Timber Plays a Role in Self-Building and Property Investments

Watching the most recent, or indeed any, series of Channel Four’s hugely successful Grand Designs, you will see a representation of the huge diversity of building plots available and put to use across the UK. However, there is another kind of investment opportunity available that serves an entirely different purpose.

Programmes like Grand Designs have had a large role to play in creating the insatiable thirst for self-build and establishing one’s future home somewhere that has previously been undeveloped. As a manufacturer and supplier to contractors large and small, Duchy Timber has seen a significant rise in exactly specified orders for our timber products. Coming from architects and their clients, these orders make great use of Duchy Timber’s unique ability to create products exactly to their clients’ specifications.

Earlier this month, Duchy Timber made its second delivery to a project designed and built by a company called Umbazi (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Umbazi/1667173667216 & http://www.twitter.com/Umbazi_Build). Paul and Chris of Umbazi have a unique project that is being built on the cliff-edge in Carbis Bay, near St Ives in Cornwall and they have asked Duchy Timber to supply some aesthetically-pleasing Douglas fir timbers for their client’s timber-framed design.

Glasney Parc, Tremough Campus, Cornwall - Courtesy Midas Group.

In 2007, Midas Construction (http://www.midasgroup.co.uk/) specified locally-grown Cedar cladding for its project on University College Falmouth’s Tremough Campus (also in Cornwall). The cladding covers the student accommodation buildings containing 530 study bedrooms and protects them from the wind and rain coming off Falmouth Bay frequently found in their exposed position.

Ben Law's Woodland Self-build house in West Sussex - Courtesy  http://www.ben-law.co.uk/

One of the greatest projects featured on Grand Designs wasn’t the flashiest, most high-tech or architecturally ground-breaking. In fact, it could be said that this particular project was a regression to simpler times; simpler and more sustainable living. A lot of people have now heard of Ben Law (http://www.ben-law.co.uk/), but it wasn’t always the case.

Ben is a charcoal burner and woodsman in West Sussex. He had lived and worked in a beautiful wood, in a not-so-beautiful leaky caravan and a collection of not-so-temporary Robinson Crusoe-style structures for over a decade. Through his enterprises, Ben managed to gather the necessary funds and a collection of passionate volunteers to put together his dream house in his place of work.

Ben’s grand design raised some very interesting points, not just about the earth-sensitive construction techniques that have permeated throughout the construction industry, but also about the planning and protection of productive woodlands in the UK. As a charcoal burner and coppicer, Ben’s planning application for his luxury abode hinged on his need to be present in the wood 24-hours a day to monitor charcoal production and protect his investment.

The ownership and management of woodland is a hot topic, not least on the property market. It is estimated that on average 100,000 acres of private woodland changes hands every year in the UK and with values rising by as much as 20% over the past two-years, there is increasing demand for woodland acreage.

John Clegg of John Clegg & Co chartered accountants (http://www.johnclegg.co.uk/) recently told the South West Farmer newspaper:

“...in the UK we are supplying just 40 per cent of our domestic requirement of sawn softwood, so at the top end of the market there are investors who see woodlands as a secure home for their money,”

Alistair Bartholomew of Woods4sale.co.uk (http://woods4sale.co.uk/) also told South West Farmer:

“As the market stands currently, most investors in amenity woodland could expect to see a good return over three to five years, this autumn has certainly been very vibrant and woodland is currently bucking the general property trend.”

In the south west of the UK, Duchy Timber can see the effect that increases in timber commodity prices are having on the management, planting, harvesting and quality of the timber being felled locally. The traditions of the company dictate that the standing timber that the company purchases for processing comes from local woodlands. Over the past few years, the company has been able to source all of its round wood needs from within Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. As a result of global price rises, increased availability and maintenance of quality standards can only mean good things for the future health of the entire industry; from standing tree to construction timber or manufactured furniture, landscaping or fencing product.