On the 10th April Nigel and Jane Chaloner put their property, Grafton House, up as a prize in a brand new house raffle. For just £2 a ticket entrants at Win My Dream Home gave themselves the opportunity to win a stunning six bedroom farmhouse, set on approx 3 acres of land in Shrewsbury. The closing date for this competition was set at the end of May which we felt was a little optimistic. However that closing date isn’t going to be needed as the competition has already concluded with all tickets sold. As far as we’re aware this is the fastest time that any win a house competition has gone from launch to conclusion.
Winner To Be Announced
As yet no winner has been announced for the property. This is because the draw date is still scheduled for 3rd June 2020. According to the Chaloner’s website “The draw remains scheduled for the 3rd of June. We are in talks to see if it possible to bring the draw date forward with our wish for a live broadcast and independent scrutiny”. Further transparency regarding the draw and schedule can be found on the Win My Dream Home Facebook page. We’ll be keeping an eye for the draw and winner announcement. One important feature of the raffle was to raise money for Severn Hospice. You’ll be pleased to know that sales of tickets for this particular win a house competition has “contributed £120,000 to Severn Hospice. The hospice’s Facebook page has confirmed that the money has already been transferred which is four days after the competition ended. This is a fabulous donation and £20,000 more than originally planned. We’re especially happy about this as in our original review of the competition we did question the donation amount based on ticket sales.
How Did They Do It?
However the big question is how have The Chaloner’s managed to sell so many tickets (presumably the maximum 500,000) in just 14 days? It’s not gained any more media interest than similar competitions. It’s had coverage from The BBC, Daily Mail, The Sun and local media but other competitions tend to get this. Win My Dream Home hasn’t, as far as we’re aware, been advertised on TV, radio or the internet like Millionaire Mansion did (and that competition failed). In our view – and these are just educated guesses – we’d suggest that the £2 ticket price and referral scheme helped attract interest to the competition on social media (e.g Twitter). Furthermore the lack of sports betting options at this time, alongside the fact that people are currently at home and maybe looking for news outside of coronavirus, may have helped boost interest. It’d be interesting to see how other win a house competitions have faired ticket sales wise during April. What ever is the secret of The Chaloner’s success is they should bottle it up because of win a house competitions can be turned around in such short time frames then their popularity would rapidly increase. We hope that the transparency shown to date continues so we can see just how they managed to be so successful within a notoriously difficult arena.