‘I want to change someone’s life’: Surrey family auctioning off house in £3 raffle before moving to Australia

£30,000 of money raised will go to three charities says Yumi Palmer

Yumi Palmer (R), with her family, in the townhouse they are raffling off for £3 (Ania Hrycyna)

A family in Surrey are in a race against time to raffle off their three-bedroom townhouse and are urging people to buy the £3 tickets for a chance to win the property before the competition closes on Friday.

Yumi Palmer came up with the idea to raffle off their house, worth £750,000, after experiencing a difficult year in which she contracted Covid-19 on her pregnancy due date and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of a traumatic birth.

Palmer and her family are now planning to emigrate to Australia at the end of the year and wanted to raffle off their south London townhouse at the bargain price of three pounds to “change someone’s life”.

“It’s just a fun way to do it, and £30,000 of the money raised from the raffle will go to charities,” she told The Independent. “I wanted to change someone’s life. I’ve had a tough time and at the start of the year I decided I want to move to Australia and change someone else’s life at the same time.”

The property is located in Coulsdon, Croydon, and is a four-minute walk to Coulsdon South station. From there, people can easily get into London within 20 minutes.

The family says that the winner of the raffle will be handed the keys to the fully-furnished house within 60 days of accepting the prize. The property will come with beds, sofas, wardrobes, dining table and chairs, a desk and office chair, and garden furniture.

The 3-bedroom townhouse in Coulsdon, Surrey, being raffled off for £3 by the Palmer family (Yumi Palmer)

The house isn’t the only prize up for grabs in Palmer’s raffle. One person could also win a one-year couple’s membership to fitness and leisure health club David Lloyd, and another could win a five-day trip to Mykonos, Greece, worth £5,000.

Palmer will give £30,000 of the money raised from ticket sales to three charities: £10,000 will go to the Alzheimer’s Society, which she said is “close to her heart”, as well as £10,000 to Sporting Minds for their mental health services.

Another £10,000 will be donated to Wor Watthana, a safe house for at-risk children in Thailand.

A view of the kitchen inside the £750,000 Coulsdon townhouse being raffled off for £3 (Yumi Palmer)

The rest of the money raised from the raffle will go towards paying off the Palmers’ mortgage, stamp duty and legal fees from the sale of the house, as well as towards a deposit on a house in Australia.

In order to do so, the family had to sell 400,000 tickets. They still have a further 295,000 raffle tickets to sell and the competition closes at 9pm on Friday 4 June.

However, if all the raffle tickets are not sold by the time it ends, there will still be winners, says Palmer, because of the amount already raised.

“Two winners will be randomly generated by the site the raffle is hosted on and they will split 75 per cent of the cash pot,” said Palmer. “Currently that means £115,000 per person and it is only going up.”

A view of one of three bedrooms inside the Coulsdon townhouse being raffled off for £3 (Yumi Palmer)

Palmer is positive that the raffle will be a success and that she will be able to help someone “get on the housing ladder” and help many other people through the charities at the same time.

“I made a pledge to the charities and I have to do it for them and for the person winning the home. It’s going to be life changing,” she said. “On Friday 4 June, I’ll announce the winner via Instagram and Facebook.”

She urged people to purchase a raffle ticket, adding: “It’s cheaper than a coffee and helps donate to charity and gives you opportunity to get on the ladder.”