A homeowner is selling her flat through an online raffle in a bid to help first time buyers get onto the property ladder.
Gina Sapsted is offering up her £370,000 two-bed flat in Tottenham, North London, for the price of just one £5 raffle ticket.
The 36-year-old was inspired to run the competition after she saw a documentary about ‘dodgy estate agents’ and read an article about DIY raffles.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘I think it helped seeing both of them within a week of each other and it made me think, “hang on this feels like something I can totally do”.
‘People need a bit of hope and winning a two-bed flat and living rent-free, mortgage-free in London is actually amazing.
‘You don’t have to win a huge mansion for it to be life-changing.’
This will be the second time she has tried to sell her flat using her unorthodox method.
However, the last one ended just after it had reached the halfway point to the £300,000 target – so Ms Sapsted was unable to sell her flat – but one lucky winner in Liverpool did take home a cash prize.
Gina Sapsted (pictured) is offering up her £300,000 two-bed flat in Tottenham, North London, for the price of just one £5 raffle ticket
Pictured: Ms Sapsted’s flat. Should she not sell her home, the 36-year-old has committed that at least five per cent of ticket sales will go towards helping a first time buyer purchase the flat
This time, Ms Sapsted is partnering with the homeless charity All People All Places (APAP) – with five per cent of all sales going to APAP – and entrants could alternatively walk away with a £300,000 prize.
To drum up support for her competition, Ms Sapsted has been posting vigorously on social media – where she has been working with creatives who lost their jobs to AI – and she has taken to the streets of Tottenham wearing a sandwich board advertising her lucrative prize.
In her second and final attempt to sell the flat – which is within walking distance of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – Ms Sapsted is hoping to target first-time buyers to help them get onto the property ladder.
She said: ‘Life hasn’t really done what young people were told it would you know, people were told, go to uni, get a good job, buy a house, and that dream everyone was told they could do is kind of breaking apart at the seams.
‘You have record numbers of men under 35 living at home with their parents. There’s so many indicators out there of the strain of housing on young people.
‘I want, ideally, my property competition to go to people that the social media algorithm wouldn’t typically expect to want to see it right. Like, it’s people that don’t usually gamble, but it’s young people that live with their parents or are in rentals or whatever.’
While she does admit, at this time, it has proven harder to sell tickets than the first time round Ms Sapsted does have a backup plan to sell her home.
‘In the scenario I don’t sell the flat or someone takes the money I’m committing that at least five per cent of ticket sales will go towards helping a first-time buyer purchase the flat,’ she said.
To drum up support for her competition, Ms Sapsted has taken to the streets of Tottenham wearing a sandwich board advertising her lucrative prize
Ms Sapsted has lived in her shared ownership apartment since 2015. It is situated within walking distance of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
She has also put forward a radical idea where the older generation, who were often able to buy their homes for as little as £4,000 in the 1970s, could give money to buyers to help them reach their deposit.
They could do so by shaving up to five per cent off the value of their home when selling it.
The 36-year-old continued: ‘Baby boomers could take up to five per cent of the value of their home when selling it and pay it forward for the deposit or buying costs of buyers. Young people face much higher deposit building barriers than previous generations.
‘If the government aren’t going to find a solution, perhaps some of the generations that gained the most from housing prices will step in.
‘We’re at the point now where the market either needs to come down so young people can afford to buy homes or we’ve got to find a way of giving back to younger people.’
Ms Sapsted also pointed out that landlords selling their homes will often offer to help support their tenants in similar ways when buying the property off of them.
She said: ‘I guess the question is should society be asking ourselves if we should be doing it more? And that’s what I’m trying to do that with the flat raffle to open up a conversation.’
Ms Sapsted, who has lived in her shared ownership apartment since 2015, is not moving far away from her current home.
‘My partner has bought a place just down the road. He knows I love Tottenham and my community so he kind of committed to living nearby. I’m still going to be a Tottenham girl.’
As well as the chance to win the flat or cash prize, Ms Sapsted is also offering two tickets to a concert of your choice at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this summer with acts such as Gorillaz, Bad Bunny and BTS set to perform there in the coming months.
The competition ends May 31 at 10pm. To enter Ms Sapsted’s raffle click here.
