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Timber investment receives glowing write-up
07/06/2010
The wisdom of timber investments has received a glowing endorsement from one of the UK's most influential finance editors.
Writing in the FT, Merryn Somerset Webb, editor-in-chief of Money Week magazine, said investing in forests was one of the most secure and consistent investments to be made, with its tax and ethical benefits putting it in a class apart from other commodities.
"If, when retiring, you are so rich you don’t need to cash in on your trees, you can hand them on to your heirs tax-free – even if you have only had them for two years," he said, highlighting that trees also qualify for capital gains tax rollover.
The US-based National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Timberland Index has fallen only once since 1987, experiencing a 5 per cent fall in 2001. It is the only low-risk, high-return asset that has risen steadily in price for 200 years.
Webb said this continuing trend meant that if there was a double-dip recession, or if markets collapsed elsewhere in the world, people could leave their money in timber and be confident that the 200-year rise would resume soon after.
He said all these points made timber much more attractive prospect than self-invested personal pensions (Sipps), or investing in equities of buy-to-let, which will imminently feel the effects of a pending capital gains tax rise.
Writing in the FT, Merryn Somerset Webb, editor-in-chief of Money Week magazine, said investing in forests was one of the most secure and consistent investments to be made, with its tax and ethical benefits putting it in a class apart from other commodities.
"If, when retiring, you are so rich you don’t need to cash in on your trees, you can hand them on to your heirs tax-free – even if you have only had them for two years," he said, highlighting that trees also qualify for capital gains tax rollover.
The US-based National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Timberland Index has fallen only once since 1987, experiencing a 5 per cent fall in 2001. It is the only low-risk, high-return asset that has risen steadily in price for 200 years.
Webb said this continuing trend meant that if there was a double-dip recession, or if markets collapsed elsewhere in the world, people could leave their money in timber and be confident that the 200-year rise would resume soon after.
He said all these points made timber much more attractive prospect than self-invested personal pensions (Sipps), or investing in equities of buy-to-let, which will imminently feel the effects of a pending capital gains tax rise.
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