Irish woman ‘sells’ house via lottery: €2.5 million for a €300,000 house.

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1 month ago

Irish Woman Sells House Through Lottery, Earns Millions

An Irish woman recently sold her house through a lottery on the British website Raffall. The decision to raffle off her house proved to be extremely lucrative, as she sold tickets worth over €2.5 million.

The housing market has been in turmoil for some time, with ever-increasing yields and asking prices. A woman from Ireland decided to take a different approach and not sell her house through a real estate agent. The Irish woman organized a lottery to raffle off her house, which turned out to be a very lucrative choice.

Imelda Collins already opened the sale of the tickets in October via the British website for special lotteries, Raffall. On the website, she announced that this was a unique opportunity for people to own a house:

“Welcome to my page to get a chance to win your dream home. This is a unique opportunity to win my beautiful house, located on 1.75 acres in the beautiful county of Leitrim, Ireland, just fifteen minutes drive from the city of Sligo and five minutes drive from the nearest town. The current housing crisis in Ireland makes it extremely difficult to buy or rent, so this is an incredible opportunity to own your own home. If you win my house, you are mortgage and rent-free, and I will pay your legal fees and stamp duty!”

Lottery enthusiasts could buy a ticket for £5 (€5.89). Initially, the sale of the tickets was not spectacular, but that changed when the New York Times paid attention to the lottery just before the deadline. In the last 24 hours before the deadline, more than 200,000 tickets were sold, bringing the final count to approximately 457,000 tickets.

Lucrative Choice

The Irish woman made a lucrative choice, as the lottery of her house raised over €2.5 million in total. With that, she raised much more money than with a possible sale of the house, which had an estimated value of €300,000.

However, she is not allowed to keep the full proceeds herself, because there are still a number of expenses that will be deducted. For example, the lottery website receives 10% and she also has to pay 33% capital gains tax. In addition, she also incurred costs in promoting the campaign, and she will make a generous donation to an Irish organization that is committed to animal welfare.

The lottery draw already took place on Thursday, May 22, with even the winner doubting whether she actually won a house:

To ensure that the UK Gambling Commission could not intervene in the lottery, participants had to answer a quiz question before they could buy a ticket. However, the question ‘Which color is associated with Ireland?’ was not the most difficult question.

Such a Construction Not Possible in the Netherlands

A spokesperson for the Dutch Gambling Authority also responded to the lottery of the Irish woman. The supervisor stated that it would still see such a situation as a lottery, despite the ‘quiz question’, because so many people know the answer. As a result, a lottery license is required, and the construction in the Netherlands could not bypass the Ksa.