Forestry land still viewed by many as the best investment
There’s great demand now across Ireland for forestry plantations, both for bare ground and for semi-mature forestry.
“There’s no cheap land anymore now,” observes Any Donoghue of Clonakilty-based Hodnett Forde Property Services.
“There’s even greater demand now for forestry plantations – be that for bare ground on which you’d get permission to plant, which is a rarity. Or else it’s semi-mature forestry.
"We’ve had some really strong prices in the last year for that kind of land. The likes of hedge funds and large investor funds have been discovering the benefits of forestry plantations and these clients are among the most avaricious in this sector."
As with the dairying sector, once the property on offer is ready to go, then the demand is at its sharpest.
In the case of the forestry sector, it means that all the conditions are right: that there is a substantial quantity of land on offer; that the crop isn’t too mature just yet; and that the access to the site is good.
“Land that was, traditionally, €3,000 or €4,000 an acre over a long period has now ballooned to over €5,000 per acre in many cases. It all depends on accessibility, the age of the species, etc. But definitely the demand – even from the overseas buyers – for plantations offering that dependable yield on their investments is something that we’ve noticed.”
“There seems to be a stronger demand for forestry this year,” says Matt Ryan of Tipperary-town-based Matthew Ryan & Son. “The lack of supply of good forestry land is probably driving that to some degree.”
“There have been varying results but I suppose we’ve seen forestry land and marginal land increase from around €5,000 or €6,000 per acre by an extra €1,000 or sometimes €2,000 per acre,” says Pádraic Murtagh of James L Murtagh Auctioneers in Mullingar.
“That’s for land that is either forestry or marginal land, but forestry has increase in value… We also found in the last year that there’s a lack of availability of larger holdings – 15-acres and over. Not too many of those more viable farms have been coming to the market.
“But land, we find, is always in demand, no matter how much or how little money there is to be made out of it.”
