Family raffle £3m home after series of fall-throughs...

A family is raffling a £3m home on the Hampshire/Dorset border after a series of sales fell through.

Mark and Sharon Beresford have spent 12 years in the riverside property near Ringwood - having originally purchased a property on the site for £470,000 through well known local agency Barton & Wyatt.

The closing date for tickets is December 31.

The site is now occupied by the Beresford family’s Huf Haus which has six bedrooms, a snooker room and a cinema. The property enjoys 60ft of river frontage and it comes with fishing rights.

Mark Beresford says: “It’s actually like living in a treehouse and there is an abundance of wildlife as well as amazing views out across the Avon Valley to the New Forest. And if you don’t win the house, the second prize is a brand new Aston Martin.”

This is the latest in a series of attempts to raffle homes, often done by frustrated sellers who cannot find buyers - or at least buyers making offers that they will accept - through agents.

Last month Estate Agent Today’s research team discovered that, up to early November, there had been 30 UK property raffles over the previous 18 months.

Only one was thought to have had sufficient take-up to cover the cost of the house and organisation of the competition, and thus produced a ‘win-win’ for both the seller and the entrant.

This was Win A Country House where lucky Marie Segar of Warrington had her entry selected: the financial services worker paid £2 to enter and won a Lancashire property estimated in value at £800,000.