Buying an apartment or chalet in Nendaz to rent out

A second-home market on the family side of the 4 Vallées

Nendaz is one of the few Valais resorts that combines direct access to a very large ski area with a resolutely family-oriented positioning. The 4 Vallées and their 412 km of pistes make up the second-largest ski area in Switzerland; Nendaz is one of its gateways, with the links via Tracouet and Siviez. On the other side sits Verbier, with an entirely different clientele and price profile. For an investor the consequence is direct: you do not buy in Nendaz to capture Verbier's clientele, you buy to capture the family that wants to ski the same area.

The market shows the classic characteristics of a second-home resort, taken to an extreme: the municipality has a very high proportion of homes not occupied year-round, well beyond the 20% threshold set by the Lex Weber. The stock mixes large co-owned residences from the successive waves of development in Haute-Nendaz, individual chalets, ski-in/ski-out properties in Siviez and village houses further down. This abundance of second homes is both the opportunity — many properties change hands, many owners do not operate their home — and the competitive context in which your property will have to stand out.

Lex Weber at purchase: the check that precedes everything else

Since 2013 the Lex Weber has frozen the construction of new "classic" second homes in municipalities exceeding the 20% threshold — which is the case in Nendaz. It does not prohibit letting, but it creates two categories of property that a buyer must be able to tell apart before making an offer.

On one side, properties built or authorised before the freeze benefit from acquired rights: they can be bought, used, resold and let freely, including short-term. On the other, some more recent properties were authorised on condition of being designated for tourist accommodation, which requires them to be placed durably on the tourist rental market, sometimes under specified operating arrangements. For a buyer who intends to occupy the property for several weeks or months a year, the difference is major — and it is read at the land registry, not in the agency's listing.

The right reflex is therefore to think in terms of designated use rather than prohibition, and to have the exact status of the property verified before signing: land registry extract, any mention of tourist designation, municipal building regulations. We set out this whole framework in our guide to the regulations governing short-term rentals in Nendaz.

The tourist zone: the purchase criterion nobody looks at

Here is a parameter specific to Nendaz, unknown to almost every buyer, and yet one that weighs on the operating account every year. The municipal regulation on the tourist tax, in force since 1 November 2025, divides the municipal territory into two tourist zones, the map of which is appended to the regulation. This zone determines two things: the amount of tourist tax charged to your guests for each night, and the amount of the annual flat rate owed if you occupy the property yourself.

The annual flat rate is no small matter: it is calculated on the gross floor area of the property and on an average occupancy of 50 nights per year, and it varies fourfold according to the size of the property — from CHF 500.– for a home under 45 m² in zone 1 to CHF 1,750.– above 150 m², and from CHF 300.– to CHF 1,050.– in zone 2. In other words: two comparable apartments in two different zones do not carry the same annual charge. And a large chalet bought for family comfort carries a higher fixed charge than a resort apartment, even if it does not let any more often.

You also need to know, from the moment of purchase, which regime you intend to fall under: the regulation states that holiday accommodation let exclusively on a commercial basis is not subject to the annual flat rate, but that the owner must then produce any supporting document proving that exclusively commercial use. A mixed-use purchase plan — a few weeks for yourself, the rest let out — must take this into account from the outset. We devote a full guide to this mechanism: the tourist tax in Nendaz.

What really drives rental income in Nendaz

The first driver is obvious: access to the 4 Vallées. It is the resort's number-one selling point and it belongs in the listing title, with the links spelled out. But an investor who stops there misses the essential, because it is not the ski area that fills the calendar: it is the family clientele on Saturday-to-Saturday rotation.

That clientele has precise and unspectacular requirements. It wants a property that genuinely sleeps six to eight people without someone ending up on the sofa, storage for ski equipment and somewhere to dry things out, children's equipment (travel cot, high chair, suitable tableware), a kitchen where you can actually cook for eight, and easy access to the lifts. It is not paying for marble; it is paying for functionality and for not having to deal with unpleasant surprises during a week of school holidays. A property designed for a couple lets poorly in this resort.

The second driver, often underestimated at purchase, is summer. The bisses — traditional Valais irrigation channels turned into hiking trails — and mountain biking generate real demand, on shorter and more spontaneous stays. A property that only works in winter leaves part of its potential untapped; a property that also appeals to the July hiker and cyclist spreads its income across the year. Finally, ease of access — the drive up from Sion, with no car-free village constraint and no break in the journey — mechanically widens the pool of potential guests: you come to Nendaz with the family car loaded, without any particular logistics.

Where to buy: Haute-Nendaz, Siviez, the villages or the Veysonnaz side?

Haute-Nendaz is the rental heart of the municipality: the Tracouet gondola, the shops, the tourist office, and a density of homes and services. It is the most liquid sector, both for letting and for resale, and the simplest to operate logistically — a team can string together several changeovers there on the same Saturday. It is the default choice for an investor looking for consistency rather than a coup.

Siviez plays a different tune: higher, set apart, at the crossroads of the ski area's links, it is the municipality's genuine ski-in/ski-out sector. Its winter appeal is maximal for a skier, at the cost of a quieter summer season and heavier logistics. Basse-Nendaz and the villages — Beuson, Saclentse — offer gentler entry prices and a traditional character, but weaker short-term demand: best reserved for strategies oriented towards summer, longer stays and hiking. The sector close to Veysonnaz, to the east, finally makes it possible to capture both the Nendaz clientele and that of Veysonnaz, on the same ski area.

The right choice depends not on the prestige of the sector but on the fit between the type of property, the clientele targeted and your own use of it. An investor who will never occupy the property and an owner who wants to spend February there should not buy in the same place, nor the same kind of home.

Buying as a non-resident: Lex Koller and co-ownership

If you are not domiciled in Switzerland, the Lex Koller governs the acquisition of real estate by persons abroad: depending on your status and the property concerned, an authorisation may be required, cantonal quotas apply, and restrictions on floor area or resale may exist. This is a check to carry out very early on, with a notary, because it determines the very feasibility of the project — and sometimes the obligation to place the property on the rental market.

The second check, particularly important in Nendaz where the Haute-Nendaz stock consists largely of big residences: the co-ownership regulations. Some restrict short-term letting, the installation of access devices on common parts, the use of the ski room, or the allocation of parking spaces. To this is added the question of charges and works: in a building stock developed over decades, renovations to the envelope, heating or lifts are decided in general meeting and passed on to the co-owners. Reading the minutes of the last general meetings before making an offer costs an evening; discovering them after the purchase can cost a season of income.

From viewing to first booking: how we support you

We step in at two points. Before the purchase, we analyse the property from the point of view of rental returns: Lex Weber status, tourist zone and applicable tourist tax regime, co-ownership constraints, the fit between the layout of the home and the family clientele targeted, and its potential in summer as well as winter. That is the purpose of our purchase support, which spares you discovering after signing that a property cannot be operated the way you imagined.

After the purchase, we take the property under management: compliance and notification to the municipality of Nendaz, furnishing and equipment suited to a family clientele, professional photography, creation and distribution of listings with the 4 Vallées front and centre, dynamic pricing aligned with the school holidays that shape the winter, organisation of the Saturday changeovers, guest welcome, cleaning and maintenance. Our commission is 25% of the net amount collected after deduction of platform fees, transaction fees and cleaning — the latter being charged to the guest. All of it is described on the page of our concierge service in Nendaz.

Further reading