Man wins £400,000 flat with £50 ticket in raffle

A man who has been helping support his parents in a council flat has won a £400,000 London apartment in a £50-a-ticket property raffle.

Stephen Lakey, 37, told today of his disbelief at winning the "life-changing" prize. The IT project manager, who lives with and helps support his unemployed parents in a council flat in Abbots Langley, near Watford, now owns a new, one-bedroom flat in Whitechapel with a Jacuzzi, steam room and Italian designer kitchen.

The competition, WinALondonPad.com, was run in conjunction with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, which has received £40,000 of the money raised.

Mr Lakey said: "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."

He added: "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."

WinALondonPad is understood to be the first successful property raffle in Britain. Many have been started, but the majority have been shut down by the Competition Commission for not holding lottery licences.

WinALondonPad avoided being classed as a lottery by making sure one of the three questions it asked entrants -asking them to work out the volume of a room - was complicated enough that it could not be answered by Google.

Entrants could either buy a £50 ticket or receive a free one by buying an MP4 player from the organisers. MIA Developments set up the competition in November in a bid to beat the stagnant property market.

The company originally planned to give away a whole block of 11 one- and two-bedroom York House in Myrdle Street in one go, but has decided to run the competition in stages after slow ticket sales. It hopes to give away the next 10 flats at a rate of one a month.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity receives £3 for every ticket sold.

It could receive another £500,000 from the competitions still to come. A spokesman for the charity said: "We're very pleased for the winner and delighted that £40,000 has been raised so far."

The hospital is putting the money towards a four-bed cardiac ward in its heart and lung centre, due to open in 2012.

MIA's managing director Rafik Patel, 27, said: "The draw is a great way to raise money for charity while making sure someone wins some fantastic flats and we make a profit in this difficult economic climate.

"All 10 apartments must be won and those who have already entered will automatically qualify for the new draw."

Mr Patel wanted to raise money for the hospital after his baby nephew underwent three months of life-saving treatment there in 2007.

His company plans to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 tickets before it gives away each successive property, depending on its worth.

Some of the money is used to cover stamp duty and ticket sale transaction costs.

The developers gave away the first flat at a loss to kick-start interest in the raffle.

For more details visit www.winalondonpad.com