Siblings to sell £9million Sandbanks home bought for £7,000

Stephen Bailey and his sisters Hilary, Alison and Nicola, have put the house in Sandbanks on the market to meet a sizable inheritance tax bill incurred due to the success of the area’s property market.

The detached house overlooking Poole Harbour was bought by Oswald Bailey, a British camping entrepreneur, in 1945 when Sandbanks was a desolate sandy peninsula.

In the years since, however, the 105-year-old house has risen in value by 1,200 times more than what was paid for it.

Undated photo of the Bailey family home in Sandbanks (Image: BNPS)

The siblings have happy memories growing up in the six-bedroom home, with Alison and Nicola still living in the property.

Their late mother, Lalage Bailey, died peacefully there five years ago in a room facing the sea.

The siblings have now put it on the market for the first time in more than 80 years.

Stephen, 68, said: “We have never had any money out of the house because the home has always been the important thing, not the money. But inheritance tax is driving the sale now.

“It is very sad but we have accepted it now. It will obviously be a wrench for all of us, especially my two sisters who live there.

The Bailey family home in Sandbanks (Image: BNPS)

“We realise that there is a very good chance the house will be demolished.”

The three-storey property was originally built for a doctor in around 1918. Oswald Bailey bought it in 1945 as an investment property.

He had been on the verge of selling it to the owner of the house next door but, after a disagreement instead sold it to his newlywed son, Frank, in 1949.

Frank and Lalage raised their family in it and used to have their own private beach until they had to build a sea wall in the 1960s due to rising water levels.

The late Lalage Bailey outside her Sandbanks home back in 2008 (Image: BNPS)

Frank, a former managing director of Oswald Bailey, died in 2005.

Adrian Dunford, of estate agents Tailor Made, said: “The house is probably on one of the best plots on Sandbanks.

“We have had interest in it already and we have had a bid that hasn't been accepted. That just shows the quality of the plot.”

Once built, a new modern mansion on the same plot is estimated to be worth around £13m.

Stephen concluded: “We knew Sandbanks was getting expensive when the house next door sold over 20 years ago for over £1m. Within two years it sold again for £3m.

“We all grew up there, it was the most wonderful place to grow up in.”