for three acres of woodland<\/a> at Holnest Wood, near Honiton, in East Devon, about 18 miles or a 30-minute drive from his home. He bought the plot via Woodlands.co.uk after visiting around ten different woods in the local area.<\/p>\nHis SIPP \u2018owns\u2019 the land and Barry is a tenant, paying \u00a3150 to \u2018rent\u2019 the three acres every year. This rate is based on a commercial valuation, which takes place at purchase; however, he is unable to run a commercial operation without approval.<\/p>\n
Other initial costs include legal fees, a survey, similar to when you buy a property, and \u00a3200 to set up the lease arrangement. On top of the \u00a3150 annual rent, Barry\u2019s ongoing annual costs include \u00a3100 for indemnity\/public liability insurance, \u00a3500 for the running of the SIPP and \u00a3100 for the lease fee.<\/p>\n
The three acres consist mainly of 125ft Douglas Firs, plus some Ash and Beech trees. The family has already made the most of the land, building a shelter and using the wood, both at the woodland, and at home, as firewood for a log burner, for a new kitchen and as decking.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe have a felling licence, but you can fell a couple of trees every quarter [without one]. It\u2019s very good quality timber; you can\u2019t buy that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also use the space for bushcraft, camping and have a rope swing. \u201cI go there with family and friends and we camp. Generally, it\u2019s about being outside and away from modern life. I wanted to expose the children to risk and teach them how to deal with it in a safe environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_282339171.jpg\")
Barry Martin wanted to buy the patch of woodland to provide a place for his children to play<\/p>\n
Barry estimates he visits the woodland about once a month as a minimum, stating: \u201cIt\u2019s harder in winter as it\u2019s on a slope and can get very boggy, but I go there and grab some firewood. In the summer, it\u2019s great, you can light a fire there and toast marshmallows with the kids after school.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woodland is accessed via a hard track, which also serves three other plots, and there is turning access at the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe leave an old 4\u00d74 there and quad bikes to get around with and haul timber. It\u2019s in the middle of nowhere; I would love it if it were attached to my house, but it would be a lot more money. It\u2019s like buying a massive garden.\u201d <\/p>\n
He estimates that the plot has nearly doubled in value in the last 10 years. Barry claims: \u201cJust the land would be \u00a312,000 to \u00a315,000 per acre and we\u2019ve added value with what we\u2019ve done and built.<\/p>\n
![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_282339049.jpg\")
Barry Martin believes he has added thousands of pounds of value to the area<\/p>\n
\u201cI bought below market value at the time due to a number of trees coming down in a recent storm, that needed to be cleared to make the land usable. I paid \u00a325,000 and the land is now fully usable with good access to all areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would expect it to sell now for \u00a335,000 to \u00a345,000, depending on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The land is private in a remote area, off the beaten track and you need to go through two gates to get in. There are a few bridle paths around the area, so the odd person wanders through, but it is not busy.<\/p>\n
Barry would definitely recommend the venture to others, saying: \u201cEven if it were worth nothing, I\u2019d still recommend it for the experiences it\u2019s given us. When I did it 10 years ago, a lot of people said: \u2018Why are you doing this?\u2019 Now they can see the benefits. COVID has played a big part \u2013 we could all socially distance in a woodland.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, there are things potential investors should be aware of. These woodland plots are sold \u201cfor quiet enjoyment\u201d \u2013 so you can\u2019t run a commercial operation, for example, by turning it into a motocross track.<\/p>\n
Also, in terms of retiring on the income, this is pretty much impossible as it\u2019s such a tiny amount \u2013 \u00a3150 a year in Barry\u2019s case \u2013 so it\u2019s for equity growth rather than income. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou need other assets and wealth for retirement, and this should be a smaller percentage of your pot. It\u2019s less than 10 per cent of my total pot, and I also have a business and property. If you\u2019ve got no other money in your pension, it\u2019s not a good thing to do,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also not liquid and you need to allow a year to sell it off and liquidate the assets, compared to stocks and shares, which can be liquidated within two weeks if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
These types of investments are specialist and it\u2019s important that you get the right advice from someone who can look at your own individual circumstances and whether investing in woodland is suitable. But Barry has no regrets. \u201cIn the future, when the kids are older, I might sell it and buy a bigger plot,\u201d he concludes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry Martin said he realised the \u201cunbelievable tax privileges\u201d of buying woodland as part of a SIPP Barry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,1558,174,175,4310,5066,7084],"class_list":{"0":"post-266331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-pensions","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance","15":"tag-property","16":"tag-tax","17":"tag-woodland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}