any British or Irish buyer. Contact us through the Domosno buying process page to start that conversation.