Buying Woodland - what do we need to know?

[stealthsquiggle]

We are contemplating buying a small (~3 acre) piece of woodland. We want it to play in, mostly, and to provide wood for us. It has a stream running through it, is a mix of conifers and older deciduous (sp?) trees and is next to a small road, so no access restrictions. It appears to have been untouched for some time.

What are the really obvious things that we need to know before going ahead? All MN expertise/experience would be very welcome....

Brilliant! Buy it if you can.....and get into the nature side of it - you could probably get all sorts of advice from local nature/wildlife organisations about promoting the nature in it - bird boxes, hedgehog and insect refuges etc...

good point Selks. We got grant funding from various sources and planted a shedload of trees. We also had to introduce 3 species of animals to qualify for some stuff. We had ponies, sheep and cows

Talkin, again that makes no sense. Why would a hunt want to catch a fox quickly? The chase is the part that the mounted followers pay for, so it is better not to catch the fox. If it did happen, you cannot judge a well established and regulated sport on one isolated incident. Poor hound if you got hold of it :-/
PS stealth, I am :-0 about the 20 million insurance. I thought £6m was plenty usually.

It sounds like you've got a lot of things covered

With regards to price, is it going to auction? I think you need to be prepared to go higher than £5k per acre. Small plots tend to go for disproportionately high amounts as they're targeted at lifestyle purchasers. We sold some that went for £10k an acre

Public liability limits tend to be set as an industry standard and every provider will generally be the same.

Where abouts roughly are you? I'll check farmland market to see average prices if you want?

You may need to consider deer control - you could offer the stalking to let, or ask for recommendations, you should get someone good who can keep you in venison if you want

Daisybell - I don't want to out myself or the woodland - could I PM you the location?

We were told that because it's less than 4 acres there would be no grants for replanting.

Deer is an interesting one. We saw no signs of deer (i.e. no damage) but they are definitely in the area.

Read up about Forest school; if it's legal/possible/allowed you might be able to rent it out for people to use (if you wanted)

KatyMac I think that market is saturated - most of the schools round here have access to woodland on their doorsteps, and the nursery DD went to own their own for forest school (it's a community nursery and they were given the wood). Nice idea, though.

How wonderful - round here woodland children can access is as rare as hen's teeth

I know - if it were not already covered, I would be happy for them to use it (always assuming we get it) for insurance cost only.

If we had spare money I'd buy woodland (or river bank land); but if I ever do have spare it's more likely to go on a bedsit in London (for DH & DD if she gets into college down there)

We didn't get it - it went for nearly twice the guide price and significantly more than we were prepared to pay.

Thanks again for all the advice and guidance, anyway.

Ah well, at least you did not overbid - and you are prepared for if another plot comes up!

That's a shame. But these things often do reach high prices. I bid (bidded? bade??) on an allotment and coppice once and was staggered at what price it went for in the end.

It's good in an way that it went so high - if it had gone for just over our limit we would be wondering if we should have gone that bit further. As it is, we know we wouldn't /couldn't have paid that much, so we'll just keep looking.