House Sold By Lottery Ticket In Crisis-Driven Spain
Back in 2008, the bottom fell out of the property market in Spain. Since then the financial crisis has caused unemployment, evictions and homelessness, and it has become extremely difficult to sell a property. That is until now, after the first house sold by lottery ticket has been announced.
It was the owners that came up with the ideal solution. According to the Local, the Bolumar family set up Lotohome.es, a scheme whereby an owner can get their house sold by lottery ticket.
What this means is that almost everyone can afford to participate and possibly win the home of their dreams for a mere 10 euros ($11).
Apparently, it took a huge amount of red tape, a bureaucratic nightmare, and more than a year to get the scheme off the ground, but on the last Sunday of March this year, the lottery draw was held and now the lucky winner is the proud owner of a 4-bedroom townhouse in Segorbe near Castellón in Spain.
The house, worth an estimated €90,000 ($99,256) ending up bringing in an extra 10,000 euros for the previous owner, after administrative costs
Feeling lucky? Spain sees homes sold by €10 lottery ticket. http://t.co/gUcAgnDehj pic.twitter.com/sjK4mb89di
— Fiona Govan (@fifimadrid) April 6, 2015
The Bolumar family that came up with the idea after they tried to sell the house, inherited from an elderly relative who passed away two years ago, without success. With little hope of finding a buyer, or indeed a bank willing to give someone a mortgage on the home, Pepe Bolumar said they realized they had to try something different.
“When we put it on the market, a few people showed an interest but no bank was willing to issue a mortgage.”
“So one day I came up with the idea of raffling off the property.”
He told the Spanish language newspaper El Mundo that, “For the price of just €10 someone has won a house in perfect condition and they won’t have to pay a cent more because all the costs are included.”
#breakingnews First house sold by lottery ticket in Spain: A four-bedroom town house near Castellón worth €90,… http://t.co/1J1DpWpwV1
— Spanish News (@newsspain) April 6, 2015
As the idea has worked so well for their own property, the Bolumar family has decided to continue the scheme and will act as consultants for anyone else who is desperate to have their house sold by lottery ticket.
Bolumar says they were the first to do this in Spain and he believes that under a scheme where a house is sold by lottery ticket not only the seller of the house, but the lottery winner themselves can benefit.
In other, less lucky, Spanish news, the Inquisitr reports that a man was gored in his buttocks by a bull at a recent festival.
[Image: CC BY-NC 2.0 Jeremy Brooks]
