Farmer raffles off 7.5ha farm for £50 a ticket

A farmer is hoping to sell his £1.3m North Yorkshire farm by raffle after struggling to sell it through the normal channels.

Farmer John Bennett needs to sell 28,000 tickets at £50 each before March next year to be able to award the mortgage-free property to a winner.

Barns Farm consists of 7.5ha in the North Riding of Yorkshire. It has a three-bedroom stone farmhouse, eight stables, a tack room, feed room, six car garage, barn and workshop.

See also: 8 mistakes that can put someone off buying your farm

After the raffle closes in March 2018, or earlier if the 28,000 tickets are sold before this date, three winners will be picked.

Cash prizes

One winner will receive the freehold to Barns Farm, which will be available six weeks after their name is announced on the raffle’s Facebook page .

Second and third prizes will consist of ultra-HD LED curved televisions, while £5,000 will be paid each to charities Children with Cancer, and Saltburn Animal Rescue.

If Mr Bennett fails to sell the full quota of tickets, it will be at his discretion whether to award the property or instead hand out cash prizes of 60%, 30% and 10% of the total funds raised, minus costs.

If an entrant buys 20 raffle tickets, they will be able to claim an additional free entry. Entrants must also correctly answer a question to take part.

The method of selling property through a raffle has already proven to be successful.

In August, Marie Segar won a £800,000 six-bedroom mansion in Lancashire after buying a £2 raffle ticket. Seller Dunston Low sold 500,000 paid entries and had 12,000 free entries over a six-month period.