THEY are among the finest - and most expensive - homes that money can buy.

Two houses with multi-million-pound price tags have gone on sale in the New Forest showing property prices in the area are continuing to soar.

The cream of the crop is Wereburne Manor, near Boldre, built in the late 1870s.

Set in 23 acres of gardens, grounds and paddocks, the luxury house has five principal bedrooms, a converted coach house and two staff flats.

But it also has a king-sized price tag of £4m, making it the most expensive of all the Forest homes currently for sale.

The three-storey house is being marketed by the Paul Jackson estate agency at Lymington.

A spokesman said: "It's a Georgian manor house with beautiful reception rooms and lovely views across parkland and a lake.

"The property has been sympathetically restored and modernised by the current owners, and is now one of the most special homes in the area."

Slightly less expensive is Spyholms, near Burley, which boasts five bedrooms and four bathrooms - plus an indoor swimming pool, a music room and a wine cellar.

It also comes complete with more than two acres of formal walled gardens and is on the market for £3.95m.

Amazingly, Spyholms started life as a woodman's cottage. A large extension was built in the early 1900s but it was still a small farm before Tony Sinclair bought the house in 1992, when the asking price was £840,000.

He spent about £2m on upgrading the property, which now has staff quarters and an estate office.

Mr Sinclair said: "We completely gutted and renovated the house and also carried out a lot of other work, including the construction of an indoor swimming pool that cost more than the original property.

"We also redesigned the garden and sunk a 300ft well for irrigation.

"It was a labour of love, but it took me 12 years to pick my way through the minefield of the district council's planning policies.

"It's a beautiful house and we shall miss it.

"Most properties of that size and value are fairly rigid and formal, whereas ours is a thatched dwelling and has a much softer look."

The imposing property is being marketed by BrightWater Estates and Lymington estate agent John D Wood.

A company spokesman said: "I've sold properties in the past that cost less than £3.95m but would be more expensive now.

"Fountain Court at Bramshaw went for about £1.65m ten or 12 years ago, but is now worth in the region of £4.5m."

Property prices in the Forest have rocketed in recent years - and the decision to make the area a National Park is likely to add at least ten per cent to the value of many homes.

It means first-time buyers will find it even harder to gain a foothold on the property ladder.

People in the Forest need to earn at least £30,000 to afford even the cheapest homes, but average income per household is just £24,000.