Interesting questions and thoughts. We have a woodland that we bought 18 months ago in north wales. 21 acres for £56k. Wife and myself had careers in nature conservation for a while and we always said we'd buy our own place as a "private nature reserve". We changed careers, I became a landscaper and she a management consultant. We moved house 18 months ago when prices were at their peak, making enough profit to buy the wood outright (everything fell just right!!!) and down-sized!
I go up there a couple of times a week and we take the kids whenever we can at weekends, staying overnight in the caravan or camping with friends and family. So we use it for lots of different things, primarily as an extension to our outdoor lifestyle (although we live an hours drive away), the kids love making dens and playing on rope swings etc. Camping weekends with others are great also (open fire cooking etc).
As we improve its wildlife and bio-diversity potential we are able to generate a certain amount of product that will eventually create a source of income (firewood, coppice products, timber etc). Having a portable sawmill (logosol) enables us to process timber for our own use and hopefully in the near future some to sell.
I suspect we'll never make a fortune from it but so long as it covers its costs then that will be ok. In terms of future value, I strongly believe we will be able to sell it for a lot more than we paid for it. Although the housing market has hit rock bottom, the price of good agricultural land and woodland has still been increasing.
Before we bought Misty Wood, we actually managed to secure a mortgage to buy it through the Ecology building society - it can be done!!!
Next project is to set up a business near home in cheshire collecting, processing and selling on firewood - watch this space!
