Couple raffle £650,000 house

A couple in the Tees Valley are raffling their £650,000 dream home in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton in a bid to beat the housing slump.

Tickets to win the luxury six-bedroom mansion are on sale for £25 each via a website.
Vicky Brown and her husband Simon need to sell a staggering 28,000 raffle tickets to cover the mortgage and legal fees.

The couple, who have a 20-month old daughter Lexi and with another baby on the way, only moved into the house that Simon designed himself late last year, but less than a year on they want to downsize.

Simon, who owns successful creative agency, Calm Asylum, said “We built the house with the intention of selling it and moving on to the next project, but with the credit crunch and the decline in the housing market we’ve decided to give the raffle idea a go”.

Vicky, who works in marketing and 33 year old Simon, said a friend gave them the idea to try and raffle their home.

The couple are donating some of the proceeds from each ticket sale to charity – The Main Project for autistic children. The sale of tickets and prize draw is being supervised by solicitors.

If the Browns don’t manage to raise the amount they need from the raffle they will hold a prize draw for the money they have raised less admin, marketing costs and charity contributions.

The website address for the house raffle is www.winfellowshall.com

FELLOWS HALL featured on Channel Five’s Property List in July this year and also appeared as the “dream home” in the Tees Valley Evening Gazette’s Homemaker property supplement in April.

The Ingleby Barwick property was described as a mix between contemporary design and grandeur from bygone days.

The name “Fellows Hall” refers to the vaulted entrance hallway, which has high ceilings and a grand staircase, like and old Victorian hall.

Special features include an open plan-style ground floor, a garden room, a cinema/video-games room and views over open fields and the Cleveland Hills.

Simon also runs Teesside based digital branding agency Calm Asylum. Keep your eyes peeled for his entrepreneurial story, which will arrive on If we can, you can on Friday afternoon.