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The £25 bungalow
Mark Blunden12 Jan 2009
A PROPERTY developer hopes to beat the stagnant London property market by raffling his bungalow for £25 a ticket.
Kirk Clugston spent £100,000 renovating the four-bedroom property in a Ruislip cul-de-sac but did not receive a single offer on the £570,000 asking price for three months. The chalet-style bungalow has three bathrooms and backs onto a golf course.
Mr Clugston, 49, said: "I decided on the competition because I couldn't sell it, all my money was tied up in it and I was lying awake at night.
"I've got no work at all now and I've had no phone calls so this is my last resort. That's why I've had to come up with something so dramatic or I face losing everything."
His site, www.winmybungalow.com, went live on Thursday but had more than 180,000 hits prior to the launch with about 1,500 people reserving tickets.
The father of two bought the run-down two-bedroom property in Hill Rise for £372,500 a year ago. He spent more than £100,000 transforming the bungalow before having it valued at £570,000 by four local estate agents.
Stephen Hyams, manager of Gibbs Gillespie, said: "With these market conditions there's a lot of people wanting this quality of finish who would rather take a £25 punt than come up with £570,000. Kirk is a well-known local developer and everything is finished to an extremely high specification in a very nice area but the market has caught him out."
Mr Clugston said he needed to sell 28,000 tickets totalling £700,000 to cover all costs - including advertising and legal fees - and make a profit of about £100,000. He spent almost a year completing most of the renovation work, which includes granite work surfaces and digitally controlled showers, and is offering £10,000 worth of furniture to the winner. Under gambling law, entrants must answer three random questions and his lawyers have consulted the Gambling Commission to approve competition rules to ensure it is not an "illegal lottery".
The Gambling Commission said it kept "a close eye" on such competitions. If the £570,000 prize target is not hit by 16 April then Mr Clugston will give away the cash pot to the holder of the winning raffle ticket and try to sell the house again.
Mr Clugston said: "I think people will be quite sceptical about it, but I won't be able to get near the money. The competition is run through the solicitors and PayPoint will be doing all the transactions and they keep all the money in their account until the draw is done, which will be by an independent adjudicator."
Reader views (3)
Seen this before with an estate in SW england. Not really that newsworthy I'm afraid
- James, London, 13/01/2009 12:45
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The valuation of this property is the problem, 570,000 quid for a 4 bed house in Ruislip in absurd! With propery prices falling just as fast as they rose during the boom, this house is severly over valued. A house is only worth what someone will pay for it. The raffle is a great idea and no one in their right mind would purchase this house or get approved for the loan.
- Brandon Thomas, London UK, 12/01/2009 14:25
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I hope he has cleared this with the gaming commission as several others have tried this and had stopped and have had to return all money.
- R Ellis, E Devon, 12/01/2009 14:08
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