52 | Feature: UK Forest Market Report 2025


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%, and described by Mr Mahoney as “roughly flat”.


He noted at the launch and in the report that two exceptionally large landholdings – Griffin in Perthshire at 4,000ha (originally planted for Midland Bank and named after its logo) 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. “Without excluding those [two


landholdings] the data would have shown the market up by 25%. This is not the reality we have observed,” he said.


Therefore, these two properties have been


Top: Mixed woodland listings were subdued Centre: Xander Mahony: The average price per stocked hectare was up 3% Above: Jon Lambert: the market has been cautious and selective


TTJ | Spring 2026 | www.ttjonline.com


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.


Mr Mahoney added that it was notable that “people are prepared to pay more for land under mature trees than they are for land by


itself as a restock site. And there are a whole lot of properties sitting there that are not selling. They have challenges but as a buying agent I feel the issue is mostly down to price.” “The commercial forestry market is evolving,” said Jon Lambert, adding: “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”.


The theme of the report was forestry and farming, which it described as “often slightly uncomfortable bedfellows in the rural space”. However, today there are “perhaps more pressing shared challenges than the relatively minor skirmishes between us. Still, the long-term question of land use in the UK looms large”.


Mr Lambert reflected on the commonalities between forestry and farming during his presentation.


“Farmers and foresters are both producing crops,” he said. “They are both striving to improve our country’s self-sufficiency. They employ lots of people. They sculpt the appearance of the countryside of which


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