The UK Forest Market Report 2025, published by Goldcrest Land & Forestry Group and BSW Group’s Tilhill Forestry, was launched at the Signet Library in Edinburgh on November 18 and at Surveyor’s House at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London on November 19.

The report, which showed a 50% uplift in commercial forestry listings in the past year, is an annual publication that is considered the most comprehensive overview of the UK forestry sector, detailing key financial trends, regional insights and analysis of the timber and natural capital markets.

This year the report also focuses on exploring the dynamics between farming and forestry and their shared challenges in a tough economic climate.

Farmers and foresters may not be in the same boat but they are in the same storm, said forestry experts at the launch of the report

Communication and collaboration on land use were key as forestry and farming faced “common uncertainties” including government policy, product prices and cost inflation, said the report.

Xander Mahony, head of forestry investment for Tilhill Forestry, said: “Forestry and farming have often been slightly uncomfortable bedfellows in the rural space. Today, there are perhaps more pressing shared challenges than the relatively minor skirmishes between us.”

The total value of the commercial forestry market was £140m. This is lower than the listings from 2020 to 2023 which reached approximately £200m each year, but higher than in the years preceding the pandemic and 50% higher than 2024.

A total of 9,200ha were listed on the market, 70% up on 2024 with just four listings accounting for half of the total area. The average price per stocked hectare was £19,200, up 3%.

Mr Mahony noted in the report that two exceptionally large landholdings – Griffin in Perthshire at 4,000ha and the Caledonian Portfolio numbering 15 forests extending to more than 2,000ha across Scotland – would drown out every other transaction “akin to counting Buckingham Palace as part of the London housing market” and show a false pricing lift. “This is not the reality we have observed,” he said. Therefore, these two properties have been excluded from the pricing data in order to provide a more realistic picture of the market. For reference, the next largest property was in the hundreds of hectares.

Mixed woodland listings were subdued, down 40% to just £11m. Properties were about 20% smaller than in recent years with an average value of £380,000 and an average size of 30ha. The value rose 3% to £16,200/ha in England, 6% to £13,700/ha in Wales and 16% to £10,200/ha in Scotland.

Sales of land with commercial forestry planting potential were relatively scarce. In Scotland, the price continued to fall and ranged from £7,000 to £11,000/ha. Values in England (£15,000/ha) and Wales (£15,000 to £16,000/ha) were stable, partly due to higher land grades being sold for planting south of the border.

“The commercial forestry market is evolving,” said Jon Lambert, partner at Goldcrest Land & Forestry Group. “2025 was marked by a shift in the age of forests coming to the market, caution among buyers and variations in sale success.”

He said many more young crops changed hands this year, often where original planting sites had been harvested and restocked. Some sites comprised trees less than 10 years old, the result of woodland creation schemes and some offering carbon credits.

The market was characterised by ”caution and selectiveness” which “has moulded an unusual collection of sale results”, he said. “Generally, the overriding market theme is one of variation. Some properties sold competitively, generating high prices; others, which we would consider comparable, have stuck on the market and not sold.”

He emphasised that forestry, like any property, was a long-term game and remained a “strongly performing investment asset class”.


Source: ttjonline.com