One cabinetmaker who got it right it seems.

[Benchwayze]

Check out this article folks.

http://inspiring-money-stories.tumblr.c ... for-20-000

Oh for the untrammelled life!

John

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wish. £20,000 around me would buy a very small field.

 

[sawdust1]

It does not say how big an area he got only that it was part of a 100 acre wood. When i brought my 21 acre's of woodland from
the Forestry Commission as we live in the middle of it that cost me £65,000 about 9 years ago.

 

[blackrodd]

The main value is in the trees, and the timber's worth at the time of sale valuation.
It'll probably be worth more in a few years, depending again on the species and their value.
Regards Rodders

 

[Benchwayze]

I was thinking more along the lines of having a nice piece of woodland, all to oneself; rather than the monetary value, or indigenous timber on tap!

That's what I meant about getting it right! :mrgreen:

 

[Mike.S]

I was thinking more along the lines of having a nice piece of woodland, all to oneself; rather than the monetary value, or indigenous timber on tap!

That's what I meant about getting it right! :mrgreen:

+1 :mrgreen:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I looked at a little piece of wooded land for that reason (and possibly to coppice) - it wasn't much more than big enough for a decent bungalow. The estimate as it didn't have PP was £8000. It sold for £35,000.
Whoever bought it obviously had enough cash for the sale and the bribe of the relevant councillors.

 

[blackrodd]

I was thinking more along the lines of having a nice piece of woodland, all to oneself; rather than the monetary value, or indigenous timber on tap!

That's what I meant about getting it right! :mrgreen:

I fully agree with you! my post was aimed at the remarks on the price difference posted by other members.
Price is dependant on the area and the timber in it! Regards Rodders

 

[Benchwayze]

Okay Rodders. There's bound to be something nice down in Devon, the land of liquid sunshine. When I find a plot, we'll go halves! :lol:

 

[custard]

The main value is in the trees, and the timber's worth at the time of sale valuation.
It'll probably be worth more in a few years, depending again on the species and their value.
Regards Rodders

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

If the woodland doesn't have easy heavy vehicle access the trees are valueless. And even if you do have easy access they're unlikely to have much value. I've got a couple of acres of deciduous woodland but I get almost all of my wood from timber yards. Better selection, better quality, and (by the time I've paid the contractors) better prices too! The reality is that very few hard wood trees yield furniture grade timber, most are only fit for firewood or chipboard.

The real value of woodland is that it is exempt from capital gains tax, woodland is like a tax free token that can be handed down across generations. That and the fact that lots of well-healed, middle aged hippies choose woodland as their route to commune with nature! There's a substantial woodland plot next to my (much smaller) plot that's owned by a merchant banker, he and his dippy wife often camp out there and whittle bits of tat in the fond belief this has some kind of bucolic legitimacy. When he found out I was a furniture maker he gave me some very substantial commissions to make pieces from his timber. It all got exceedingly silly as it cost a small fortune to get the timber extracted and then processed, and at the end of the day it was of indifferent quality. Still he's happy and I got paid, so all's well!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I expect the well heeled go there to get healed.

 

[custard]

I expect the well heeled go there to get healed.

It's how the wealthy get healthy!

 

[blackrodd]

The main value is in the trees, and the timber's worth at the time of sale valuation.
It'll probably be worth more in a few years, depending again on the species and their value.
Regards Rodders

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

If the woodland doesn't have easy heavy vehicle access the trees are valueless. And even if you do have easy access they're unlikely to have much value. I've got a couple of acres of deciduous woodland but I get almost all of my wood from timber yards. Better selection, better quality, and (by the time I've paid the contractors) better prices too! The reality is that very few hard wood trees yield furniture grade timber, most are only fit for firewood or chipboard.

The real value of woodland is that it is exempt from capital gains tax, woodland is like a tax free token that can be handed down across generations. That and the fact that lots of well-healed, middle aged hippies choose woodland as their route to commune with nature! There's a substantial woodland plot next to my (much smaller) plot that's owned by a merchant banker, he and his dippy wife often camp out there and whittle bits of tat in the fond belief this has some kind of bucolic legitimacy. When he found out I was a furniture maker he gave me some very substantial commissions to make pieces from his timber. It all got exceedingly silly as it cost a small fortune to get the timber extracted and then processed, and at the end of the day it was of indifferent quality. Still he's happy and I got paid, so all's well!

My FIL had some woodlands 60 miles away and I worked there with him sometimes and we built a small log cabin/
tool shed.
when that 60 acres was cut with the forewarder the lorries have a weight print out of the load, and we had the FIL by the gate collecting the tickets having been fore warned of the "was it eight trucks or ten? syndrome.


A friend of mine owns just over 100 acres of woodland and has just had 30 acres harvested by Fountain Forestry, Grubbed up, cleaned up and re planted with a grant.
He's put the cheque against the fairly high Valuation of the death duties payable as he was bequethed the woodlands a while ago, so it would appear it's not tax free to hand down.
Almost any timber is worth money now, owing to the large Biomass subsidies being paid, check it out.
The valuer says woodlands are realising up to £10,000 per acre for smaller parcels and averaging £7,500, and down to £2,500 for large parcels, Prices seem to have held for the last 4 years, he says.
As you say a couple of acres is not worth putting the Forewarder in there, and hand cutting would be expensive but possibly helping to finance a replanting scheme.
Fast growing spruce is where the money is now, but that's still 30 years away, and as you say getting you're personal
ash or oak tree felled, slabbed and dried is slow and very expensive.
Regards Rodders

 

[custard]

A friend of mine owns just over 100 acres of woodland and has just had 30 acres harvested by Fountain Forestry, Grubbed up, cleaned up and re planted with a grant.
He's put the cheque against the fairly high Valuation of the death duties payable as he was bequethed the woodlands a while ago, so it would appear it's not tax free to hand down.

Unless something changed in the last budget woodland is free of inheritance tax provided it was purchased at least two years before death. Furthermore, income from selling timber is free from income tax and any increase in the value of timber on the land is free from capital gains tax. I guess your friend has death duties from other elements of his inheritance besides the woodland itself.

But despite all these tax breaks it doesn't even begin to pay unless you have hundreds of acres of softwood and can clear cut substantial parcels on a thirty or forty year rotation. To grow viable hardwoods you'll either have to spend many hours planting, clearing and pruning, or pay someone at least £400 an acre a year (plus travel costs) to do it for you. In addition there's often a drainage charge on the land and you'd be crackers not to have some basic public liability insurance in place. And if you rent the land for sporting or recreational purposes (which is the more likely source of some revenue) then the income does become taxable.

But the biggest issue that many woodworkers struggle to understand is that fine quality furniture timber is a very rare commodity. The vast majority of trees simply don't make the grade. There's often excitable posts on this forum about someone who's just been offered a neighbour's tree. Maybe they'll hit the jackpot, much more likely is that they'll land themselves with many, many hours of hard graft in return for a a few cubic feet of ratty timber that I'd feed straight into the log burner!

 

[MartinCox]

I was lucky in that the farmer who bought the 15 acre Bramley Apple orchard at the end of my field decided to grub them out (way past economic life) and will be replacing with the new fangled small trees. There were about a thousand very very mature trees available. About half went to a guy trying to make money from them as cord wood: about a quarter has gone to guys just buying for their own fires: I bought as many as I could store and got Kilby Timber (Maidstone) to bring his wood miser out and plank them. I know that I'll only get about 50% of those planks eventually usable but the attraction is to be able to make stuff and think that the timber only came from 100 yards away.

But not a paying proposition.

Unfortunately, time has run out for the remaining quarter and they are just going to be burnt in situ. We will rarely see that size of apple tree again. I did get 30 or so or the massive Apple crowns which will be a real s@d to use but what interesting grain inside.