A luxury lighthouse that featured on the ‘saddest ever’ episode of Grand Designs has finally sold after 12 years of tumultuous renovations.
Channel 4 viewers were left in floods of tears while watching Chesil Cliff’s owner Edward Short, 52, battle against recession, building issues and a marriage breakdown to get the project complete.
The decade-long transformation – which was only meant to take 18 months and cost £1.8million – left him on the edge of bankruptcy and unable to attract a buyer, after taking years to complete and going wildly over budget.
But after what felt like a ‘cursed’ project, which ended up costing him his marriage and drowning in a pool of £7million debt, Mr Short has finally sold the property.
Father-of-two Mr Short, spent 10 years building the sprawling five-bedroom home on the rugged North Devon coastline near Braunton.
He had ambitious plans to transform his family’s 1950s home into a stunning property complete with a private beach cove and an infinity pool.
The music industry executive and his wife Hazel put their life savings into building their fantasy eco-friendly home, known as Chesil Cliff House.
Last year, the property went up for sale through debt collectors for a cut-price of £5.25million, after Mr Short initially listed it for £10million.
Edward Short and his wife Hazel put their life savings into building their fantasy eco-friendly home, known as Chesil Cliff House
The property’s seaside views means its new buyer can look out onto the idyllic Bristol Channel for miles
The property ended up costing Mr Short (pictured) his marriage and left him in drowning in a £7million pool of debt.
Now, the curtain can finally be closed on one of British TV’s most dramatic housing sagas with estate agents Savills confirming that it has been sold.
‘Savills marketed the property for sale between January and October 2024 which resulted in a sale being secured and completed in October 2024,’ a representative told Homebuilding News.
It was reported that the home had a flurry of interest – including from Michael Jackson’s ex bodyguard Matt Fiddes – but details of the sale have been kept under wraps until now.
The five-bedroom property with its triple-glazed floor-to-ceiling windows and four storey tower replicates the light house which was once on the site.
The listing described the home as a ‘bespoke design brought to life through impressive engineering’.
It added: ‘The property represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to take on and finish the specification and fit out of one of the UK’s most spectacularly situated coastal homes.’
‘The sale represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase one of the UK’s most spectacularly situated coastal homes and for the buyer to put the finishing touches to the property’s interior to their own specification.
‘The current sale price (offers in excess of £5.25m) represents fair value noting the prevailing economic and heterogeneous nature of this opportunity.’
Edward Short on Grand Designs with his wife Hazel at Chesil Cliff House in Devon
Chesil Cliff House first appeared on Grand Designs in 2010 and has been the subject of numerous follow-up episodes, where Mr Short detailed how the recession and building issues cost him millions of pounds and his marriage.
He originally had a budget of £1.8million with hopes of completing the house within 18 months.
But a series of financial blows and errors with the construction saw the project halted time after time, putting an intense strain on the Shorts’ relationship.
Mr Short previously said it was his ‘overconfidence and arrogance’ that landed him in debt – an admission which made him realise it was time to sell up.
He said: ‘These past ten years have been a marathon slog – and I have got used to being a millionaire in debt. I’ve accepted the only way forward is to finish and sell it.
‘I had no idea it would end up costing so much but I’ve accepted now that I’m never going to be able to live in it because I have money I need to pay back.’
The episode followed Mr Short and his family as misfortune beset the project, leaving the house unfinished and with the family plunged into millions of pounds worth of debt.
He revealed that the arrival of the recession, building issues and the end of his marriage to wife Hazel had left him on the edge of bankruptcy and his dream in tatters.
Mr Short previously said it was his ‘overconfidence and arrogance’ that landed him in debt – an admission which made him realise it was time to sell up
The house featured on Grand Designs once more in 2019 in what was described as the series’ ‘saddest episode ever’
Mr Short previously said: ‘These past ten years have been a marathon slog – and I have got used to being a millionaire in debt’
In 2022, the property was finally finished and listed for sale – with Mr Short saying his family were ‘proud’ of what he’d managed to achieve.
A deal was almost done on the property in August 2023, but a mystery buyer pulled out at the last minute and it was put back on the market.
It then faced a further raft of issues when cracks began appearing in its driveway, which saw the asking price slashed to £5.25million – a near 50 per cent climbdown on what he first had asked for.
Mr Short said the ‘slight problem’ came after celebrity buyers such as Harry Styles were toying with the idea of purchasing the property – claims that were later denied.
And his concern over selling the property appeared to dissipate entirely after he found love in the form of a new fiancée.
The large property has stunning sea views but has set its new buyer back millions of pounds
Estate agent Knight Frank previously boasted that Chesil Cliff House has ‘far-reaching sea views from every room
‘The lenders have been very good with giving me time to sell it,’ he said at the time.
‘It’s always going to be a bit of a financial fiasco to me, but that’s not the biggest problem in the world.’
It soon emerged that Mr Short had begun a ‘new life’ and was eager to put the past behind him, looking forward to tying the knot with his new flame, Jalia Nambasa, rather than getting bogged down in the finances of it all.
It is unclear how much of the money – if any – that Mr Short will see from the property’s subsequent sale.
‘I’m going to get on with my new life – whatever the ending is, it’ll be what it’ll be,’ he said previously.
The Daily Mail has contacted Savills for more information.
