Finding a forest for sale in Pyrénées-Atlantiques means telling the mountains apart from the foothills. At altitude, in the Béarn valleys of Aspe, Ossau and Barétous as in Soule and Basse-Navarre, the great beech and beech-fir forests mostly belong to municipalities or to valley syndical commissions, and they do not change hands. The private market lies lower down, on the hills of the Labourd, Basse-Navarre and Béarn: foothill woodland plots of a few hectares, stocked with oak and sweet chestnut, bought for firewood, walking, hunting or to complete a farm.
Sales are few and involve small areas: the price benchmarks just below still make it possible to judge a listing. Next comes a description of the department’s woodland, the kinds of property you will come across and the checks needed on sloping ground. For the legal and practical questions raised by a first purchase, our white paper on forests is a good place to start.
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 Pyrénées-Atlantiques was €4,000/ha in 2025*, across 37 sales, with an average of €4,971/ha. That puts the department above the Nouvelle-Aquitaine median (€3,995/ha) and below the national median (€4,936/ha). Year on year, the departmental median moved by +0.0%: a change to read with caution on fewer than a hundred sales, where a few large estates can shift the median. Over the more robust 2020-2025 period, 221 sales give a median of €4,169/ha for a median plot size of 2.8 ha.
| Indicator | Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64) | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | France |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median price 2025 | €4,000/ha* | €3,995/ha | €4,936/ha |
| Average price 2025 | €4,971/ha* | €4,688/ha | €6,214/ha |
| Number of sales 2025 | 37 | 1,450 | 6,329 |
| Change in median 2024 → 2025 | +0.0%* | +5.5% | +1.9% |
| Median price 2020-2025 | €4,169/ha | €3,684/ha | €4,778/ha |
| Number of sales 2020-2025 | 221 | 8,009 | 35,100 |
Prices vary widely: in 2025, one forest in ten sold for less than €1,831/ha in Pyrénées-Atlantiques and one in ten for more than €9,670/ha. The cheapest sales mostly involve young coppice, landlocked or steep plots; the dearest involve harvestable high forest, leisure woods near towns or properties with a pond.
On the listings side, 8 forests and wooded properties are offered on ma-propriete.fr in Nouvelle-Aquitaine as of 2 October 2026, 1 of them in Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Their median asking price is €61,900 for a median size of about 12 ha. These are asking prices for complete properties: they describe the supply on offer more than the average price of a wooded hectare. Conveyancing fees come on top of the price: our notary fee calculator lets you estimate them before making an offer.
* 30 to 99 sales: indicative value. 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.
The Iraty forest, shared between Soule, Basse-Navarre and Spanish Navarre, is one of the largest beech forests in Europe; partly covered by the Natura 2000 network, it is no more for sale than the beech-fir forests of the upper Béarn valleys. In the Aspe valley, the Chemin de la Mâture, cut into the cliff in the 18th century to carry trunks from the Pacq wood down to be made into masts for the royal navy, is a reminder that these forests long supplied first-rate timber. Part of the upper Aspe and Ossau valleys now lies within the Pyrénées National Park.
Lower down, the landscape changes character. On the hills of the Labourd and Basse-Navarre, woods of pedunculate oak, Pyrenean oak and sweet chestnut alternate with meadows, bracken slopes and grazed heathland, under a mild, damp oceanic climate that suits tree growth. In Béarn, between the gaves (mountain rivers) and in the Vic-Bilh, woodland occupies the hillsides and slopes too steep for maize. Conifers remain a minority at low altitude.
Sales mostly involve small plots: a wood next to a Labourd farm, a sloping chestnut grove in Basse-Navarre, a wooded Béarn hillside sold with a few meadows. These properties interest neighbours, farmers who heat with wood and hunters; their price depends more on access and on land pressure, which is strong near the Basque coast, than on timber volume. Large forest estates, whether old foothill properties or single blocks of hillside forest, only rarely reach the market.
Woodpigeon shooting, deeply rooted in the Basque Country and Béarn, and the presence of wild boar and roe deer give some woods a hunting value: you will find them on our page of hunting grounds in Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Properties with a reservoir or a stretch of water, very rare here, appear on our page of lakes and ponds for sale in Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Many buyers also wonder whether they could put up a shelter or a cabin: the answer depends on the local urban plan, and our article can you build in a wood? explains the rules.
Slope is the first criterion. A steep wood with no drivable track can only be worked by cable or after costly access works: have a forestry expert confirm that logs can be brought out, and by which route, and that rights of way are set down in writing. Foothill land is often very fragmented: ask the notaire to check the boundaries, the cadastral limits and the chain of title, especially for wooded land sold with a farm.
Pastoral burning is the department’s other particularity. Écobuage, the burning of heathland to renew pasture, is governed by prefectoral order and, in the Pyrenees, by local écobuage commissions; if it gets out of control it can spread to nearby woods, so find out how the surrounding summer pastures and heaths are managed. Examine the health of the chestnut trees as well, exposed to chestnut blight and ink disease. For a wood under 4 ha, neighbouring woodland owners have a right of first refusal; from 20 ha, a management plan (plan simple de gestion) is compulsory. Finally, in the core of the national park and in Natura 2000 sites, major felling or a new track may require authorisation or a prior assessment.
Woods and wooded land for sale in Pyrénées-Atlantiques on ma-propriete.fr are listed by private sellers, estate agents and notaires across the Basque Country and Béarn. Size and price filters help you target your search, and an e-mail alert tells you about every new listing; if you are selling, you can post your own. For a wider choice, pinewoods in particular, see our woodland for sale in neighbouring Landes or all our forest listings in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
