The Devon landmark was finally sold in August
19:24, 08 Sep 2025Updated 19:25, 08 Sep 2025
Chesil Cliff House, Croyde(Image: Kinght Frank)
The new owner of the notorious Grand Designs home in Devon with a tragic history has reportedly been revealed by a national newspaper.
After 12 years of renovations, the lighthouse-inspired Chesil Cliff House was finally sold over the summer, after the whopping construction project left owner Edward Short in £7 million of debt.
The home went several million pounds over budget, hindered by the recession, and cost 57-year-old Edward his marriage to his wife Hazel.
It was featured on the hugely popular Channel 4 property programme and became known as the “saddest episode ever” by viewers who watched the programme in October 2019. Years after completion and the building falling into disrepair, the home has now finally been sold.
According to The Daily Mail, the new owner is a Sanjay Patel who purchased the home through his company Hare Gate Property Ltd.
Mr Patel is said to have been a driving instructor-turned-taxi driver from London who later made a fortune as a property developer.
A lighthouse-inspired home on the ‘saddest ever’ Grand Designs was sold in August(Image: SWNS)
Speaking after the sale in August, Edward Short said he is ‘relieved’ that the property has sold and joked he will still be buying a lottery ticket with the dream of buying it back.
Edward said: “It is definitely the closure of a long chapter of my life – there is no doubt about that. I mentally moved on from the property a while ago as the writing was on the wall.
“I am relieved it is sold; it gives me closure. I put everything I could as a person to make it work, but it didn’t. It is not the end of the world, but it was a financial failure. I will still be buying a lottery ticket and dreaming that I can buy it back.”
The property was initially listed for sale in February 2023, but failed to find a buyer.
By late 2024, the five-bedroom home was back on the market, listed by Savills on behalf of joint receivers at a reduced price of £5.25 million.
There were whispers that celebrities such as Harry Styles and Michael Jackson’s former bodyguard Matt Fiddes showed interest in the property, but no deal materialised.
Back in 2019, the house featured on Grand Designs, with the episode following Edward and his family as misfortune beset the project, leaving the house in Croyde, Devon, unfinished and with the family plunged into millions of pounds worth of debt.
Chesil Cliff House(Image: Abigail Neep)
Edward said that he still looks at his time building the property with fond memories. He said the time he spent building the house were some of the best times of his life.
Edward said: “I do look back at lots of elements of building that house that I enjoyed. There were moments that were amazing. All the time I spent building the house was amazing – that never leaves you.”
The show also revealed that the process had taken a strain on Edward’s personal life, resulting in him separating from his wife Hazel.
Despite all the problems, Edward remained adamant he would finish.
Speaking previously, Edward said: “I’ll always be proud to have finished this. I owe it to my family to have a real end result, but the time has come to move on.
“I will have achieved what I set out to do, never deviating from the plans, and for that I’ll always be proud.”