[propertastic]

I was reading this article on the Daily Telegraph's website from 24 August about the benefits of buying commercial forest land.

I'm not allowed to post the URL, but hopefully you'll be able to find it.

Interesting stuff that got me thinking. There are benefits in avoiding inheritance tax, but what really surprised me is that values increased 26% last year, making it the best performing asset class over the past 12 months.

Even though the article was only about UK forests, it got me thinking about the potential of buying forests in Eastern Europe.

I know very little ... errm ... make that absolutely nothing ... about forestry, but I could see a lot of potential advantages, including:

1. Forest land in places like Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, etc. must be as cheap as (wood)chips.

2. With Eastern European infrastructure being improved all the time, it should get cheaper and cheaper to transport the timber into Western Europe.

3. Land is land - it's going to keep appreciating over time, no matter what its use.

4. It's pretty low-maintenance compared to the hassle of finding tenants and keeping the place in top condition.

5. I imagine that, depending on how much land you buy and what state the forest is in when you buy it, you can choose whether to get some income every few years, or have a big windfall for, say, when you retire - or as a legacy for your kids.

6. Timber is a commodity, same as copper or oil. Prices are currently half what they were in 1995, so they say that the only way is up.

7. This 'plant a tree to offset your carbon footprint' thing seem to be getting more and more popular these days. Perhaps you could buy a forest, chop it all down, then charge people 20 quid a time to replant the trees all over again?!

Has anyone ever looked at this before? Does anyone else think that it might have potential, or have I missed something?