Bainbridge Island, WA -- (SBWire) -- 12/08/2011 --A new report highlighting the strength of the forestry market in the UK over the past year has been highlighted by Forestry Research Associates (FRA) as another reason to invest in timber.

The report from property firm Savills and UPM Tilhill, published earlier this week, claims that timber prices are expected to be largely unaffected by the wider economic crises taking place in the Eurozone and the UK. “This report adds weight to the argument for putting some cash into alternatives that are less likely to correlate with wider economic trends,” stated Peter Collins, an analyst with FRA, a research and analysis consultancy that has a special interest in forestry investment and sustainable forestry.

The report highlights the rise in value of forested land in the UK, showing that purchasing forest land is a good way to diversify an investment portfolio to protect it against risk. This is particularly relevant at a time when stocks and shares are so volatile and investors are looking for safe havens for their money over the long and medium term.

This is according to FRA, which supports various forms of forestry investment, from buying forested land in the UK as a property investment, to buying areas of plantation land in Brazil, through managed forestry firms like Greenwood Management.

George McRobbie the forestry operations director at UPM Tilhill said, “We recorded a surge in forest values with an average of £4,650 per stocked hectare being attained, the highest level since our survey started and 34 per cent, some £1,174, up on 2010.”

He added, “This is equivalent to an annualized increase of 13.7 per cent since 2003. Optimism is clearly strong and overall the market is rising, backed by clear investor confidence and strengthening timber prices.”

Savills added that these value increases, along with the tax advantages of investing in timber, will continue to attract people to timber as an asset class.