Latest news with #Omaze
Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
A £4m house for £25 — are Omaze raffles too good to be true?
Hannah Drury, 42, was trying not to feel deflated as she returned in near-darkness to her Somerset home from the primary school where she works as a music teacher. It was January 3, a lovely Christmas holiday with her family had just ended, and she had just attended a staff training day before the start of term. Then, she looked at her phone to find she had several missed calls and a voicemail message purporting to be from a representative of the property raffle company Omaze, asking her to call him back. 'I told my husband and we both agreed it was probably a friend mucking around or something,' says Hannah, who, along with her husband, Rupert, 50, is an opera singer in her spare time. 'I eventually decided I'd ring him back and, if it felt like a scam, I was going to hang up.' A few days earlier, Hannah had paid £25 to enter the draw for a £4 million luxury house on the shores of Coniston Water in the Lake District, although she had given it little thought. She had really been interested in the following month's draw, which was for a grand townhouse in Bath. 'I noticed how beautiful it was. But, you know, nobody ever enters these things with an expectation of a win, do they? It just hadn't even come into my psyche that this was ever an option,' she says. After calling the number back, and being convinced it wasn't a scam, Hannah was let in on the news: she and Rupert, who is a secondary school music teacher, had beaten hundreds of thousands of other entrants to win the property — along with £250,000 in cash, tax-free, to spend on its maintenance. Within minutes, an Omaze presenter called Paul Rees was knocking on the front door of the house in Frome that they share with their children, aged three, seven and nine, to whisk them off to do an interview. Startled by their sudden arrival, she was told that the Omaze staff and crew always learn who the winner is a day before, so they have time to get there. Suddenly, the day had become very weird indeed. By Monday, after a weekend digesting the news, the family were driving up to the Lakes to see their new home, booking some emergency time off work. 'We were put up in a beautiful hotel. And then we got the big reveal on Tuesday and we got to see the house for the first time. And then stayed overnight again. Then we came home on Wednesday and it was back to work.' After taking a vow of silence, unable to tell colleagues or friends, Omaze issued a press release on the Friday and, suddenly, the Drurys were mobbed. 'The parents were all in the playground coming up and hugging me. I couldn't believe it — I still can't,' she says. When they got to the house, they were overwhelmed, describing it as 'a million times better' than the pictures on the internet, noting that it's 'not very close to anything, which is delightful'. The nearest town, Coniston, is a 40-minute walk or ten-minute drive away. The home was bought from a local seller by Omaze after a two-year hunt. It had been redeveloped, opened out and modernised by the company, including being fitted with huge windows, which provided breathtaking views of the lake, the mountains and Grizedale forest. There is also a private jetty and six acres of natural woodland with streams and a spa house. Hannah and Rupert decided to keep the house and share it with their friends, who can stay free of charge. 'The cash prize of £250,000 to support the house means that I'm able to offer it to my friends and family and say, just go and enjoy it.' For the long term they have decided to list the house with a holiday lettings agency. Similar properties can go for £15,000 a week during peak season and can 'clear £100,000 a year'. They have no intention of leaving their native Somerset and will stay in their teaching jobs. 'I think we're both very happy with our lifestyle, with our careers, with our children being happy in school. We both have jobs that we love,' she says. Hannah and Rupert's extraordinary raffle win has meant a transformational change. 'This will change my children's lives. This is a multi-generation life-changing event,' Hannah says. However, that isn't always the case. How many winners actually keep their property? Before Covid, the idea of raffling a home was almost unheard of. But this changed during the pandemic, as swathes of the country were stuck at home and dreaming of pastures new. Sensing an obsession in the making, Omaze, which was founded in Los Angeles in 2012, raffled its first British home in 2020, and has now done 39. Its model is to buy, redevelop and give away properties worth many millions of pounds in its draws. At the same time, smaller players like Raffle House (founded in 2018) and Tramway Path (2019) started growing rapidly. Anoushka Millard, the vice president for property at Omaze, emphasises that it goes big on the bling — buying 'places with real desirability and wide-ranging appeal' with features such as 'landscaped gardens, swimming pools, home gyms and saunas, an office space, striking views, high-spec kitchens, as well as nearby amenities and attractions'. Omaze winners can either take the home for themselves, rent it out or sell it, with the money raised by the ticket sales going back to the company and a charity partner, which has included Comic Relief, London's air ambulance charity, the Teenage Cancer Trust and British Heart Foundation. The company says that it has raised £93.8 million since 2020. A few questions have occasionally been raised about Omaze's buying methodology in a handful of rare, but high-profile cases. Vicky Curtis-Cresswell, a former Miss Wales finalist who won a £6 million home in Norfolk in February — in Omaze's most expensive draw that also raised millions for Comic Relief — has been unable to move in after it emerged that an extension, tennis court and swimming pool at the property do not appear to have planning permission. At the time of winning the house, the 38-year-old had said it felt like an 'enormous weight' had been lifted from her shoulders, as she had been struggling to afford to rent at the time. Omaze says it 'takes all appropriate measures to guarantee that the winner will always receive a good and marketable title' including 'comprehensive surveys and checks, such as a level three building survey, title and Land Registry search, local authority search, EPC assessment, and environmental assessments'. 'Omaze has taken every possible step to bring the issue to a swift resolution, including submitting a retrospective planning application to address the recommendations made by North Norfolk district council. Omaze is committed to achieving a successful conclusion without any further delay – and will continue working closely with the council to ensure the matter is resolved as efficiently as possible.' Omaze says Curtis-Cresswell has received her £250,000 cash prize and will incur no costs to remedy the situation. A similar example took place when a raffle winner, Glen Elmy, from Walsall, gave back the keys to the home he had won on the Devon coast after three days in October 2021 and was given a cash payout of £3 million instead. The five-bedroom home was being threatened by coastal erosion, neighbours had told him. Omaze denied this, saying: 'As with all its properties, Omaze carried out extensive professional surveys, searches and inspections prior to purchasing the house in Devon. Omaze can confirm that none of these reports raised any material concerns with the property, including in relation to coastal erosion. The property is fully insurable.' Another winner, Darren Wordon, 49, and wife Mandy, won a £2.5 million property in Radford near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in 2021. The home, known as Willowbrook House, was sold in December 2022, with flooding affecting it just before he moved in. 'During a period of exceptionally heavy rain before the prize draw launched, a blocked culvert within the vicinity of the property referenced caused water to temporarily pool and back up towards the property,' says Omaze. 'The culvert was unblocked and bypassed, allowing water to dissipate immediately and prevent any further issues. Omaze then had a specialist engineer carry out works to further secure the property against future extreme weather.' Mercifully, these examples do, however, seem rare. Win a house, sell it on Of those who have won Omaze homes, remarkably few appear to have kept them for more than a few months. Given the size of the homes, how far away they live from them and the cost of maintaining the homes, many winners prefer to sell them and pocket the cash. However, when putting them on the market, a few winners have reported finding that their valuations are far smaller than the price advertised by Omaze. Lauren Keene, 24, a nanny from Gloucester, won a draw for a £3 million mansion on the Wirral, but put it on the market for £2.5 million after spending a few nights there. An 81-year-old Southampton widow, Patricia Moule, who won a £4 million Highland mansion in 58 acres on the banks of Loch Rannoch in April, put it on the market weeks later for £3.975 million. Meanwhile, Tom Steenson, 63, put a Devon home on the market for £2.35 million — more than its original £2 million valuation — after opting to keep his job in the car industry and stay in Maidstone, Kent. Omaze did not say how many people had chosen to keep the properties, and stressed that it was up to the winners what they did with them and most make excellent money — but it's believed that only a handful kept them. Carol and Tom Steenson also sold their £2m Omaze house in Devon MARK FIELD PHOTOGRAPHY What about raffling your own home? If you don't have Omaze's marketing clout, the problem is advertising. You have to do this yourself, putting up a sign in front of your house, using social media, or websites such as Raffall where you can advertise them. However, Raffall's draws don't always drum up enough interest — 50 home-rafflers gave up and stayed put after raffles, while 18 succeeded. If your home has the necessary amount of bling, could you get Omaze to buy it from you? Probably not. Millard says she uses a network of special buying agents to procure the perfect houses according to the company's business model. She says that even though 'people email in from time to time' with suggestions, none have made the grade. Alisa Zotimova, the chief executive of AZ Real Estate, an estate agency in Marylebone, central London, is a sceptic. 'There are so many companies running raffles now. In 90 per cent of cases they don't sell enough tickets to make it worthwhile and the seller finds themselves back at square one.'
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
I stayed in one of the multimillion-pound Omaze houses. This is what it was like
Every time I pick up my phone for a guilty scroll on Instagram, or turn on the TV mid-day, there it is: an advert for Omaze. It's usually a jolly media personality extolling the virtues of the latest prize – a swimming pool here, a cinema there. The company has recognised something in the British public that has enabled them to captivate the nation; our love of a good raffle mixed with our addiction to property porn, tied up with a neat feel-good factor bow (a guaranteed minimum donation of £1m and 17 per cent of ticket sales from each draw go to charity). The prize may be a multimillion pound house, but – with upkeep costs sky high – an overwhelming trend has seen all but a handful of the 39 winners to date choose to sell up and cash out, rather than move in. Indeed, April's prize, a Highland Perthshire property on the banks of Loch Rannoch, won by 81-year-old Patricia Moule, went on the market almost immediately – at the end of June – and is currently listed on Rightmove for £3,975,000. There is one alternative, however: renting out the property to holidaymakers. This is what Lisa Morgan chose to do, after she won a £4.5m home in Cornwall, along with £250,000 in cash, in September 2024 (and hit the headlines when she turned up for her 11.5 hour shift as an NHS nurse in Merseyside the next day). Her home, Seahorses, in Maenporth near Falmouth, is one of just two properties in the UK openly advertised as an Omaze-winner's home – the other being Post Knott Lodge in Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District. The opportunity for a real-life snoop around one of these media-famous houses was too tempting an opportunity to pass up, so I tracked Seahorses down on Cornish Holiday Cottages, booked in, and bundled my family off for a weekend by the sea. I'll admit, the struggle to get our compact crossover SUV up the steep incline approaching the house filled me with a sudden apprehension – but once I was out of the car, punching in the code for the electric gate and confronted with the spectacular views, my fears abated. If the south Cornwall coast is good for anything, it's a touch of drama. It was a rare, sunny day in early May with clear blue skies and a bracing breeze, and across the lawn I could see straight out to sea, with Falmouth blinking in the sun on the horizon. I traced the coastal path – accessible through the gate at the end of the garden – scrawling away through the lush green clifftops opposite, the grass dropping into dramatic granite grey towards the crashing seas below, while Pendennis Castle stood in stately, historic contrast to the glass-clad luxury home beside me. 'Swimming pool!' screamed my three-year-old son, breaking me from my quiet moment of wonder. The family had begun exploring, and my husband was already rolling back the electric top on the outdoor heated pool – my children watching, delighted, from the safety of the pool house. Seahorses feels like the sort of place that's been designed so that you hardly ever need to leave it – and over the next three days, aside from a trip to a local supermarket (to supplement the lovely Cornish Food Box which was left for us), and a spot of exploring, we barely did. Open plan in design, its two lounges have very distinct purposes: a smaller room with sofas, an Xbox and even a VR headset was clearly intended for teens; while a larger communal living space was connected to the kitchen and offered sublime sea views. There were also indoor and outdoor dining areas, a barbecue, fire pit, hot tub, four additional bedrooms – all with electronic blinds – multiple bathrooms, a boot room and utility space. There was even a wine room – although this, sadly (if not unsurprisingly), had not been stocked. But the highlight (for me at least) was the turret, reached by a winding, wooden, floating staircase, at the top of which was a desk and telescope, and a door opening onto a large, private terrace complete with sun loungers. A sun trap with outstanding views. 'From the moment I walked into the house I knew I had to keep it,' Morgan told me. 'The emotion I felt was quite overwhelming, knowing what I was about to give to my family.' A flick through the guest book made it clear that this generosity has been felt far beyond her own family, however. Inside, I found personal messages that suggested fond familiarity with the owner, signed off in shortened names and with kisses. 'This house couldn't have 'happened' to a nicer, [more] hard-working family,' one read. 'Memories made to last a lifetime,' said another. Morgan's passion for the home is undeniable. 'The decision to set Seahorses up as a holiday home was an easy choice because we didn't want to leave it empty for long periods of time,' she told me. 'I want others to be able to share in the magic and make lasting happy memories here. Families these days are so spread out, and Seahorses is an ideal place to bring everyone back together.' Her words are borne out in love and care which has clearly gone into making the house feel like a home. It's packed with thoughtful details – a wide variety of glass types (essential), plenty of washing powder, and baskets of blankets dotted throughout the common spaces, allowing you to roll back the doors and let the cool, refreshing sea air roll in while keeping warm. What was missing? Shampoo – though, to be fair, this is an omission typical of many a self-catering property. And search though I did across the many, many drawers of the five large bedrooms, I could not find a hairdryer (a small inconvenience, I know, but when there's a VR headset downstairs, a somewhat surprising one). Otherwise, however, our every need had been met. We also made time for a bit of exploring – or as much as you can do with a one- and three-year-old in tow – heading out for a walk along the undulating coast path (my son more interested in the discovery of abundant sticky weed than the views), and making the two-minute drive down to Maenporth Beach, where there was plenty of parking, soft sand and a café. The children also enjoyed nearby Trebah gardens, an eight-minute drive to the west, where a great adventure playground, small beach and – as the name suggests – pretty gardens made for a lovely day out. For those keen to venture further, popular Falmouth is just 10 minutes away by car (or 45 minutes on foot), and links by tiny ferry to even more popular St Mawes across the Carrick Roads estuary. It's a wonderful part of the world – but lovely as it was to explore the area (and put some money in the pockets of local businesses), it was even more lovely to come back to Seahorses each time; our tucked-away, temporary idyll. After a weekend of bubbling in the hot tub, splashing in the pool and barbecuing by the open log fire, my family returned home, as promised, with memories to last a lifetime. And, in my case, a monthly subscription to Omaze. Essentials Penny Walker was a guest of Cornish Holiday Cottages (01326 250339). Seahorses has five bedrooms (sleeps up to 10) and six bathrooms, plus a hot tub, swimming pool, electric car point, dishwasher and woodburner. It is also pet-friendly. There is limited availability in August and September, although the calendar opens up in October. From £3,096 a week.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Inside the most desirable Omaze dream house yet: Property guru who picks them reveals exactly how she makes them over as she shows us round - and tells how you can 'Omaze' your house too
I cannot tell you where I am, but I can guarantee that, come August 14, people will be talking about it up and down the country. That is when the next Omaze house draw will go live and entrants to the competition will be in with a chance of winning this home, where I spent a day with Anoushka Millard, Omaze's vice-president of property and partnerships. She is, crucially, the person charged with picking out these astonishing properties. Until then, the location is top secret.
Metro
6 days ago
- Business
- Metro
A £6,000,000 mistake? The 'Omaze curse' plaguing these stunning dream homes
It sounds almost too good to be true. Buy an Omaze raffle ticket for £10 and walk away with a James Bond-esque property worth millions, with no stamp duty, mortgage or solicitors' fees to pay. Those who fancy a flutter could stand a chance to win in their latest draw, with a £3,000,000 property in Cornwall with views of both the Atlantic Ocean and Porthcothan Bay currently up for grabs. However, it seems the Omaze Million Pound House Draw may indeed be a little more complicated than it first appears, and the prizes (which have even included a £5,000,000 Chelsea townhouse in the past) haven't always turned out to be a dream come true. Now, having found out she was the lucky winner back in March, one winner is still waiting to pick up the keys to her £6,000,000 Norfolk mansion – all because of planning breaches. Vicky Curtis-Cresswell and her husband, Dale, said that after they got the call, their lives 'changed forever' as they became 'multi-millionaires.' 'I was absolutely flabbergasted, my sister in-law burst out crying, it was a mixture of shock and pure joy,' she said following the win. While the family told the BBC they'd hoped to sell up, pocket the cash and buy a house down the road in Wales, any hopes of becoming cash millionaires seem to have been culled for now. You can access completely fee-free mortgage advice with London & Country (L&C) Mortgages, a partner of Metro. Customers benefit from: – Award winning service from the UK's leading mortgage broker – Expert advisors on hand 7 days a week – Access to 1000s of mortgage deals from across the market Unlike many mortgage brokers, L&C won't charge you a fee for their advice. Find out how much you could borrow online Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Despite their initial joy, Omaze is having to work with the North Norfolk District Council over the Blakeney home, as it battles to retain a number of opulent features added to the property, including an extension, swimming pool, tennis court, summerhouse and four-bay garage. As such, Omaze tells Metro that it's had to submit a 'retrospective planning application' – and that it 'continues to work with North Norfolk District Council in relation to recommendations made.' 'Omaze reiterates that it guarantees no house winner would ever have to incur any costs whatsoever to remedy any historical planning issue,' a spokesperson added. 'Omaze further guarantees that all house prizes are transferred to winners with good and marketable title.' The planning application is currently pending with the council, and once validated, it could appear on the public portal as early as next week, ready for comments from locals and a final vote from the planning committee. But if there are any hiccups or 'further requirements' on the council's end, it could be delayed further, putting any chance of an imminent house sale firmly on the back burner. Likewise, in 2023, the Daily Mail reported that, out of the 14 luxury properties that had been won at the time, just three were still lived in – meaning 10 of them had been sold on, while one was rented out. Since Omaze started their 'win-win' property draw in 2020, which raises money for charities like Marie Curie and the RNLI, it appears that some winners would rather have the cash, which is indeed an option as stated in the terms and conditions. To date, it's made millionaires out of 39 winners. But is the bubble slowly starting to burst? One of the properties in question was a seven-bedroom Cornish mansion, won by 74-year-old widower June Smith back in May 2023 for just £25. Just three months later, she had listed the waterfront home for sale to help her children and grandchildren with the 'next chapter in their lives.' June was given the freedom to either live in the house, rent it out or sell it, with local estate agents estimating it could achieve £5,000 to £7,000 per month from long-term rentals – and up to £14,000 a week from peak season holiday rentals. June previously lived in her two-bedroom house detached house in Essex for the last 17 years, and last stayed in Cornwall in a caravan with her late husband, Ron. She said she 'wanted to enjoy at least one family holiday' in the property before selling it, and she got her wish. This sentiment was echoed by Omaze winner Marilyn Pratt, 70, who won the property draw in April 2021, bagging herself a £2,900,000 Fulham home. But just eight months later, she sold it for £2,800,000 so she could use the cash to support her daughters and grandchildren. She remains in her two-bed home with her husband David, where she has lived for the past 40 years. However, funding the lives of their loved ones isn't the only motivation for abandoning their prize-draw homes. For one winner, Glen Elmy, it was a more fundamental issue. The foundry worker from Walsall won a James Bond-esque property on the north Devon coast with views across Combe Martin Bay in October 2021 – but it turns out the win wasn't the miracle Glen first thought. After just three days, Glen handed back the keys to Stealth House to Omaze and demanded a cash payout of £3,000,000. Why? The five-bedroom home was being threatened by coastal erosion, and neighbours even predicted the property would succumb to it within the next five to ten years, according to MailOnline. However, an Omaze spokesperson said: 'As with all its properties, Omaze carried out extensive professional surveys, searches and inspections prior to purchasing the house in Devon. 'Omaze can confirm that none of these reports raised any material concerns with the property, including in relation to coastal erosion. The property is fully insurable.' Other Omaze winners, 49-year-old Darren Wordon, and his 48-year-old wife, Mandy, won the top prize of a luxury £2,500,000 property in Radford near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in 2021. But again, there were some issues. Despite having celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson and the Beckhams as neighbours, other locals said the property was 'built in a valley that floods every year'. While the motivations are unknown, the property, known as Willowbrook House, was sold in December 2022. The thought of losing not only money but also damage to the house was enough to deter Glen and other Omaze winners, while some have had concerns about finances. Leicestershire winner Uttam Parmar, 58, put the Cornwall Rock property on the market just eight weeks after bagging the home for just £25 in the Omaze draw on August 12, 2022. Mr Parmar told MailOnline he and his wife Raki, 53, had to sell the Cornish home because the upkeep was too expensive for them. 'We are selling it and not keeping it as a holiday home. If we could afford to keep it, we would. It is beautiful. But we are looking to buy some land or a smaller property instead,' Uttam said. The property was put on the market for £4,000,000, but was soon £500,000 cheaper after failing to appeal to buyers. However, not every single winner wants to ditch their instant life of luxury. Construction worker Kevin Johnson is over the moon with his £3,000,000 Omaze property in Islington. For what particular reason? Apart from it being a gorgeous four-bed Victorian home, it's just down the road from 34-year-old Kevin's favourite football team, Arsenal. More Trending For 33-year-old mum Becca Pott, who won a £3,900,000 five-bedroom Omaze house in February 2022, it was the lifestyle the win afforded her that made her keep the keys to the home. She told MailOnline: 'We always knew we were going to move in and enjoy it for at least that first summer, just to experience living in a place like this as a family. 'But after a few weeks we realised we didn't want to leave – so decided we should keep it.' View More » This piece was originally published on March 22, 2025. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: What changes to mortgages for first-time buyers means for you MORE: 'Paradise' crowned UK's most affordable seaside town with £220,000 average house price MORE: What I Own: We bought our £500,000 London two-bed before 30 — we saved for two years
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Beauty queen's £6m Omaze dream home could be partially demolished
Omaze is fighting to avoid having to demolish parts of a £6million home won for just £10 in a prize draw by submitting a retrospective planning application for areas that were built without approval. The dream home was offered in a link-up with the BBC to raise funds for Comic Relief , with backing from stars including Davina McCall , Lenny Henry and Rylan Clark . But discrepancies between the approved development and what had been built emerged before the sweepstake closed and plans to announce the winner live on the night were shelved. The winner, former Miss Wales finalist Vicky Curtis-Cresswell, is yet to receive the keys while the legal wrangle rumbles on. Omaze has now submitted the application, revealing the extent of the problems at stunning Larkside in Blakeney on the trendy north Norfolk coast – billed as its biggest ever prize draw. The three-bedroom mansion is designed in the style of the exclusive homes found in The Hamptons area of Long Island. The company has asked North Norfolk District Council if it can keep a single-storey extension to the eastern wing, a four-bay garage, summerhouse, tennis court with 'associated enclosure and landscaping' and outdoor swimming pool. All of these could end up being razed to the ground if the local authority's planning officials and councillors refuse permission. A council spokesman confirmed the retrospective application from Omaze was received on Tuesday. He added: 'The application is currently in the process of being validated. Once validated, all the relevant documents will be available to view on the public portal. 'If valid upon receipt, it is expected to appear on the portal as early as next week but will be longer if there are further requirements.' Local residents and other relevant local authorities will be able to comment formally once the plans are made available publicly. They will then be voted on by the council's planning committee at a later date. The council launched a probe in February – a month before Red Nose Day - after an eagle-eyed member of the public spotted potential issues with the property, which was built in 2020. If retrospective planning permission was not granted for the areas under scrutiny, Omaze could appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. Ms Curtis-Cresswell, 38, has revealed she plans to sell the mansion – although the planning breaches have delayed her plans and threaten to affect its value. When she won, she was looking for a rental home while living with her husband Dale, 41, and young daughter at her in-laws' three-bedroom house in Wales. Speaking at the time, the 2008 Miss Wales entrant said: 'It's crazy. One week, we're worrying about our old car breaking down, the next thing we've got a £6 million house.' A £250,000 cash prize came with the 5,000 sq ft house, which has access to a secluded pontoon and has £165,000 worth of furnishings. Letting agents estimates it could be rented out for £5,500 per month. North Norfolk District Council concluded earlier this year that the property had 'not been completed in accordance with the approved plans' after an investigation which including a visit from officers. Jamie Minors, managing director of local estate agents Minors and Brady, said then: 'This will massively affect the chance of sale, as some people will be put off and will not want to buy it. It could also affect the value. 'Selling it will definitely be more difficult and challenging, as solicitors will definitely advise against it.' However, he added the high-end property market also attracted wealthy people who would 'try and find a way to resolve any problem'.
