Letting out a woodland residential holding?

[RichardT]

Other ideas to pursue and increasing symptoms of (late) middle age mean that we’re probably going to move out of the holding we’ve built up from scratch over the last decade.

 

In short, the place comprises 170-odd acres of FSC commercial softwood at most ages from recent clearfell and young regen birch/spruce to final thinning, with a good track network and good road access, roughly equidistant from Edinburgh and Newcastle and 3m from pubs/shop/school &c. There’s a house (timber built, wood-fired), useful steading, a few acres of grass, substantial areas of heavy duty livestock fencing, quarry and off-grid power from PV , small wind turbine and genset. It’s a registered holding.

 

Selling up outright is the obvious route, but forestry land remains a good long term bet and more importantly we still really like the place and would like to retain a voice in its future, so we want to explore letting as well. The place is definitely not your mainstream country-cottage-with-a-paddock, so I thought the tree-focused community hereabouts might have some useful or cautionary views on the idea.

 

Dreamers and flakes would love the place, but in an ideal world what I think it needs is someone with the intention to actively work the Wood while living here and the skills, possibly the kit (and definitely a fully functioning back etc.) to do it., eg people involved with other arb/firewood/forestry activities. A partnership of some kind might also be a possibility.

 

Purely exploratory at this stage, and I’ve not thought through how it might work contractually, but I’d be interested in any views on whether/how the idea is worth pursuing and whether this Perfect Tenant is a figment of my imagination….

 

Any thoughts?

[Matt McAulay]

how much money have been making off the place yourself?

[Minotaur]

how much money have been making off the place yourself?

 

Richard

 

the place sounds great but the pertinent question is above!

 

"How much income have you been producing from the place yourself?"

 

Is there more to come? Are there other revenue streams to take into consideration?

 

Sale price ? Letting income? etc

[RichardT]

I posted in speculative mode, partly on the strength of a pub discussion over the w/e about farm tenancies. Obviously I know what I've taken out of the place over the years in standing timber, stock rearing, unrelated business &c, and I know roughly what it's worth in terms of land and residential values, but the $64k question of what someone else might make of it is a bit 'how long is a piece of string'-ish. Same issue applies to say a shop with flat above, or an ag holding, but in both of those cases there are plenty of available comparisons. For houses with associated woodland less so, at least in this country. A compartment map says what's there, but only to a limited extent what can be done with it. Firewood? Cabins? Hosting satanic rituals? Disposing of the evidence from gangland hits?

 

As I say, just thinking aloud about the feasibility of letting home + woodland as an alternative to the default option of getting Cleggs on the case.