£25 house competition fails to beat the credit crunch

A BUILDER who set up a competition to sell his house for £25 as a way of beating the credit crunch has been unsuccessful.

Kirk Clugston, 50, started the competition in December last year after attempts to sell his bungalow in Hill Rise, Ruislip, for the asking price of £570,000 failed.

However, after almost five months only 1,117 tickets were sold, falling short of the 28,000 that needed to be sold to give away the house.

The father-of-two from Swakeleys Drive, Ickenham, said: "I am absolutely gutted that it didn't work but I think the reason was because a lot of people knew about a similar competition in Devon that had to be stopped on the day of the draw and was being investigated by the Gambling Commission. People probably just assumed my one would be stopped as well.

"If I knew now what I knew then I would probably have changed the price of the tickets but I am not sure to what and I would have given myself an advertising budget.

"I don't think I would do it again personally because of the amount of money and time it takes. I have lost money on it and for eight months it is all I have done because I haven't had any other work.

"Four sets of people have already approached me and asked if I can do it for them though, which I would do for a fixed price because I have learnt so much over the last nine months about it."

Anchal Kharbanda from Harrow was announced as the winner after the draw on May 11 and she should be getting her winnings of £20,262 this week. The NSPCC is also getting £649.

Mr Clugston said: "When I called her she was over the moon and I think she's going to use the money for a deposit on a flat. She only bought one ticket but some people bought as many as 15."

Mr Clugston has now accepted an offer of £530,00 on the bungalow.