HE has been involved in woodland sales for wine connoisseurs, a former England captain, and even British pop royalty. But for an expert celebrating 40 years in the business, the forestry market is only going to grow and grow.
During his career, John Clegg has seen woodland prices rise from around £500 to £1,000 in 1983 to over £25,000 per acre. But the director of Tustins, the forestry and woodlands authority, believes the ceiling is still to come.
“There are record levels of forestry investment available – hundreds of millions of pounds – from institutions and individual investors, and the change in value per acre during my career is notable,” he said. “These prices will continue to be buoyant.”
READ MORE: John Clegg & Co: Forestry investment hitting record highs
John has, according to fellow director Mike Tustin, “been involved in more woodlands sales than anyone else in the UK,” and these have included transactions with celebrities such as Bryan Robson, Cliff Richard, Hugh Johnson and Brian May. During his career John has been involved in around 3,000 sales and acquisitions of woods from 20 acres to over 3,000 acres.
His father, also called John, set up John Clegg & Co in 1967 and ran a business principally assisting companies to acquire rural estates and sell on areas which they did not wish to retain. At that point, sales were handled by rural or residential agents, but there were no specialists selling woodlands.
John expects the woodland market to continue to improve because of increasing worldwide demand for timber. He added: “I am very positive about the forestry sector.”
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