Unhappy that after many viewings her trendy London studio flat was not selling, Lara Buckler, 28, decided to take matters into her own hands and offer it up as a competition prize. The Resident finds out more…
Lead image: Lara Buckler at her Nunhead flat
Lara, who has worked in the property sector for 10 years, decided to offer 200,000 tickets, priced just £2, to sell the flat, worth £300,000 in Nunhead. Lara says the competition offers significantly better odds than someone buying a lottery ticket, which has odds of 13,983,816-to-one, to land the jackpot.
She will cover all costs involved with purchasing the property – stamp duty (including the additional 3% for those that already own a property), legal fees and even Council Tax for the first six months.
‘Our odds are 200,000-to-one or less, dependent on how many tickets you buy – the price of half a pint of beer and less than a glass of wine in the pub,’ says Buckler. ‘What could be easier?
‘We wanted to come up with a novel way of selling this trendy pad and also help other people at the same time. We want to encourage first time buyers to have a punt and hopefully make getting onto the property ladder an easier and less stressful experience.’
We wanted to come up with a novel way of selling this trendy pad and also help other people at the same time. We want to encourage first time buyers to have a punt
Lara bought the flat at auction for £190,000 in 2014 and did it up in an on-trend, industrial chic style. The plan was to sell it on for a profit, but things didn’t quite go to plan.
‘I put it on the market for £300,000 and had a lot of interest but no offers,’ said said Lara, ‘so I dropped the price to £275,000 but it still wouldn’t sell.’
She has so much confidence in the idea that she and her property developer husband have launched houseagogo, a company that will use the same method to ‘sell’ other people’s homes.
‘We want to put the fun back into property,’ says Lara. ‘We will also be giving away 10% of proceeds to a mental health charity as we believe this is one of the root causes of homelessness and 10% to a local council project.’
See houseagogo.com to buy up to 500 £2 tickets. Competition closes 5 May 2018.
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