Yours for a fiver? Owner raffles off home

These days, house prices are so high that getting on the property ladder can seem like winning the lottery. And for one lucky house-hunter, that's just how it's going to be.

A vendor in Blackheath is so frustrated that her £1.25 million house won't sell that she's raffling it off for a fiver a ticket.

Renu Qadri says her psoriasis is affecting her ability to work; and that the five-bedroom maisonette is simply too big now that four of her five children have left home.

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She's tried selling it through the usual channels, but without success, so has come up with her radical plan.

"After buying our house in 2014 we are now struggling to pay the mortgage due to disability, and have tried but failed to sell the property through traditional routes and we would like to avoid repossession," she says.

"After talking to many estate agents and quick buy companies, we believe it is in our best interest to take the sale of our property into our own hands, whilst offering someone else the opportunity to own and enjoy the property as their own."

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The property is in a conservation area, and consists of five double bedrooms with a family bathroom and WC, a bright living room, dining room and good-sized kitchen/diner. There's a private garden outside.

And furnishings including lead crystal chandeliers worth £12,000, leather sofas, kitchen appliances and bedroom furniture, are all included.

The raffle page is here, and house-hunters have until 7 November to enter.

Ms Qadri's idea isn't a new one. Indeed, if Blackheath isn't your style, there's currently a six-bed Lancashire manor house being raffled off, with tickets just £2 each.

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The idea first took off after the 2008 property crash and worked a treat for some would-be vendors, including a Devon couple who managed to shift their £1 million home; it was won by a German man.

However, when a couple in the Wirral attempted to do the same thing with their six-bed home, they fell foul of the Gambling Commission and only shifted 400 tickets - whose buyers they had to reimburse.