Forest as an investment?

[Chilledbud]

Having a friend who recently retired, he's going to be using some of his lump sum for investment.

 

Would anyone have any sound knowledge on investing in purchasing a local woodlands?

 

He loves the idea of purchasing a woodlands and it being a source of firewood and walks for years to come, but is there a sum of money that can be made on a say 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 year basis with the likes of coppicing, certain amount of tree felling and such?

 

I would imagine the sum of money he has at being around the £25k - £100k mark, with a couple of the forests locally being prices at around £10k and acre, with most being 4 acres to purchase.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Chilledbud
Title should read woodlands not forest.

[woodyguy]

If you wish to buy a wood to enjoy it and get a bit of firewood on the side then that's fine. As an investment its very dubious. Prices from woodland.co.uk are very inflated. They have probably doubled over the past 10 years but not sure that will continue. They buy larger woods and chunk them down into small plots with a big markup. Nothing wrong with this but not sure what the resale value is if you wish to sell on. Getting reasonable earnings from this sort of wood is highly unlikely as they will have many restrictive covenants. So buy to enjoy. The value might go up but it might go down.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

If you're talking vast swathes of conifer plantation you'd be mad not to; forestry showed 13% yoyrtn in a recent investment portfolio awards won by the Church of England who are buying it up big time!

 

Smaller stuff; not sure but I'm it doesn't loose money but as above those figures per acre are inflated.

[ArthurBottlesworth]

My neighbour is selling off a couple of chunks

It's been valued at

 

2 acre patch £10k

4 acre with couple of home built cabins that have been there 12 years plus £40k

 

I think you could pay the finance costs for the £10k patch withfirewood if you were so inclined

 

Hadn't appreciated woodland was going up at 13% same as agricultural land