Finding a forest for sale in Loire-Atlantique takes patience: the department is one of the least wooded in western France, and large forests are few. The main woods lie north of the Loire, from the forest of Le Gâvre to the Anjou border, around Châteaubriant and Nort-sur-Erdre and along the Sillon de Bretagne ridge. South of the river, the Pays de Retz keeps a few private woods, and on the coast the pine stands planted in the 19th century to stabilise the Escoublac dunes still shape the landscape of La Baule. Most listings concern woodland plots of a few hectares, bought for firewood, for leisure or to enlarge a farm.
The sales figures shown just below set out price levels in the department, to be compared with the rest of Pays de la Loire; the market is narrow and a handful of transactions is enough to move the averages. The text that follows describes the benchmark forests, what is actually available and the checks specific to an area where the Nantes metropolitan area, the coastal protection law and large wetlands all govern how woodland can be used. For a closer look at values, read our article on forest prices in Pays de la Loire.
According to the ma-propriete.fr forest price observatory, built from sales recorded in the French DVF land registry database, the median price of a hectare of forest in Loire-Atlantique was €4,767/ha in 2025†, with an average of €5,115/ha, across 18 sales. This figure rests on 18 sales — too few for the average and median to reflect the department’s market faithfully, which is why they should be read alongside regional prices. In Pays de la Loire, the median reached €5,000/ha in 2025 across 254 sales, with an average of €5,683/ha; the national median was €4,936/ha. Over 2020-2025, the department recorded 116 sales at a median of €5,471/ha.
| Indicator | Loire-Atlantique (44) | Pays de la Loire | France |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median price 2025 | €4,767/ha† | €5,000/ha | €4,936/ha |
| Average price 2025 | €5,115/ha† | €5,683/ha | €6,214/ha |
| Number of sales 2025 | 18 | 254 | 6,329 |
| Median price 2020-2025 | €5,471/ha | €4,896/ha | €4,778/ha |
| Number of sales 2020-2025 | 116 | 1,435 | 35,100 |
On the listings side, 5 forests and wooded properties are offered on ma-propriete.fr in Pays de la Loire as of 2 October 2026, 1 of them in Loire-Atlantique. Their median asking price is €88,000 for a median size of about 9.0 ha. These are asking prices for complete properties: they describe the supply on offer more than the average price of a wooded hectare. To work out the full cost of a purchase, add the conveyancing fees with our notary fee calculator.
† 10 to 29 sales: sample too small to be representative of the local market. Source: DVF (French tax authority), processed by ma-propriete.fr; forests of 1 ha or more, cadastral type woodland; July 2020 to December 2025; Moselle, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin are not covered by DVF. Listings recorded on ma-propriete.fr on 2 October 2026.
North-west of Nantes, between Blain and Guémené-Penfao, the state forest of Le Gâvre is the department’s main forest. Sessile oak dominates among the broadleaves, alongside beech, maritime pine and Scots pine; ringed by an earth bank, it is crossed by ten rides radiating from the Belle Étoile crossroads, laid out under Napoleon. Managed by the ONF, the state forestry office, it is not for sale, but it serves as a reference for the private oak woods in the surrounding communes.
Further east, the private forest of Juigné straddles the border with Maine-et-Loire: the woods of the Châteaubriant area thus continue into the Segréen, where forests for sale in Maine-et-Loire are more plentiful. Near Joué-sur-Erdre, where the Vioreau reservoir feeds the Nantes–Brest canal, the forest of the same name lines the lake and is listed by the département as a sensitive natural area. South of the Loire, the forest of Princé, at Chaumes-en-Retz, is a private wood designated as a natural area of ecological interest (ZNIEFF).
Most transactions involve small areas: an oak and chestnut coppice on the edge of the bocage in the Pays d’Ancenis, a hillside wood on the Sillon de Bretagne, a poplar plantation in a damp valley, a plot of pines near the coast. A forest estate of several dozen hectares is the exception; it tends to be in the north of the department, often with a pond or a building. Properties where water dominates are shown on our page of lakes and ponds for sale in Loire-Atlantique, and those bought mainly for wild boar and roe deer among our hunting properties in Loire-Atlantique.
The proximity of Nantes sustains demand for leisure woods from households who want wooded land of their own, while farmers remain the natural buyers of plots surrounded by their fields. Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, both served by TGV high-speed trains, also make the department easy to reach from other regions.
In coastal communes, from Pornic to Piriac-sur-Mer, the loi Littoral (coastal protection law) requires the local plan to protect the most significant woodlands as classified woodland: a pine wood listed in this way can be neither cleared nor built on. Before planning a shelter or a cabin, read our article on what you can build in a forest. Around the Brière marshes, Lac de Grand-Lieu and the Goulaine marshes, many damp woods lie within Natura 2000 sites or protected wetlands, where drainage, backfilling and new tracks are regulated.
For a plot under 4 ha, owners of adjoining woods must be told about the sale so that they can, if they wish, use their right of first refusal. Check access: in the bocage, a wood landlocked behind pasture is sometimes reachable only through a right of way, which should be spelt out in the deed. Have the standing timber valued, as the difference between a firewood coppice and a stand of oak timber is considerable. From 20 ha, a management plan (plan simple de gestion) is compulsory. As for tree health, ash dieback affects valley ash, the pine processionary caterpillar attacks coastal pines, and fire remains a real risk in pine woods close to campsites and homes.
The Loire-Atlantique woodland listings gathered on ma-propriete.fr come from private sellers, specialist firms and notaires. A size or budget filter weeds out what does not fit, and an alert flags every new plot as it is published; if you are selling, you can list your wood there too. As the local market is small, extend your search to our forests for sale in Pays de la Loire, from Mayenne to Vendée.
