On 14 May, Société Forestière, a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts, and Fédération nationale des Safer* presented the 2019 Forest Market Indicator for France. The average price of undeveloped forests is rising, as are the number of transactions and the overall market value of forests, which are reaching new records.
The average price of non-built forests increased in 2018
Non-built forests were sold for an average price of €4,250 per hectare (+3.5%) with a volume of surface area sold remaining quite high. This increase affects nearly all French regions.
A number of sales remaining high
The rise in the number of sales continued in 2018 (+3.3% and 19,080 properties sold), due to the momentum of the small forest market (1 to 10 hectares). The market value reached a record high of €1.6bn (+5.6%). The total surface area sold amounted to 130,100 hectares, a slight decline (-0.6%). However, the number of non-built forests of over 100 hectares sold dropped in 2018: 70, compared with 80 the last three years.
Private legal entities as the leading forest purchasers
Purchasing 46,700 hectares in 2018, private legal entities (agriculture, forest or institutional) are still the leading forest purchasers, with 36% of the total market.
A reference stakeholder in the wood industry, the Société Forestière was created in 1966 to develop and manage the Caisse des Dépôts forest investments. It is now one of the leading service companies dedicated to forest areas and manages the forest assets of most French institutional investors, banks, insurance companies and many forest groupings and private investors. Visit the Société Forestière website
* Land development and rural establishment companies