The Swiss Alps Ski Village That Is Luring Nervous Americans

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) US President Donald Trump seems to be having a big impact on a small ski village in the Swiss Alps. This content was published on April 22, 2025 - 10:00 5 minutes Mercedes Ruehl in Zurich

In the first few months of this year newly built apartments in the village of Andermatt attracted more than 1,260 enquiries from US investors, with the project's developer suggesting the demand was fuelled by“a flight to safety” by nervous Americans.

They bought or put down deposits for CHF14.2 million ($17.4 million) worth of apartments by April 10 – nearly double the CHF7.7 million of transactions for the whole of last year. Back in 2023, Andermatt did not have a single American buyer for its new apartments.

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More than a third of this year's sales and deposits were made in the week before Easter as trade tariffs imposed by Trump's administration wreaked havoc in markets.

Russell Collins, chief commercial officer of Andermatt Swiss Alps, which manages and develops the project and which has sold 546 apartments already built and off-plan, said there had been more US tourism interest since American company Vail Resorts bought a majority stake in the ski resort infrastructure in 2022.

Even so, this year's surge in US demand was a“clear outlier”, he said.“Since the beginning of the year and in the past six weeks it has been like a hockey stick in terms of sales volume and enquiries,” he said.

Andermatt Swiss Alps, 51% owned by Egyptian-Montenegrin businessman Samih Sawiris and 49% by his company Orascom, is unique in Switzerland because it has been exempted from restrictions on foreign buyers buying property, making it a barometer of foreign demand.

The CHF1.8 billion project in Andermatt, a garrison town known as a training centre for the Swiss army, includes hotels, restaurants and a golf course. It is just a couple of hours by car or train from Zurich.

Buyers say they are looking for safe, Swiss franc-denominated real estate investments because of the uncertainty generated by the new US administration, according to Collins. The Swiss franc has risen 11% since January against the dollar and is up nearly 12% over the past year.

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