After falling on hard times and failing to find a buyer for his home, the owner of a six-bedroom manor house in Lancashire, United Kingdom, decided to hold a raffle, inviting people to purchase a 2-pound (US$2.6) ticket for the chance to win it. He hopes to sell half a million tickets by August.

Dunstan Lowe, 37, purchased Melling Manor in 2011 for 435,000 pounds, after falling in love with it. He spent a lot of money renovating it, but soon started struggling with mortgage payments, and was forced to put it up for sale just three years later. The first asking price was 800,000 pounds, but no one was interested. Lowe chose to put off selling it until December of last year, when the mansion was once again offered up, this time for 845,000 pounds. Again, there were no takers, so the frustrated owner dropped the asking price to 650,000 pounds, but that didn’t seem to make it more appealing. The house has had just one viewing since, and after looking at his options, Dunstan decided it was time to try a different approach.

After consulting with his wife, Lowe made the decision to hold a raffle, offering people the chance to win the house by buying one or multiple 2-pound tickets online, or sending an envelope or postcard via first-class post. The winner will be selected Aug. 1, 2017, and the owner hopes to sell at least 500,000 tickets until then. That may sound like a lot, but he’s actually off to a good start.

In February, Lowe told the Evening Standard that he had already sold 120,000 pounds worth of raffle tickets. Within days of setting up a website for the raffle, offers started coming in, and the ample media coverage he got a couple of months ago in the United Kingdom got a lot more people interested in his offer.

Lowe said people from all over the world, including the United States and Australia, have been buying the tickets online, with some of them acquiring several thousand pounds worth of them.

Melling Manor is still on the market for 650,000 pounds, but if it fails to sell by Aug. 1, the owner will pick a winner from the raffle participants. If it does sell, Lowe doesn’t plan to give back the money to everyone. Instead, he plans on offering the whole pot as a cash prize to one lucky winner.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【抽奖】chōujiǎng raffle a lottery in which a number of persons buy chances to win a prize

【诱人的】yòurén de appealing attractive, inviting

房主在陷入困境、难寻买家之后，决定举办抽奖，任何花2英镑（即2.6美元）买票参加活动的人都有可能赢得这座庄园。庄园位于英国兰开夏郡，有6间卧室。庄园主人希望在今年八月份之前能卖出50万张票。

37岁的邓斯坦•劳十分喜欢梅林庄园，2011年花43.5万英镑买了它。之后他又花大价钱翻新重整，但很快就还贷困难，于是仅过了3年，劳就别无他法只能将其出售。他最初要价80万英镑，但无人问津。劳决定将其延后到去年12月再出售，要价84.5万英

镑，可是依然没有买家。于是，失望的劳把要价降到65万英镑，然而这个价钱似乎也没什么吸引力。庄园出售以来只有一个人前来看房。思考了自己的处境之后，劳决定尝试一种不同的方式卖房。

与妻子商量后，劳决定搞抽奖，参与者只要通过网络或明信片、邮递的方式购买一张或多张价值2英镑的票，就可能赢取庄

园。大奖得主将在2017年8月1号揭晓，庄园主人希望在此之前能卖出去至少50万张票。这可能听上去不太现实，但售票活动还真开了个好头。

2月份，劳告诉《标准晚报》说，他已经卖出了总价值12万英镑的票。开设抽奖网站以来，参与者不断增加。几个月前英国媒体的大量报道也吸引了很多感兴趣的人。

劳说在网上花2英镑买票的人来自世界各地，有来自美国和澳大利亚的，有些人还买下几千英镑的票。

梅林庄园现在的市价仍然是65万英镑，如果在2017年8月1日之前没能成功售出，庄园的主人就要从抽奖参与者中抽选赢家。如果庄园在此之前成功售出，劳并不打算归还票款，而是计划把所有票款作为现金大奖送给一位幸运儿。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)