British family’s Greek dream home destroyed by wildfire days before permanent move

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A British family’s long-held dream of a new life in Greece was reduced to ashes when a wildfire destroyed their mountain home in Aigialeia, in the Peloponnese, just days before they were due to move in permanently.

Rory Clifford, 36, and Stephanie Harper, 35, had planned to relocate from the UK with their three children on 10 August 2026. The couple, who also have three rescue dogs, had already shipped personal belongings and enrolled their eight-year-old twin daughters, Evangeline and Ivaria, in a local school for September. Stephanie is also pregnant with twins and the family has a 19-month-old daughter, Athena.

The couple bought the property in 2023 and invested more than €300,000 renovating it into their ideal family home in the mountains of southern Greece. To fund the project they sold almost everything they owned in Britain and lived for years in a one-bedroom flat in Hastings, East Sussex — sleeping on a sofa bed for eight of those years so their children could have the only bedroom.

Last Friday a friend living nearby alerted them that a large wildfire was approaching the area. They watched helplessly as darkness fell and firefighting helicopters were grounded until dawn. The fire reached and destroyed their home at around 4 a.m.

In an emotional interview, Stephanie said:
“We are a very resilient family, but this has knocked it out of us completely. The emptiness and sorrow has been overwhelming. We didn’t just lose the house we built — we lost all the memories and the life we had created inside it.”

Despite the devastation, the family says they are determined to rebuild. Stephanie’s sister has launched a GoFundMe appeal to help them start again. Even if an insurance payout comes through, they estimate they will still need around €100,000 to restore their home.

“That house in Greece was everything to us,” Stephanie added. “We will rebuild it. We can’t give up.”

The family remains temporarily in their small flat in Hastings while they plan their next steps.

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