Win a London Pad have handed the keys to a brand new £400,000 Central London apartment to their first lucky winner. Stephen Lakey, a 37-year old IT project manager, won the property prize by purchasing two £50 tickets last month.

Although we have seen many house competitions and raffles launched over the last few months, the majority were cancelled or postponed due to various obstacles encountered along the way. Today, Win a London Pad became the first such property competition in the last few months to successfully give away an apartment in this way. The competition is designed to give away a further 10 flats in Whitechapel by selling up to 150,000 tickets.

In the process, Win a London Pad is hoping to raise up to £600,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital charity, by setting aside £3 for each entry sold in the competition. The money will be used to contribute towards a four-bed cardiac ward in the hospital’s heart and lung centre, due to open in 2012.

Mr Lakey, who until now lived with and supported his unemployed parents in a council flat in Abbots Langley, was suitably excited when he received the news: "I still can't believe it. It's life-changing. I can't wait to move to the city - it's the first time I will have lived away from home."

"I bought two tickets last month for the hell of it when I saw some of the money was going to such a good cause. I thought nothing more of it until I received a phone call telling me I'd won.

"I was speechless. It's a very luxurious flat. I'm going to live in it at first and then maybe rent it or sell it later on. It's the best £100 I ever spent."

In order to participate in the competition, players must answer three questions designed to test their skill, judgement and knowledge. Players that answer all questions correctly stand a chance of winning the next flat.

MIA Developments, the company running the Win a London Pad competition, are planning to give away one property per month until the remaining ten have been won.

MIA's managing director Rafik Patel, 27, said: "All 10 apartments must be won and those who have already entered will automatically qualify for the new draw."

Mr Patel plans to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 tickets before it gives away each successive one and two-bedroom apartment, depending on its valuation. In addition to the ten properties, MIA intends to give away 400 cash prizes of £250 each and 4,500 cash prizes of £150 each. The developer decided to give away the first property prize at a loss to kick-start interest in the competition.

While this represents excellent news for the first winner, it may provide a positive signal to anyone considering entering such competitions. After months of waiting for a resolution of the Devon Oldborough Retreat property raffle, this could provide some comfort for both existing and potential players – and serve as a reference point for people considering running their own property competition in the future.

What do you think? If you have never entered one before, does this make it more likely that you might buy a ticket for a property competition? If you are considering running your own competition, or are already running one yourself, what is your opinion about this latest news?

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Great news!

That's so cool 8-) good luck to the guy, looks like he deserves it!! I'm definitely considering very seriously whether I should part with 50 quid to have a go at this one

billy , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

If you bought a ticket previously, the good news is you're still in the running for the next draw :-D (assuming you got the questions correctly of course)

Lisa , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

I've been watching this house competition for quite some time and always wondered if they would deliver, especially since for a while the ticket counter wasn't visible anymore. Now they've delivered their first prize I'm taking them much more seriously
cheers, Jules

Jules , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

I'm thinking of running my own property raffle, I simply can't sell my flat right now. Surely this will help show that some of these are genuine, honest competitions that actually do generate winners! I'm hoping this will create a bit more trust in this space after the last few high profile ones fell through...

anonymous , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

@ anonymous

Thanks for your feedback, it will be interesting to see how other house competitions fare over the coming weeks. We expect at least one competition to announce a winner this month and are still hoping for a prompt resolution of the Oldborough Retreat Devon competition.

The more property competitions continue running successfully and actually start generating winners, the more likely it will be that the public will take the next ones more seriously.

Team Win House , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

37 and still living with his parents - sounds like a nice guy though he was looking after them all this time.

Lucky chap and clearly deserved to win, well done mate!!

The Hoff , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

Fair enough they didn't make money on this one but shows their good intentions. I think this should attract more interest from the [naturally suspicious] UK public.

I noticed they've already sold some tickets since this news was published yesterday.

Never heard of this until now but sounds like a great idea in this climate

David , 10 Mar 2009

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Good news

Ahhh nice to read some good news for a change! All the best to Stephen looks like a nice man

Peachy , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

WOW that's absolutely amazing, who said it wasn't worth it with these odds! better than the National Lottery if you ask me

Stelios , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

Not sure the flat's worth £400k, but who really cares, Stephen is obviously delighted and looking at the photo it looks pretty nice (although not quite finished!)

I'd have a go now

George_uk , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

I keep on reading about people cynically looking at the valuation of the properties and complaining about how many tickets are sold. Fact is these guys made a loss to demonstrate their goodwill, fair play and whatever the value of the flat if you win it with a £50 ticket it's the deal of a lifetime. If that's not good enough for you nobobdy's forcing you to enter

The bulldog , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

Am I right in thinking they don't sell MP4s anymore? Guess they've got no more in stock, shame :)

Margaret , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

well done lad happy to see this someone get a lucky break for once

if the Gambling Commission helped more people organise these competitions properly everyone would be happier if you ask me: more winners and happy homeowners!

chelseafan , 10 Mar 2009

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Re: Man wins 400,000 pound flat with Win a London Pad

What about the devon property raffle? It's been so long and that's an even better prize! hopefully they can pick a winner asap

Heather , 10 Mar 2009

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8767 and counting!

Looks like a fair amount of tickets have been sold since they gave away the first prize! I'm guessing lots of people were waiting to see if they would deliver on their promises and now they're happy to go ahead? best, Jeanette

Jeanette , 23 Mar 2009

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At long last !!

The first property competition in the UK to announce a 'Winner' and not get 'bogged down' with the Gambling Commission and the legalities of doing this type of competition.
Hopefully we can all learn from this to organise competitions, and to add credibility and increase ticket sales for all concerned in the future.
Organized properly they could prove just as popular as the National Lottery, and also in helping charities.
Finally my congratulations to the winner, Stephen Lakey.

Andrew Dale , 25 Mar 2009

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