London homes to be raffled by start-up entrepreneur for £5 a ticket

A flat in Brixton is being raffled for £5 a ticket by a start-up entrepreneur who claims this is just the first of a series of London homes in the capital to be ‘sold’ this way.

Benno Spencer, who has created a dating app called ‘type’, claims the property - a flat in a period building - has been interior designed and decorated to appeal to millennials who might otherwise not be in a position to afford to buy a home.

Spencer admits that a number of similar raffles have been shut down or have had to be modified as a result of intervention by Trading Standards teams and the Gambling Commission.

But he says his enterprise - called Raffle House - has spent nearly a year working behind the scenes to ensure that its raffles are legally watertight.

He also claims the odds are better than at least some previous raffles; he says as long as a minimum of 150,000 tickets have been sold by the closing date, the keys will be handed over to a winner. 

He says this makes winning 1,000 times more likely to win this property than getting lucky in the Euromillions draw. If the threshold isn't reached, the raffle winner will still walk away “with a life-changing cash prize” according to Spencer.

Entries are open until June 15 and - to conform with Gambling Commission regulations - entrants have to answer a multiple-choice question correctly based on city population sizes. Three runners up will also be awarded prizes of £1,000 each.

“I had the extreme privilege of getting onto the property ladder at a time when it was a far more accessible for first time buyers. Now it’s become basically impossible for young people to afford their own place in London, so the Raffle House platform will be a fun and affordable way for people to do just that. The market is broken and this start-up intends to level the playing field” says Spencer.

“This isn’t a one-off punt because I need to sell a flat. This is the beginning of a new property platform, with new houses coming on every few weeks. We’ve worked really hard to make sure this is an entirely legitimate marketplace through which to win property” he adds. 

Five per cent of the profits from each ticket sold will go to a homelessness charity of the entrants’ choosing, and stamp duty will be paid by Raffle House.

You can see the website here.