Win a £1.7m Devon Development In a New Win a House Competition
- 16 Comment
As the price of houses slide and home sales decline, the win a House phenomena continues to gather pace! Jumping on the bandwagon this week is a brand new site called Win a Development. In this competition you can win not one house but four luxury Devon apartments worth a total of £1.72 million pounds. The ticket price is £50 and the developers are hoping to sell 45000 of them before giving away the property to a lucky winner.
The prize includes stamp duty paid, legal fees paid and a year of council tax paid on all the apartments. 2.25% of gross ticket sales will also go to the charity Help the Heroes. If the 45000 tickets are not sold by 28th December the competition may either run on for 2 further months or a cash prize draw held. Up to 35% of the sales may go towards running costs if the cash prize draw option is exercised.
This competition may spark a bit more interest than other new win a house competitions. The prize is substantial and offers someone the chance to own a property folio overnight so it has the life changing element that made the Devon Estate so popular.
The downside may be the cost! £50 per ticket is double the cost of a ticket for the Oldborough Estate competition and that may put people off having a punt especially in the run up to Christmas.
Popularity: 18% [?]
16 Comments on this post
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devon007 said:
It is undoubted in a lovely spot - I can almost see this development from my house
BUT I reckon when the wind blows (which it does often) you’ll be in quite an open area on your balcony/decking. And don’t forget the old saying “Come to sunny Devon, where it rains 6 days out of 7, and on the 7th it pours down” October 4th, 2008 at 11:36 am -
linasi said:
Do you know…I may well be tempted by this… May ask for it as my Christmas present…. usually ask for a couple of DVD box sets which are watched in a coupld of weeks or so…..but a development like this..worth a punt, eh?
October 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm -
Marname said:
The apartments look wonderful but I’m just wondering about further development plans - those views would not be very tempting if a large development plan was given the go-ahead or if a bypass were to cut close by. Worth checking with the competition organisers I think. Also why an architect’s six year guarantee and not a ten year NHBC? Just a thought
October 5th, 2008 at 8:04 pm -
robinstott said:
is vat payable on the ticket sales of these competitions, seeing as its personal stuff that’s being given as prizes
October 28th, 2008 at 11:32 pm -
robinstott said:
reply to marname. As an ex NHBC registered builder, Can’t say too much for legal reasons, but give me the architects certificate, if I have a choice.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:34 pm -
robinstott said:
has anybody heard anything about the Wilshaw’s comp, yet?
November 7th, 2008 at 11:20 pm -
Consultantwan said:
Hi robin,
latest updates can be found at
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=405240383
last update was they were expecting a reply from the GC possibly today! but they haven’t posted so presumably it didn’t arrive
November 7th, 2008 at 11:58 pm -
tubbyj said:
GC have now replied and it looks like it is not favourible.
“We have now received a response from the Gambling Commission, however it is still throwing up inconsistencies with advice that they have given to the public and to us on previous occasions.
As a result of this our lawyers are again looking into it further.”
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=405240383
November 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm -
Pluckyduck said:
I’m watching most of the win a house comps, including mine. I reckon most will fail the tests to make them a Prize Draw and will be declared lotteries. Now, I take exception to the following, taken from the list of comps. “Few are close to selling their ticket quotas and that is a useful guide to whether you should enter at the moment. If a site doesn’t show many (or any) ticket sales then we think they should be avoided”. I disagree. You should look at the property, the location and the (important) odds. Would you like to live in the house/area? Could you afford, e.g. the Council Tax! If you invest £25 just look at the odds, work out what you could sell the place for, (ignore it’s valuation) and decide. Low ticket sales are most likely due to people waiting for the Devon draw to be decided. To conclude, spending £25 to win either a house or a pot of cash is a no brainer providing people get behind the concept.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm -
jason said:
“If a site doesn’t show many (or any) ticket sales then we think they should be avoided” … no I think that’s a pretty good starting point to consider things from. The points you make after that are valid, but if ticket sales are slow to non-existent (as has been the case before the Devon Estate competition when no house competition ever completed… these things have been around for a number of years) then keep your money for another day.. it’s not like they will sell out overnight now is it ;o)
November 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm -
robinstott said:
I think pluckyduck has a good point, the devon competition started with the first ticket sale, according to your theory, everyone should have avoided it, including me, my £25 quid is still in never never land, thanks to the GC
November 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pm -
jason said:
If you take things in context - i.e. out of several win a house competitions which one should you consider from the list we have .. the one’s that are selling are probably worth more of a look than the one’s that aren’t.
Why are they selling? More desirable property, good publicity, large cash prize if they don’t fulfill.
Some of the competitions (and one’s previous to the Devon property) have had media interest but few sales - that means they’re probably not going to reach the full quota, that means if you have £25 for a punt on one of the comps - go for one that’s selling… therefore our point is valid.
Of course someone has to start things off… but a bit of time and consideration doesn’t hurt - as like I said above… these things never suddenly just sell out.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:08 am -
Pluckyduck said:
… the one’s that are selling are probably worth more of a look than the one’s that aren’t. But are they? If you simply fancy a punt for the cash prize then as more tickets are sold the more the odds turn against you. My comp has a limit of 11,000 succesfull tickets, which I believe is better odds than 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000. In the end I believe it matters not whether the house or a pot of cash is won. I think the Devon comp, allied to the mortgage famine has fired the publics’ imagination, it’s just a shame they made such a b*****ks of it, I hope it don’t stop future comps.
November 28th, 2008 at 7:02 pm -
jason said:
The Devon Comp wasn’t the first win a house competition, and it’s taken 5 years or so for one to reach the end. I disagree the mortgage famine is why it worked though.
I think the Devon Comp worked simply because it offered a “lifestyle” element that other previous competitions didn’t have. Not only did you win a house, you got land and a business - so for £25 you could (in theory at least) start a whole new life.
It also benefited from good media coverage and having had sales already registered (previous comps also had media help, but that rarely got them sales) .
When people saw that at say 20,000 ticket sales the possible prize money was a sizeable 6 figure sum, then it snowballed - and as the magical 46,000 got in sight, the comp ran itself at that point.
November 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pm -
winadevelopment said:
Ok, I have finally been beaten by the Gaming commission and I am stopping the competition FOR NOW. All money is being returned by Paypal.
Someone will win this development, probably in March 2009 and when I bring it back it will be with a payment partner (not paypal, no pal of mine).
The commission told me that there is one competition out there that is legal, Who are you ?
Cliff RawlinsonDecember 13th, 2008 at 4:29 pm -
Pluckyduck said:
OK, enlighten us, what aspect of your comp let you down? It would help us to further understand the GC.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:57 pm