The “saddest ever” build to feature on Grand Designs has finally sold for a reduced price of £4.35m after more than a decade of painful construction and setbacks.
What began as an ambitious project to create a sprawling art deco family home based on the original lighthouse in Croyde, Devon, ended up as a nightmare situation for owner Edward Short as the property destroyed his marriage and left him in a state of financial ruin.
The property first hit the market for £10m in February 2022 – and reportedly caught the eye of potential buyers including pop singer Harry Styles – but remained unsold. The price was reduced to £5.25m in 2024 and sold for nearly a million pounds less than the asking price this month.
Short said the sale price won’t begin to cover the huge debt he’s accumulated completing the project, which at one point reached as much as £7m.
“I’ve had time to get used to it and I’ve moved on,” Short told The Sun of the ordeal. “I’m relieved it’s all over without a doubt. But there were lots of highs and lows in there, there were some amazing moments.”
The former music mogul admitted the four-storey rotunda had finished “way off” his original vision for the property, attesting: “I would never live in my dream house so I have mentally moved on.”
Chesil Cliff Househad an initial budget of £1.8m over an 18-month timeframe, but due to the building’s complicated location, costs soon spiralled and his loan increased to £2.5m and then to £4m.
The situation was so bad that his daughters, Nicole and Lauren, held car boot sales in a bid to raise the money needed for the ambitious project as costs and debts amassed.
By the time Chesil Cliff House appeared on Grand Designs in 2019, Edward’s marriage was over as he cited the stress the build had put on the family. He and his former wife Hazel remain good friends.
Short, who now lives in Bath and works in a category B jail, admitted he feels “guilty” for leaving Hazel without a safety net that a divorce would usually provide when assets are divided.
“She got nothing,” he said. “Everything I had, I’ve lost.”
Short found love again in nurse Jalia Nambasa and the pair planned to get married – but the stress of the design project once again proved too much for Short’s relationship to stand and the pair separated in June.
The former mogul said he was “very sad” about the relationship ended, adding Nambasa had been with him through a “difficult period where the house wouldn’t sell and brought him to “the verge of bankruptcy”.
He added: “It wasn’t easy for her to live through that.”
Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud admitted last year that the situation was so dire when filming the 2019 episode that he was more worried about Short’s wellbeing than the fate of his grand design.
Chesil Cliff House now contains several impressive features including a spa, steam room, cinema room, panoramic lighthouse-esque views, an infinity pool and a private beach cove.
However, the property sold without the bathrooms or kitchens fitted and Short says he’d love to return to see them. “I would derive pleasure from seeing it at its very best,” he said.
“I know my ‘grand design’ is now gone. But I can still buy a lottery ticket and dream.”
