Free house competitions usually run by big companies

Most people have come across newspaper promotions offering players a chance of winning a property, either by collecting coupons or registering their details. The UK’s Daily Mail has run several free to enter competitions in partnership with other big companies (such as P&O this year). A few months ago, the Belfast Telegraph ran a similar free house competition, giving away a £150,000 home in Dundonald to one lucky winner.

From time to time TV companies also run free property competitions in a bid to attract more viewers. DIY Network in the US is currently screening its 3rd series of Blog Cabin, a show that follows the construction of a brand new log cabin in North Carolina. Viewers are asked to vote on some of the key features of the property over a number of weeks. Once it is completed, the mountain cabin will be given away to one lucky viewer for free.

Property companies have also used free house competitions for years to attract customers and promote new developments. Last year, Taylor Morrison received over 635,000 entries in its Dream Home Giveaway. Given its success, the company plans to run a similar promotion in 2009. In September, Bryant Homes ran a competition asking players to crack their safe to win a £149,995 house for free to promote their new development in Portsmouth. The event was reportedly very successful, attracting lots of new house hunters on the day.

Given the heightened public interest in getting onto the property ladder, a growing number of other companies are offering players opportunities to win a house for free. While this may not have a direct relationship with their products or services, it is seen as an effective form of marketing at a large scale. For example, this year Nestlé in Canada partnered up with NFL to give away a property for free, while Forum des Halles in Paris helped promote the eco credentials of a new type of environmental home by giving it away over the summer.

Online free to enter property competitions

Freebies and free to enter competitions have generally always been very popular on the Web and from time to time, it is possible to find free house competitions online. To qualify for the top prize, players are usually asked to register their details or enter a contest.

Fair Exchange is currently giving players a chance of winning a free apartment of their choice in London, up to the value of £400,000. As with most free competitions the number of entries is unlimited, however given the attractiveness of the prize it appeals to players who don’t mind taking a couple of minutes to submit their details.

If you’ve visited our site in the past, you’ll know that we also run regular competitions giving away free tickets in house competitions and raffles featured in our directory. This is a great way to spread the word about new competitions, encouraging players to visit the competition website for more information. As the winners are awarded a free entry into a paid competition, they benefit from the same conditions as if they had bought a ticket normally. With most paid house competitions featuring a limited number of entries, this usually offers better chances of winning a property than property competitions that do charge players any entry fee at all.

Homeowners turning to free house competitions

While offering something for free can’t fail to attract players, making the economics add up appears less straightforward. At the same time, a growing number of small companies and homeowners are running their own free competitions in the hope of (paradoxically) ‘selling’ their property in this way.

To realise this goal, some contest organisers are focusing on other types of revenues instead. Given the amount of attention they hope to attract from the public by offering such a big prize for free, the aim is usually to convince advertisers (or other sponsors) to help finance the property. This can be achieved by selling ads on their website, or by finding other ways of creating leads on behalf of other companies. Either way, the revenues derived from this activity have to cover the value of the property, together with any marketing and administrative expenses.

Beyond the obvious appeal of not charging players, this offers the added benefit of being legal in many countries. In the UK, free prize draws fall outside of the Gambling Act and are therefore unregulated as long as players are not required to make any form of payment to participate. However, without a very strong marketing campaign, pulling this off can be challenging.

Earlier this year, Tim Bawtree re-launched his ‘Win a Cheltenham House’ competition once again as Pixahome. Loosely based on the free pixel lottery concept popularised by Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage, it requires players to become a follower via Twitter to qualify for the prize. Advertisers are invited to purchase a small block ad on the homepage for $100 and once the grid is filled, someone can win the house. Unfortunately, despite attracting lots of followers on Twitter, the concept has so far failed to take off.

The latest opportunity to win a house for free was announced yesterday: British couple Paul and Michelle Wood are hoping to give away their £425,000 home in West Yorkshire by selling ads on their new website, winahouseforfree.com. The competition will start on 2 November and is scheduled to last 84 days, during which time players can enter up to 20 times per day.

To do so, they must click ads on the site in the hope of finding the 20 hidden ‘entry routes’ to the competition, the location of which will change every day. If they answer the daily question correctly, they will have 7 days to answer a weekly question correctly in the hope of reaching the final. The prize winner will be drawn in public and at random by a solicitor, once up to 21 finalists have been selected. Advertisers are invited to purchase an ad costing £40-200 daily, and the couple are hoping to raise at least £900,000 to give away their home.

Is this a viable way to sell your home?

While they are usually popular with players, even free competitions can fail to take off. Earlier this year, local property development company über Massclusive ran a free competition giving away a flat in their new development in Bolton. Although its value was not disclosed, the apartment boasted lots of contemporary features and had been finished to a high standard. According to the Manchester Confidential, the company only managed to attract a total of 3,961 entries – a relatively low number considering the likely value of the property.

In practice and without prior track record, it isn’t easy to convince so many advertisers to purchase an ad. In this environment, with most of them intent on finding better value for money, each ad is carefully assessed for its commercial merit. With no real incentive for players to click ads and due to the sheer number of ads on the grid, Pixahome hasn’t yet benefited from the buzz it generated initially via Twitter.

At the same time, many people are sceptical about free competitions due to the large number of entries expected. While they appeal to a certain category of players, some people are reluctant to enter free competitions as they are concerned they may be sold to third parties. While this isn’t necessarily the case, in practice most free to enter house competitions need to attract a large number of players to make sense commercially.

We wish Paul and Michelle the best of luck with their new competition. While it is likely to attract a large number of players, it will be interesting to see how many advertisers follow suit.

What do you think? Is this a viable alternative to selling your home in the conventional manner, or are free house competitions better suited to large companies that are able to establish other commercial opportunities from this type of promotion?

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Comments (4)

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interesting

thanks for this post, I didn't realise there were so many ways of winning a home for free?! I think it's a great idea but tough for homeowners unless for some reason the press takes hold of the story and it spreads globally

steve'o , October 14, 2009

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great idea!

I think this is a really great idea, if it works this will really be a stroke of genius for the couple, I really hope it will work! I can see why it will be a challenge if they don't have the support of the press and TV though...

would it be possible to pull this off with a charity instead, where the site is run by the charity so advertisers will be more willing to pay - I'm thinking if the charity is already established the ads might have more value on their own site as it will have more traffic? I don't know much about these things but just wondering?

jessy smith , October 14, 2009

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not convinced

if I undertand it correctly, they will only see the entry route if they pick the right ad, otherwise they are taken to the advertisers.

Isn't it highly likely that players won't be interested in the advertisers because they're just looking to enter the competition? I'd just go back on my browser to try another ad, wouldn't you?

I guess there's some value in showing the banners on the site but I'm not sure about the value for money for the advertisers

Good on them for trying though it's a novel idea

mission impossible , October 14, 2009

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Re: great idea!

@ jessy

btw I agree with you about the charity angle I think that's interesting. Actually Paul and Michelle refer to this as their next project if this one works out, so they're definitely on the right page. I don't know if they tried to set it up with a charity or not but it makes sense

mission impossible , October 14, 2009

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