Grand Draw - Cash Winner

A stunning million pound property located on the the border of Shropshire and Herefordshire could be yours in this house competition. The aim of the competition is to raise over £100,000 in donations for good causes.

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Grand Draw are offering you the chance to become the owner of a million pound property in their first property competition. The website is well designed although trying to find out details about the prize isn't straightforward. There is a number of photos of the home plus an innovative 3D tour. The latter is quite clever once you get the hang of navigating and moving round the rooms. When the tour loads click on the person symbol to enter the first room. It is a very old property dating back to the 1580s but the current owners have spent a couple of years renovating.

How To Enter The Competition

According to the Grand Draw website the house has six bedroooms and "an incredible open kitchen". A piano features in the reception room as you enter the property which gives you an idea of scale. Note that if you do win then you'll need to furnish the house yourself and the furnishings do not come with it. Outside there's a spectacular garden that boasts it's own tennis court. We'd love to know more about the house, see a house plan and see more images because it does seem quite impressive from the details provided. Stamp duty, fees and one year council tax are included in the prize.

Tickets for the competition cost £5 for 10 entries. Unfortunately you can't purchase less than £5 worth of tickets. Other ticket packages cost £10 (20 entries), £25 (50 entries), £50 (100 entries) and £150 (300 entries). All theses packages include some free tickets. For a free entry you can send a postcard or envelope to the address given on the website. You will need to register in order to use this entry method as a code is required. This code will be generated when you register with the site and provide your details. A referral option is available to entrants and this rewards entrants with free entries and a chance to win a monthly cash prize.

170,000 Tickets

Grand Draw require a total of 170,000 paid tickets to be purchased - by April 2021 - at an average price of £10 in order for the prize to be awarded. This would generate revenues of £1.7million. We think this target is a little bit ambiguous because the lowest ticket prize is £5. A lot of people will happily punt £5 under the impression that 170,000 x £5 tickets need to be sold. The reality is that it'll need to be over 300,000! If insufficient tickets aren't sold then the owners have the option to extend the closing date. That's fine but the terms don't give any indication about how long that extension could be or if further extensions could be permittable.

If after any extension not enough tickets are sold then a cash prize will be awarded. 80% of the total amount of ticket sales sounds quite generous, but it should be noted that this is after fees, costs, marketing and "a £50,000 guaranteed donation to the charity and to the home owner". The remainding 20% is going to the promoter regardless of whether the competition is a success or not. Whilst the guaranteed donation of £50,000 is very generous we do wonder what will happen if after costs etc the cash prize turns out to be very small in comparison to other competitions? The charities being supported by the way are Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity and Promise Dreams.

Our Verdict

Judging by the website and the set-up we get the feeling that Grand Draw are looking to establish a presence in the house competition sector. The website has an Omaze feel to it - big property, reasonable ticket costs and an aim to make donations to good causes. There is a lot to like about the website and it does feel very professional. That said we would like more details about the property including more images and perhaps some idea of running costs. Million pound properties that have a lot of history tend not to be cheap to maintain.

There are a couple of issues that we've noted with regard the terms. The ticket target would be better explained with the lowest ticket cost and not "an average price". Some firming up on the potential for extended closing dates would also be nice. We did note that "no refunds would be offered" which considering the fates of Draw A House and Winton House (both closed and offering refunds) might be better if they were revised. Overall this will be one worth watching in 2021.

Extended Closing Date

As of March 31st the promoters have decided to extend the closing date. They explain as follows: "We have made the decision to extend the draw until June 30th, which is due mainly to the slow down from Covid through December and January. We want to have the best chance to hit our goals and raise as much as possible for our charity partners. Our hope is with the positive moves of restrictions being lifted, there will make a huge up-lift going into the summer".

Competition Closed

As of 30th April 2021 the organisers have decided to close the competition and award a cash prize. According to the website: "The organisers of The Grand Draw have made the difficult decision to end the competition early. The lack of any major sales of tickets through covid lock down has now made it impossible for us to reach our targets to give away the house as a prize". A total of £40,000 will now be awarded as prizes. The prize draw, which will be independently monitored, will be held on May 10th to allow for final free post entries. Enter Competition Here

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Grand Draw Discussion

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Disclaimer: Details shown above were correct at time of writing and are provided for information purposes only. Images are used under fair use policy. Map location is approximated by Google based on postcode/location info. Any links provided are not an endorsement from Loquax. In some cases Loquax may earn a referral fee from sales this does not effect our review. We strongly advise all visitors do due diligence on each contest before deciding to enter. Terms and conditions apply. Begambleaware.org.

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