Ski change: rare Perisher lodge hits the market
Imagine waking up to a mountain blanketed with snow, sending the kids off to school via snowmobile and getting a couple of ski runs in at lunchtime.
The opportunity to buy into this lifestyle doesn’t come along often in the tightly held Perisher Valley property market, but that’s changed with the recent listing of Chalet Sonnenhof.
The property – which is on leasehold from NSW National Parks and Wildlife until June 2028, with a 30-year option to June 2058 – is being offered for sale by Gordon Jenkinson of Kosciusko First National, with an asking price of $2.3 million.
It was the first ski lodge for sale in Perisher in two years, Mr Jenkinson said.
Karen and Neville Owen have been running Chalet Sonnenhof – it means ‘sunny house’ in Austrian – for 25 years, having purchased the lodge with Karen’s sister Susanne Kelly and brother in law Allan Kelly in 1993.
The lodge features a bar and open fire. Photo: Supplied
“For a lodge to come up, they don’t come up every year that’s why we jumped at this one in 1993.
“We were already running a couple of lodges for nine years in Perisher, running different types of lodges and we just thought we’d take it on ourselves… We like the change of seasons, we like winter with snow and summer being summer.”
The couple are now taking the opportunity to sell up and relocate to the south coast.
“We’ve been here 25 years and it’s just time. We’re semi retiring.”
Winter can be hard work, depending on how full the hotel is – although there is a staff of five, including a chef, to assist.
“In the morning we serve breakfast, so we’re up at 7am getting ready for breakfast which is served at 8, then after 9:30 we service the rooms which doesn’t take too long if it’s not a checkout,” Karen said.
“It’s pretty quiet during the middle of the day, I usually answer the phones for bookings. Then in the afternoon we pick the skiers up from the Quad (chairlift) at 4:30pm and bring them back to the lodge and then we have the spa and sauna open, and we have the downstairs bar open.”
The Sonnenhof has 17 guest rooms. Photo: Supplied
The ability to socialise is also a crucial aspect of the job.
“You have to like people – it’s definitely hospitality at its best I suppose.”
The lodge, the original section of which was constructed in 1968, commands an impressive position overlooking Centre Valley – giving immediate access to Perisher’s 100 groomed runs and 47 lifts.
And this proximity keeps guests coming back.
“I’ve got people who have stayed with us for the last 25 years and if they’ve missed a year it’s because of something like they’re having a baby instead,” Karen said.
Chalet Sonnenhof is currently closed during the summer months, but there is the potential for any new owner to capitalise on Perisher Valley’s growing summer market.
“We used to open in the summer for the first couple of years,” Karen said.
“It’s viable to open in the summer, people still ring me wanting Christmas and Easter.”
Either way, the lodge is a great way to raise children.
“Our children said they couldn’t imagine growing up anywhere else, we’re going to miss it,” Karen said.
There is a three-bedroom managers’ unit, which Karen describes as “very roomy” and four staff rooms.
The sale includes a 1978 Bombardier Bombi snow plough and Arctic Cat Snowmobile.
