Value of woodland

[djbobbins]

I've seen some woodland for sale near me (it's a piece that the owner used to let me fell and retrieve wood from for my own use) in central Warwickshire.

 

It is mainly alder, all mature, with 4wd vehicle access to the edge but not throughout (there is a fair sized brook in the way).

 

There is about 12 acres of woodland and 6 acres of pasture, auctioneers guide price is £75k.

 

To make buying it feasible, I would need to find some sources of revenue - I could either let the land out (for cattle or sheep grazing, it is under a SSSI management agreement so cannot be used for horses) or rear something of my own. However I was wondering more about what uses anyone could suggest for the woodland.

 

By not needing to buy wood in, I will save myself maybe £200 per year, and of course have something to do of a weekend. I don't plan to go into firewood, there are others around here doing that already and I don't really have the time to get into it (day job, wife, two kids, DIY etc).

 

So what other ways are there that it might make a few quid?

[Nick Watkins]

Offer it to someone who can teach woodland courses, survival/nature skills etc and take a skim off the top 10% goes to you etc.

 

Rear pigs, sell the meat.

 

Create a canopy walk way and offer a climbing experience.

 

Etc etc

[djbobbins]

Offer it to someone who can teach woodland courses, survival/nature skills etc and take a skim off the top 10% goes to you etc.

 

Rear pigs, sell the meat.

 

Create a canopy walk way and offer a climbing experience.

 

Etc etc

 

Given time commitments, something like the first one was along my lines of thinking - does this need to be licensed? And what sort of demand might there be in mid-Warwickshire?

 

Likewise the pigs had also crossed my mind - something like Tamworths or Old Spots, i.e. tasty, but also pretty hardy so could be kept year-round without the need for artificial heating. But then with pigs comes the admin, registration, property holding etc etc...

[coppiceer]

I don't want to depress you, but for that acreage in that location you should treat the "guide" price as a starting price.

[Stereo]

For that in South Devon you would be looking at £120-150k at least I would think. Small parcels near us have sold recently for £15k an acre! Not sure how it compares. In terms of income you would need to look at this carefully. Pigs may be your best bet, especially if you can go organic. It's not enough land to do anything viable with cattle / sheep I doubt. Maybe organic chickens for meat? You might also want to look at all the grants / supprt you can get for woodland development, rare breeds, going organic, single farm payments etc.etc. I'm no expert on this but you may have a land agent around who has a department for this kind of stuff.

 

Other ideas may be survival skills as above, make some clearings and do yurt holidays, sell woodland products and so on.

 

The question is whether you can raise the cash because you are unlikely to get much return off the land in reality. I'm looking at a similar idea as I have the opportunity to buy 21 acres of prime pasture and woodland at a discount for various reasons. The problem is I just can't make a case for saddling myself with that amount of debt unless I can get planning and cover it in log cabins which kind of defeats the object for me.

 

My main concern is that due to current inheritance tax laws and farm subsidies, land may be in a bit of a bubble. If prices fell dramatically (low risk but possible) I could be putting my other land at risk by going for it.

[davetaz]

this website may be a good place to look for comparing prices etc

Woodlands for sale in the UK including Kent, Surrey, Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, North Wales, South Wales, Mid Wale & Scotland

You could rent it out to a shooting syndicate

Try this site for other ideas Small Woodland Owners Group

[teepeeat]

mmmm - how much does topography effect prices - ie steep sloping site vs flattish

Also a site with access to a road vs one with none??

 

Another idea for income from the patch is glamping perhaps - seems to be popular at the moment.

[coppiceer]

mmmm - how much does topography effect prices - ie steep sloping site vs flattish

Also a site with access to a road vs one with none??

 

Another idea for income from the patch is glamping perhaps - seems to be popular at the moment.

 

I spent a good deal of time looking to buy land. I went to uite a few public autions and participated in telephone auction. A site with good road access and close to a town/village always attracts a lot of interest: a couple of years ago 6.5 acres of neglected scrubland near to a local village went for £118,000. If not an "ideal" site, there seem to be some things that can be done to "improve" a site if you have equipment to-hand: if its arable then convert it to pasture; put in a pond or 2 and arrange any streams to supply them; put the boundaries in a good state of repair, etc.

 

The agents/auctioneers are in a good position to judge the level of interest shown and arrange the type of sale accordingly. Often the actual auction boils down to a battle of wills between the 2 or 3 final bidders. Resulting in the inevitable winners curse: they have paid "too much". .

Edited June 15, 2012 by coppiceer
changed "winers" to "winners" but probably right first time.

[Marko]

Beware the auction. At a local one last week the auctioneer was caught red handed running up the price. There was only one real bid but you wouldn't have thought so with all the stooges hands flying up. Humble pie was eaten by many and it backfired badly with the price it was eventually sold for. Just be warned that these practices really do go one - only ever bid what it is worth to you.

[gensetsteve]

Beware the auction. At a local one last week the auctioneer was caught red handed running up the price. There was only one real bid but you wouldn't have thought so with all the stooges hands flying up. Humble pie was eaten by many and it backfired badly with the price it was eventually sold for. Just be warned that these practices really do go one - only ever bid what it is worth to you.

 

Running the price up off the wall is not illegal. The auctioneer is able to run a lot to the reserve price without a single hand going up. The auction room is a very complex enviroment luckily for me