Land reclamation advice.

flatty

It's a bit of a complicated story, but here goes. Last year I bought a few (30 odd) acres near where I grew up. I live abroad but will move home in due course. It fronts onto 2 roads etc, and I'd hope to build eventually.
Anyhow, it is roughly half grazing, and half roughish ground, land that looks like it was fields at one point, but has overgrown, and some which looks completely uncleared.
There has been a lad renting it off the previous owner and he made an indirect approach to buy some and the solicitor involved in the sale said he'd be keen to rent it.
I offered to rent it at 2k pa which was lower than the lowest guide price I was given. Your man said he wanted to think about it, having offered half that originally but I've heard nothing back.
Now I have been on it, I absolutely love it. The kids were running round, climbing and hiding ant throwing stones and the like, so I dont want to sell any, but I would like to keep it rented.
I was wondering roughly how much it would cost per acre to put the scrubland into, or back into fields (I'd not do all of it as I'd leave a few acres rough)
The reason I ask is for two reasons. Firstly the agent I asked for a fair renting price quote said it would be worth far more if it was all good grazing, and secondly, I was wondering about a deal with the current lad to get him to do the reclaim rather than pay any money. Trouble is, the more he did, the more it would theoretically be worth. I'm not greedy in any way, but it could all get a bit complicated. I wonder would it be easier to pay an external person to do the work.
I'd be really grateful for any opinions.

gozunda

I would be very wary of getting somone to undertake reclamation in exchange for use of the land. Potentially you could end up in any number of entanglements legal and otherwise.

Get someone to quote a price for reclamation perhaps on a field by field basis and have decent recourse if anything goes wrong.

Then put it for lease according to local market values if you still wish to do so.

A possible option would be some of the new forestry grants which cover the cost of reclamation and planting. This does not have to be intensive confifer plantations either as they are now grants for native woodland and agro-forestry plus yearly payment on planting.

See:
http://www.fel.ie/grants-premiums.html

I said

Your getting into work done by the man leaseing.He might try to offset the cost of that against the lease and he might want a long term lease to do any work eg8 to 10 years!
Might be better if you can do it in stages yourself.

handlemaster

do not enter into an arrangement of reclamation work for rent.The renter or you will never be happy. do the work yourself or forget about it

gerryirl

handlemaster wrote: »

do not enter into an arrangement of reclamation work for rent.The renter or you will never be happy. do the work yourself or forget about it

as above.. it'll just be too messy

flatty

Thanks everyone. I had an external contractor look at it on your advice and he will start work in the autumn.
I appreciate you all taking the time and trouble, and it likely saved me a messy situation.
Apologies for not replying sooner but I've been off the net for the weekend.