British commercial forestry posted record sales figures last year, yet that headline number masks what analysts say has become a slower, more variable, and increasingly price-sensitive market. That is according to John Clegg & Co’s annual Forest Market Review, which found that whilst £261 million worth of plantation hectares changed hands across the year, more than half of that total was driven by three large transactions that obscure the underlying trend.
Simon Hart, Head of Forestry in Scotland at John Clegg & Co, said the figures demand careful reading. “At first glance, the market in 2025 looks to have been incredibly strong,” he said. “A total of 11,300 stocked or plantable hectares were sold, which is more than double the area sold in 2024, with a cumulative selling price of £261m — a new high. However, more than half of this was accounted for by three large sales — the Griffin sales (Lots 1 and 2) and the Caledonian and Irish Portfolio, which were so large they mask the underlying trends.”
And with those transactions stripped out, selling prices dropped from £23,000 per hectare to £16,200 — a gap that tells the real story. More forests were sold in the £10,000 to £20,000 per hectare bracket than at any point in the past decade, with only 45 per cent of sales completing within six months of launch and a third taking over a year to conclude. 30 per cent of properties sold below their guide price, a proportion that Hart stressed does not include woods quietly withdrawn from the market or still seeking buyers.
“Our sense is that a 10 per cent drop in average plantation values is a truer reflection of the market,” Hart said. Four intersecting pressures drove the softening: a flat domestic timber market, interest rates running higher than most investors have been accustomed to, uncertainty over import and export tariffs, and changes to inheritance tax rules that have shifted the calculus for wealthy landowners considering new acquisitions. Timber returns have remained well below the immediate post-COVID peak, whilst the cost of restocking and maintenance has continued rising by more than inflation — a combination that compresses the economics on lower-performing sites to the point of structural challenge.
“Put these factors together and the economics of productive forestry on poorer sites, distant from markets, start to look challenging — and even relatively mature spruce woods can struggle to achieve £10,000/ha,” Hart said. “Yet at the same time, woods close to markets are still selling well, with a few mature spruce properties selling at over £40,000/ha.” The same divergence has extended to the planting land market, which continues to change hands but at lower prices and volumes than when the market peaked in 2021 and 2022.
Realistic pricing, Hart said, is now the only reliable route to a completed transaction in the near term — with buyers unlikely to even inspect a property if the price is set too high. And whilst many forestry owners hold sufficiently diversified investment portfolios to absorb the cost of waiting, Hart was measured on the asset class’s structural outlook. “The forestry investment fundamentals remain in place — an underlying biological growth driver, a largely benign tax regime and strongly rising global demand for timber,” he said. “But until that translates into improved domestic timber prices, the forestry land and plantation market is likely to remain cautious.”
John Clegg & Co, which has operated as a leading UK forestry and woodland specialist since 1967, draws its annual Forest Market Review from completed commercial forestry sales of 20 hectares or more across Great Britain that were publicly and privately marketed within the calendar year.
