Widespread TV ads for house raffles plus national newspaper ‘success stories’ and a slower housing market have persauded more vendors to use raffles to sell their homes, but a recent report by the BBC shows the process is difficult and carries a high risk of falling through.
Jennie Bailey decided to raffle her Anglesey home after it failed to sell on the open market, even after a £40,000 reduction. The raffle was set up with a target of 150,000 tickets priced at £5 each. So far, 50,531 tickets have been sold or around one third of the total required.
Hard process
Bailey admitted she found the process “really hard”, saying: “I don’t know whether what I’m doing is right or not — I’m just trying anything and everything.”
If the ticket sales target is not met, the property will not change hands. The winner instead receives half of the ticket pot, with the remainder used to cover platform fees and costs, a model one raffle platform owner recently said was more successful than estate agency-sold properties.
High failure rate
But consumer group Which? has warned that the number of failed housing raffles “far outweighs the small number of successes” and advises entrants to check the terms and conditions carefully.
Separate research by Sky News found that of the 264 UK house raffles run since 2020, only 89 resulted in a property being awarded, 143 paid out a cash prize instead and 18 were refunded.
I don’t see this becoming a trend.”
Even Stelios Kounou, CEO of Raffall, whose platform is running Bailey’s raffle, has expressed doubts about selling homes in this way. He says the first house raffle on the platform took place in 2020 and that it has since hosted 54 house raffles in the UK and Ireland, with 18 resulting in the property being ‘sold’.
“I don’t see this becoming a trend,” he said, adding that house raffles were not something he had thought about when first setting up his company. “People who do this know the probability of success might be low, but, for those willing to put in the hard work, the time risk is worth the possible reward.”
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