Grand Designs house ‘saddest ever’ – asking price lowered with regret | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

Grand Designs returns for its 24th series tonight (Wednesday, September 25) with host Kevin McCloud helping more people achieve big architectural projects.

There have been over 150 episodes of the series since it first aired in 1999, but there is one element that has touched viewers’ hearts more than any other.

Chesil Cliff House in Croyde, Devon, has been dubbed the “saddest” Grand Designs home ever, after owner Edward Short was left struggling with a series of issues surrounding the luxury home, including a marital breakdown and debts estimated at £7million.

With the popular home improvement show returning tonight, we take a look at whether the clifftop home has finally found a buyer.

Although the home was initially listed for sale for £10 million in February 2022, it is still on the market two-and-a-half years later, albeit at a significantly lower price.

The house is currently listed by Savills for “just” £5.25 million. Despite interest from multi-millionaires when it was first listed, including reportedly pop star Harry Styles, the property remained unsold because potential buyers felt the asking price was too high.

The asking price has been reduced several times, first to £7.5 million, then to £6.5 million, and the house is now valued at just over half of its original asking price.

The house is currently being marketed by Savills on behalf of the trustees, as Mr Short has suffered a loss of millions of dollars on the mega-project.

In an article for those interested, Savills writes about this five-bedroom property: “This property represents a unique opportunity to undertake, build and furnish one of the most spectacularly situated seaside homes in the UK.

“This individual project was brought to life through impressive engineering solutions. The building is anchored to the bedrock, and whitewashed facades combine with steel and glass. The structure is topped with a lighthouse at one end, providing almost 360-degree views of the coastline.

“The setting combines privacy with a variety of breathtaking views, all on approximately 3 acres that include a large expanse of shoreline, private tidal beach and coves.”

The house impresses with its stunning views and infinity pool.

The episode first aired in 2019, with Grand Designs fans quickly dubbing it the “saddest ever”, as viewers saw Mr Short’s family borrow £500,000 from a hedge fund to fund the project, and then a further £2.5m from private investors.

The daughters of Edward and Hazel Short have revealed that they are organising car boot sales to raise money for their parents’ luxury dream home.

Mr Short soon found himself with a deficit of £7 million, having originally planned to invest just £1.8 million in the expensive project.

The lighthouse began as an ambitious project for the Shorts 12 years ago. They hoped to build their dream home and enjoy a slower pace of life than they knew in London.

Host Kevin McCloud expressed doubts about the couple’s ambitious plans, who had hoped to complete the project in just 18 months.

McCloud opened the episode with the famous words: “If there’s one message a lighthouse screams, it’s this: ‘Stay away – or risk destruction.'”

Mr Short and his wife never lived at Chesil Cliff House.

The cost of building Chesil Cliff House was much more than just financial for Edward Short – after all, it cost him 20 years of marriage to Hazel.

Mr Short says that once the project got underway it could not be stopped, but admits that he would not have gone ahead with it if he had known it would cost him his family.

Mr Short admitted that, faced with soaring costs and mounting debts, the mounting pressures ultimately contributed to the breakdown of his marriage to Hazel.

He told the Sun last year: “There’s no doubt what I did to Hazel was awful. There’s a lot of guilt about it. But there was no way out once we started. If we hadn’t finished, we would have been in big trouble.”

“It was terrible for the family because I had pulled the stability rug out from under them, and I couldn’t give them any answers about how to get out of it, other than to keep going.”

Mr Short later found new love with nurse Jalia Nambasa, and he and Hazel “are still best friends”.

Earlier this year, McCloud posted an update on Chesil Cliff House, revealing he was still in touch with Mr Short. He claimed there was “a lot of interest” in the doomed lighthouse.

In May, speaking at Grand Designs Live at London ExCel, he said: “I’ve had a few celebrities stay with me and I think one or two comedians as well, because the house is quite expensive and the people who are interested in it must be earning a lot of money and there are actors, artists and singers among them.

“Last time I met Ed, he was close to closing the deal, so that’s all I know. It’s a fantastic story.

“The story of hubris, excess and the destruction of things, of personal life, turned into a story of redemption and growth, so it was something incredible.

“People called these the last Great Projects, as if this was all, we were going to leave at the bottom.”

Grand Designs returns tonight (Wednesday 25 September) at 9pm on Channel 4.