SHOCKING new photos of the mansion dubbed the “saddest ever” Grand Designs home show disastrous cracks that have condemned the property to a cut-price deal.
Chesil Cliff House near Braunton, North Devon, cost owner Edward Short his marriage and left him with debts of over £7million.
After failing to find a buyer, his creditors have called in receivers to put the property on the market for a cut price £5.25million.
Edward tells The Sun the price has plummeted from a one-time asking price of £10m because of a driveway, which existed before the ambitious build, which has begun to collapse.
The driveway, which dates back to the 1960s, leads to a second smaller property on the plot, dubbed The Eye.
I'm a property expert - my guess for the cheapest time to buy a home this year
Incredibly, tenacious Edward plans to borrow ANOTHER £2m to fix it and install the final fixtures and fittings, including a kitchen and bathrooms, in an attempt to restore its original asking price and make it more appealing to buyers.
“We tried reducing the price to sell but it had a growing problem in the old driveway,” he says.
“We built a driveway to the new house but there was an older one, possibly built in the 1960s, that goes down to the smaller house, The Eye.
“The edge of it is collapsing so it's no longer safe to use. That is reflected in the price drop.
“But everything's fixable and I believe I can raise funds to build a better entrance where you can park cars and still drive left to The Eye or right to the house. It's an opportunity to really improve it.”
Nic Chbat, director of Match Property estate agents in North Devon, who previously assisted with finding a buyer last year, tells The Sun: “The old original driveway to the left of the entrance as you face the sea, which was probably built in the 60s, is showing signs of structural failure and a structural engineer has condemned it.
“The driveway built since Edward took ownership, and everything that was built by Edward, is absolutely fine.”
Edward says he has already agreed the £2m with a lender and is “in a triangle of negotiation” with them and the receivers to gain back control.
We built a driveway to the new house but there was an older one, possibly built in the 1960s, that goes down to the smaller house, The Eye. The edge of it is collapsing so it's no longer safe to use
Edward Short
Inside Camilla's £850k 'guilty pleasure' country pad - and Charles 'hates' it
“It’s been passed on to the receivers but that means you lose control of how it’s sold, and if they sell for their listed price of £5.25m I will have lost an awful lot of money,” he says.
“I'm still trying to avoid a complete disaster for us as a family and the current situation would end up as exactly that.
“Whereas doing something about the problems, I believe, would leave me in a position to be able to pay back the most money, and that’s the bottom line.”
Edward began work on the stunning five-bedroom, glass-fronted pad in 2010, with plans to live there with then-wife Hazel and their two daughters Nicole, now 24, and Lauren, 22.
With an initial budget of £1.8m, Edward hoped to complete in 18 months, but development issues meant the build lasted 12 years and costs spiralled out of control.
In 2019 Kevin McCloud described the home on Grand Designs as the “carcass” of a seashore wreckage.
The stress and mounting debt put a strain on Edward and Hazel’s marriage and they split, but remain good friends.
Former music producer Edward - who is now engaged to new love Jalia Nambasa - previously told The Sun he felt guilty for the cost of the project on his family.
“There’s no doubt what I put Hazel through was horrendous,” he said.
“There’s a lot of guilt about that. But there was no way out, once we started. If we didn’t finish we’d have been in big trouble.”
The unfinished property went on the market but it was removed from an estate agent’s site with talk of their being a “serious buyer” – but they pulled out just before the contracts were signed.
Everything's fixable and I believe I can raise funds to build a better entrance where you can park cars and still drive left to The Eye or right to the house. It's an opportunity to really improve it
Edward Short
Edward reveals he even had talks with house raffle site Omaze, but the price tag was too hefty for them.
According to Rightmove, the new asking price of £5.25m offers a potential buyer a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to take on and complete one of the UK’s "most spectacularly situated coastal homes".
Nic Chbat, director of Match Property estate agents in North Devon, who previously assisted with finding a buyer last year, tells the Sun: “I think completing a fit out and resolving the issue of the left side driveway would be very beneficial and remove many of the obstacles to purchasing that buyers may have.
“I would suggest that an asking price of £10M would be more than realistic and achievable, if this were the case.”
While the price tag is high, Edward points out that a house on the same stretch of coastline has recently sold for £8.5m - and he was told the new owner plans to knock it down and rebuild.
