12:56pm Tuesday 18th November 2008
IT’S a sign of the times.
A Hampshire housebuilder struggling to sell four new properties because of the housing slump has unveiled an online win-a-home competition.
One lucky winner will win the keys to a detached £300,000 four-bedroom home near Southampton.
As well as having their legal costs and stamp duty paid they will be provided with £5,000 worth of John Lewis gift vouchers to furnish the new home and a year’s buildings insurance.
Tickets are priced at £20 each.
Jason Wilkinson, managing director of Eastleighbased Rivendale Construction, is believed to be the first property developer in Hampshire to go down the Internet competition route as a way of recouping costs.
He stressed that the company is not dependent on the sale, but that freed-up money would help fund other projects.
Jason said: “I’ve been in property development for ten years now, with a good track record, but these uncertain times call for a fresh approach.
“The unprecedented financial turmoil globally means housebuilders large and small are all offering various forms of incentives and discounts to tide us over until the markets eventually settle down.
“I have four finished homes which are not selling because of the housing slump. We need to sell these houses to cover our build costs, and the win-ahome idea seemed the best way forward.”
The prize is a detached, fourbedroom home in a cul-de-sac off Botley Road, Horton Heath, near Eastleigh.
Ticket sales proceeds would cover the partial costs of development, along with administrative and marketing costs.
Entrants, who must aged 18 or over, must answer three multiplechoice questions before paying their £20.
The winner will be chosen at random by a computer number generator, and overseen by a solicitor, within seven days of the close of the competition.
If all the tickets are not sold by the close of the competition on May 3 next year, a draw will take place and a property will be substituted for a cash prize of 75 per cent of total ticket sales, with the remainder covering administrative costs.
The chances of winning are 20,000 to one, assuming one ticket per person, he added.
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