Chris Leder

Chris became part of the 21-5 team in May 2025. The timing was finally right! We first met Chris in 2012 when he worked as a real estate agent and property buyer in the Alps, and we have stayed in touch ever since, following his career development. He helped us buy our first 5 properties in Chamonix back then and is now our man in the Alps, where he works as a project manager responsible for projects in France and Switzerland.

After 6 years as a real estate agent, Chris decided to make a big life change and left everything behind to retrain as a carpenter at the age of 42 back in 2017. During his time at carpentry school (specializing in doors, windows, and interior solutions), he worked for a year with a highly regarded carpenter in his hometown of Samoëns, specializing in historic building restoration, roofing, and construction, where he collaborated with and learned from 'les Compagnons de France'. He is fanatic about wood!

After a year in the carpentry trade, he was told by his doctor that manual labor was no longer possible due to previous back injuries (from paragliding and snowboarding). He therefore decided to learn project management, which was originally a more long-term plan.

He learned the trade through 6 years of work at one of the largest architectural firms in the Chamonix valley, working side by side with a team of 16 architects, engineers, construction consultants, and interior designers. He has around 15 fantastic chalets in Chamonix, Megève, and Les Gets on his CV, with budgets ranging from 1 to 11 million euros.

Chris brings 15 years of experience in French high-end property acquisition, construction, and urban planning to the team, and he is fanatic about the details!

Outside of work, he enjoys the quiet life, and you will often find him hiking, in the garden, paragliding, or (most often) fly fishing in the summer. In winter, he can be harder to find, as he tells us he enjoys snowboarding even more at 50 than he did at 25 – which was also the reason he originally came to the mountains back in 2001. Chris has a 14-year-old daughter, born in Tignes, who is just as passionate about snowboarding as he is – and of course, they are both 100% bilingual (French and English, Danish takes a bit longer!).