The story around Marcus Rashford’s new house in Cheshire isn’t the glossy reveal you might expect. What started as a £2.25 million plot of land has turned into one of the most talked-about property sagas in English football — a five-bedroom “forever home” that, six years on, still isn’t finished.
Rashford bought the site — a disused nine-hole golf course and clubhouse — in early 2020, when he was still just 22. The plan was ambitious: knock down the old clubhouse, build an eco-conscious 5-bedroom mansion with a two-level subterranean basement complex, and restore the golf course for private rounds with friends. Planning permission for the project, filed through his company MUCS Properties, was approved in early 2022.
Nobody involved expected it to still be a building site in 2026.
Where Is Marcus Rashford’s House?
The 63-acre estate sits in the Cheshire countryside, under the flight path of Manchester Airport, on former green-belt land that was once home to a nine-hole golf course. It’s part of a wider Cheshire footprint — Rashford also owns a six-bedroom home in the affluent village of Bowdon, reportedly purchased for around £1.85 million, and years earlier rented his mother Melanie a six-bedroom house in nearby Hale after his breakthrough at Manchester United.
The golf-course site was meant to be something different entirely: the flagship, permanent family compound, built entirely to his own design rather than bought off the shelf.
What Was the Mansion Supposed to Look Like?
On paper, it’s still a striking brief. The plans call for a five-bedroom eco-house with:
- An indoor swimming pool set into the basement
- A wine cellar and games room
- A private gym and a “chill-out” relaxation area
- A separate two-storey guest apartment connected by a passageway
- Landscaped grounds with dedicated habitats for local wildlife — bats, birds, hedgehogs, and newts were all named in the ecology proposals submitted with the planning application
- The restored nine-hole golf course itself, for private use
It’s a genuinely thoughtful design brief, closer to a private members’ retreat than a standard footballer’s mansion. The trouble has been getting any of it finished.
Why Is Marcus Rashford’s Dream Home Still Unfinished?
This is where the story gets less glamorous. Reports through 2025 and into 2026 describe a custom-build project that has ballooned from an original £2.25 million land purchase to a total cost now estimated at around £15 million — and counting.
Flooding has been the biggest problem
The mansion sits at the lowest, boggiest point of the estate, where the water table runs exceptionally high. Roy Baker, an 80-year-old neighbouring farmer who has lived next door for more than four decades, told The Sun that even his own cellar — completely dry until 2014 — now needs a permanent pump to keep water out. Two floors of underground basement beneath Rashford’s house reportedly need near-constant draining just to stay usable. As Baker put it: “You can imagine next door going two floors down. It’s non-stop pumping out.”
Costs have spiralled well beyond the original budget
Sources close to the project say maintaining the 63-acre grounds alone runs to somewhere between £150,000 and £1 million a year. Rashford is understood to have instructed his finance team to investigate where the money has gone and sent his own representatives — including someone Baker described as dealing with “land disputes” — to ask neighbours about the contractors.
A contractor dispute has compounded the delays
Work reportedly stalled during the summer of 2025 amid disagreements over payments. Neighbours describe heavy machinery coming and going for years with no finished building to show for it, and say the unmaintained grounds have become overrun with weeds — including ragwort, which is toxic to horses and has drifted onto adjoining farmland. Baker told The Sun his main concern was the uncontrolled spread of ragwort, broad-leaf dock, and creeping thistle threatening his own organic farm. “We’re totally organic, and these weeds completely take over,” he said.
The exterior and the two underground basement levels are reportedly structurally complete. The interior fit-out is not, and the surrounding landscaped grounds still look more like a construction site than the countryside retreat that was promised.
The company overseeing the build, Noble Projects, has pushed back on suggestions of serious problems. Managing Director Ben Smith told The Sun: “We have a long record of undertaking multiple successful, prestigious projects for a diverse range of clients. We are a highly professional business, and we always respect the confidentiality of our clients. We can advise that we have no concerns over the quality of our work or other such matters on any of our sites. And, we are proud to deliver exceptional work levels, and we continue to do so.”
Slow Progress
Sources close to Rashford tell a different story — one of rising costs, slow progress, and a fear that the finished house may never be worth what has been poured into it. “Marcus fears the house isn’t ever going to be worth anywhere near what he’s put into it,” one source told The Sun. “But he’s between a rock and a hard place, as he can’t just stop and leave it. He just wants to get it finished.” Even by the standards of someone earning a reported £350,000 a week, the sums involved are, as Baker put it, “staggering.”
Where Does Marcus Rashford Live Now?
While the Cheshire mansion sits unfinished, Rashford has been living in Spain. Following his season-long loan move to Barcelona from Manchester United, he initially stayed in a city-centre hotel before settling into a luxury rental property in an exclusive residential complex near Castelldefels and Esplugues, south of Barcelona — a stretch of coastline popular with top La Liga footballers.
It’s a long way from the boggy construction site back in Cheshire, and a reminder that Rashford’s day-to-day life has moved on considerably since he first drew up plans for the estate as a 22-year-old at Manchester United.
What Has Marcus Rashford Said About the Project?
Rashford has largely avoided commenting publicly on the project’s troubles, though he has previously described his Manchester property as “my little haven away from work” and said he feels lucky to have a home built around his life as a footballer. Whether that sentiment still holds for a six-year bespoke build reportedly heading toward £15 million is, at this point, a fair question.
| Year | Development |
|---|---|
| Early 2020 | Buys the 63-acre former golf course and clubhouse for around £2.25 million |
| 2020–2021 | Demolition of old clubhouse; initial groundwork and design revisions |
| Early 2022 | Planning permission granted via MUCS Properties |
| 2022–2024 | Construction underway; exterior walls and basement levels progress slowly |
| Summer 2025 | Contractor dispute over payments reported; work stalls |
| Late 2025 | The estimated total cost is reported at up to £15 million; neighbours raise weed and drainage concerns |
| 2026 | Project remains unfinished; Rashford’s finance team is reportedly investigating costs; Rashford is living in Barcelona on loan |
Rashford’s Wider Property Portfolio
The Cheshire estate isn’t a one-off investment. Rashford has built a broader real estate footprint around Manchester over the years:
- Bowdon, Cheshire: A six-bedroom home reportedly purchased for around £1.85 million, in one of the most desirable postcodes in the North West
- Hale, Cheshire: A six-bedroom rental property secured for his mother, Melanie, following his Manchester United breakthrough in 2016
- Buy-to-let investments: Additional property holdings around the Manchester area, managed through his personal companies
- The golf-course estate: The centrepiece — meant to be personal, permanent, and entirely his own design
That last point may be exactly why its problems have been so hard to walk away from. This wasn’t a portfolio acquisition or a rental yield play. It was supposed to be the forever home.
On the Pitch, While the House Waits
Away from the building site, Rashford’s career has moved on considerably since he first bought the land. He spent the 2025/26 season on loan at Barcelona from Manchester United, scoring goals and contributing assists in La Liga, with his future beyond the loan still being negotiated between the two clubs as of mid-2026. It’s a reminder that the Cheshire mansion has now outlasted more than one chapter of his career — bought as a 22-year-old at United, still incomplete as a 28-year-old whose next club remains genuinely up in the air.
For now, Marcus Rashford’s new house remains exactly what it’s been for the past few years: an expensive work in progress, somewhere between a dream home and a cautionary tale about building on boggy ground.
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