Families branching out with private forests

Eco-conscious investors buy up personal woodlands as pandemic and rewilding trend drive surge in sales

THE rewilding trend has led to a rise in wealthy people buying their own private woodlands, as sales rose by up to fivefold over a year.

Growing interest in nature led to a spike in buyers as people searched for a private space to enjoy the outdoors, plant trees and experience wildlife.

The uptick follows a move by a host of celebrities to invest in their own woodlands, for privacy or environmental reasons.

New woodland owners said they had been motivated to take the plunge for the sake of young family members with a budding interest in the natural world, or to preserve Britain’s green spaces from being threatened by development.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also motivated people to fulfil lifelong dreams to own their own patch of British forest, buyers and sellers said.

Woodland management company Tilhill said that while the pandemic initially dampened demand, a surge from June onwards meant that demand outstripped supply.

Tanya Gato, senior associate director for forestry agent John Clegg & Co, said buyers were often driven by an “interest in conservation and biodiversity, with some seeing maintaining and improving a woodland as a chance to do their bit to fight climate change”.

In the South East, Ruth Feltham, area manager for woodland trader Woodland Investment Management, said she had seen a fivefold rise in buyers over last summer compared to the previous year.

“First and foremost we saw this huge increase because people who have been thinking about it for a long time are perhaps realising that life is short. It’s provoking people into making their long term dream become a reality,” she said.

Average values also rose, she added, from around £10,000 to £12,000 per acre to around £12,000 to £14,000. Tilhill’s data also show prices increasing in England and Wales, by three per cent and nine per cent respectively.

New owner Alistair Mcdonnell, 67, spent £95,000 on his eight and a half acre woodland in the High Weald area of the South East in July.

“It seemed like a good way to spend the money, to connect us together,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of ecologically minded people – my daughter is married to an arborist and ecologist, so there was quite a lot of family interest.”

The family has already been camping on the site, which is now equipped with a compost loo, and there are plans for them to do chainsaw training.

Sellers in other areas of the country also said they had seen a rise in interest, with small woodland sales rising by around 30 to 40 per cent in the North and a similar amount in South Wales and Herefordshire.

Sue Manley, 71, bought her second patch of woodland last year after previously creating her own forest on a patch of land that had long been in her family.

A self-confessed “tree-hugger”, she bought the woodland in Nottinghamshire for the benefit of her son Edward and eight-year-old grandson Hughie.

“My son’s son spent most of the summer up in our big wood, because he was off school and that’s where Edward took him,” she said. “He just revels in being outside with his father. They just have a wonderful time.”

John Tucker, the director of woodland creation at the Woodland Trust and a forester with 30 years’ experience, said: “It’s a really positive trend, and it reflects people’s understanding about how important woodlands are as a place to go and relax. We’re hearing so much more about the mental impacts of being outdoors in green spaces.”