One of Scotland’s largest Christmas tree farms has gone up for sale for more than £3 million.
Yuletide lovers can snap up the huge 250 acre site on the shores of the Moray Firth which has almost 700,000 growing trees.
The Christmas tree growing market in the UK is worth more than £200 million a year and potential buyers have been told the sale offers the opportunity to make significant profits.
The farm called Maviston, near Nairn, was converted into a Christmas tree growing business around eight years ago.
It is currently owned by a group of Danish Christmas tree growers but they are selling up to concentrate on other Christmas tree farms that they hold in the Central Belt of Scotland.
The farm is being marketed by estate agents Savills for offers over Pounds 3.2 million.
The trees which were planted on the site between 2007 and 2009 are now at harvesting age and will give a ‘significant income stream’ for the next five to six years, after which a second crop of trees could be planted.
Alastair Gemmell, of Savills, said: “This is clearly quite a specialised property but it provides a great opportunity for the buyer.
“There are currently 675,000 trees growing over the farm which have the potential to provide very good returns in the coming years.
“It generally takes about six or seven years from planting for the trees to be harvested and all of the hard work in getting good quality trees to the harvesting stage has been done.
“The Nordmann fir trees at Maviston are very good quality and we anticipate that approximately 100,000 trees will be cut and sold to wholesalers in the final quarter of this year alone.
“The climate at the farm is surprisingly mild and dry because it is near the Moray Firth so it provides ideal conditions for growing Christmas trees, and particularly the very popular Nordmann fir variety.
“There isn’t a house on the farm but given the size of the holding, any buyer would have a strong argument with the planning authority to have one built, from which to manage the business.
“We expect this to attract a lot of interest. It may appeal to somebody who is already in the Christmas tree growing industry who already has the connections and the contacts or somebody wishing to enter the industry for the first time, in which case our client who is very well established in the Christmas tree market would be very willing to provide ongoing management or consultancy advice.”
The trees planted on the farm are Nordmann fir, one of the most popular types of Christmas trees. The fir has a glossy green colour and big needles which are soft, making it suitable for those with young children.
Savills say that growth rates in the area exceed those seen in many other areas of Scotland and Europe.estimated two million Christmas trees are grown and sold in Scotland every year, with around a third of households favouring real trees over artificial ones. Trees can retail at anywhere from £20 to £170 for a 6ft tall version.
A decade ago, groups of Danish farmers and foresters started to buy up huge swathes on land in Scotland after discovering it is ideal for Christmas tree production.