Win a House competitions often pop up online and few (if any) ever get to a point where someone actually wins the house! Perhaps though that trend is about to be bucked with Oldborough Estate. It’s valued at one million pounds but it could be yours for just £25! The competition was featured on BBC News on August 26th.
In the interview, Brian and Wendy Wilshaw told The BBC they’d sold about “a third of the tickets” – however they’re now totalling nearly 26,000 sold tickets. That’s still some 20,000 short of their target figure, but for once a “win a house” competition appears to have captured the imagination.
The reason could well be because this is no ordinary home you could win! It’s an estate that includes a five bedroom house, two bedroom timber lodges, 11.5 acres of woodland and 2 acres of coarse fishing lakes. The estate has been run as a business and so if someone does win this home they’ll be getting themselves a whole new way of life as well as a brand new house.
The big question is will they reach the magical 46,000 tickets? The competition ends in December and the BBC coverage has helped boost sales, but the competition featured on Sky News back on July 4th and unless there’s further media boosts sales may begin to slow again.
On the other hand, if come December 1st The Wilshaws are showing signs of reaching the magic number of tickets sold there may well be a mad rush for the remaining tickets – especially as unusual Christmas presents. Imagine waking up on Christmas morning to find a ticket that might win you a one million pound estate in Devon?
For more details and to take part head on over to Win a Devon Property with Fishing!
Inspired by this, a British couple have decided to raffle their £5 million Spanish lifestyle.
http://www.propertyshowrooms.com/spain/property/news/british-millionaire-raffles-off-benidorm-mansion-£5m-lifestyle_20253.html
If you want to enter…
http://newyearmillionaire.com/index.html
Just wondered what you thought of this one Jason http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/3584818.KINGSTON_____Win_my_house_for_only___10______/
It seems there are plenty using this way of getting rid of their house.. There was one in the local paper last night in Ludlow to win. I can’t see people readily having a gamble as there are quite afew around and unless you are local or with no job/ties and in need of accommodation people are going to be hard pushed to part with the cost of a ticket for elsewhere in the UK.
If you fancied a gamble, which one to choose?? The eco-house sounds a good bet as there will probably be quite some publicity though, would be efficient to heat. It may have a chance of achieving ticket sales but most other ones, no chance, as you would find it difficult to sell off unless you drastically cut the price maybe or it would be hard to keep heated/maintained unless it was something you were looking for anyway.
[...] a house” competitions never reaching the required number of tickets, could it be that the Oldborough Retreat Devon Estate competition will become the first to complete? As of today (15th September) the tickets sold [...]
[...] competition has been afforded plenty of media publicity. An appearance on The BBC back in August (Win a Devon Estate) increased the sales of tickets and as word spread that for £25 you could win the house or what [...]
I would of thought the competition would end at closing date, rather than tickets sales. and the extra money could of gone for prize money or a charity. It just seem’s such waste of publicity just to finish when it get’s going. Now my listing of House to win in shropshire back in August does not seem such bad idea after all!
We were also inspired by this and take our hats off to the owners, we have listed our house in our own competition at http://www.jackscarparts.co.uk please take a look and tell us what you think, thanks Jack and Jan Hope
I have been looking at shropshirehouse.co.uk what a lovely house…… This seems to be the way of the future. Even if you don’t want to live in shropshire you could sell it for a few hundred thousand and buy a house outright in your home town… great idea for £15 it got to be worth a go.!!!
be aware the government has stopped the devon house draw even though all tickets are sold. the gaming commission gave the go ahead in march but have now changed it!!!!!!!!
Congratulations to the Wilshaws, it seems very unjust that they went through all the due dilligence with their project by contacting the Gambling Commission. Why would they have continued if they didnt think they had the support of the GC. I am sure this will be resolved. It is no doubt the question that is being flagged up.
We are about to launch our own competition to win a house in Sandbanks starting on the 1st November 2008 (www.sandbankslife.co.uk). We have been through the same issues. We are however intending to have a multiple choice question related to the prize. The Gambling Commission has published ‘Prize competitions and free draws: The requirements of the Gambling Act 2005 (November 2007). This is essential reading should you be looking at a Win a house competition.
We are a company that owns the house in this very high profile place, and will be giving a percentage of the money raised to a first time buyer as a deposit. This first time buyer will be picked from one of the entrants.
We are in complete support of the Wilshaws and we wish them all the best.
Lottery vs. game of skill?
The real problem with the Wilshaw house competition that no-one seems to mention, was that everyone entering their competition had a correct answer.
It was possible to have as many free guess’s as you liked, until you guessed the correct answer. This was clearly NOT a game of skill, knowledge or judgement, but an illegal lottery, despite the GC backing down for a yet unknown reason.
I and my partner have been personally informed on the telephone by Mr Cliff Young of the GC, that 50% of the entrants must get the answer WRONG! however, when he was later questioned about that statement by our solicitor, he denied saying 50%, and changed it to 20%.
Come on GC, how can we work to your Acts, when you have adjustable goal posts?
Paul (aspotofluxury.co.uk)
I was really impressed by this couple. I have launched a competition for one of our properties in Florida and found that these people had sold 46,000 entries which is a great achievement.
Our comp is at http://www.winaplaceinthesun.tv