If you can’t sell your property in Spain, organise a raffle

In the last few days I have heard about 2 different properties in Spain being raffled by their owners, who clearly haven’t had any luck selling them the conventional way. In both cases the owners are British, and both properties are said to be worth more than a million Euros.

At first I thought I was reading news stories and press releases about the same property, but then I realised that one of the villas is near Benidorm, in the Valencian Region, and the other in Almeria, Andalucia. A visit to their respective websites made it clear that they are 2 separate properties.

One of the properties is called San Blas, a 300 year-old rural finca in Almeria, Andalucia, that the owners have restored, and turned into a rural self catering business with 7 self catering apartments for sale along with the main house and swimming pool. Owners Wayne and Dave have to return to the UK “for family reasons.”

The other raffle, called New Year Millionaire, claims to offer a prize worth 5 million pounds, comprised of an 8-bedroom villa worth 1 million pounds called the Casa de los Pinos, a “Wild West” tourist business worth 4 million pounds, and a Harley Davidson worth 35,000 pounds. The property is located in the Valencian Region, on the Costa Blanca, not far from Benidorm. Owners Wayne & Suzanne Connell say they want to move to the USA to be near their children.

The deal is you buy raffle tickets online from their websites using paypal or a credit card, and then get entered into the draw with your ‘electronic’ ticket.

Tickets cost 25 Euros for the San Blas raffle, though if you buy 4 tickets you get one free. Wayne and Dave expect to raise between 1.9 and 2 million Euros for a property that they argue is worth at least 1.5 million Euros. The raffle will be held at a special party at San Blas when all the tickets are sold, or no later than 1 May.

Tickets for the Ney Year Millionaire raffle cost 25 pounds, and the raffle takes place on 6 January. Owners Wayne & Suzanne Connell plan to sell 200,000 tickets, which would bag them 5 cool million Pounds, which is what they say the prize is worth.

In both cases, if they don’t sell all the tickets then the raffle goes ahead anyway, and the winner gets the pot from the ticket sales, less administrative fees.

Will it work? No idea, but I can’t help wondering how open to abuse this sort of thing is.

Mark



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