For homeowners, Bolumar says, what drives them to draw lots for their home instead of selling it is the extra money they can earn. “It`s a risky alternative because you can lose the house if the collection is low. But you can also make a profit. That is, the person interested in drawing his property must write down his bases, sign them and bring them to the notary, who will certify the signature and then register the document. It is a process that takes a day and has its value at about 40,000 pesos. Recently, we have seen an explosion in the number of houses and plots drawn by lots by their owners on the Internet. By the way, all their respective legal bases have been notarized. Buying a home is not a decision that can be taken lightly. Many aspects, such as the needs or circumstances of each individual, must be weighed and taken into account. In addition, the current economic situation is not helping.

“No one claimed the prize,” Pepe says over the phone. “The house has remained ours, that`s what the regulations stipulate.” So much so that even the actor Julio Milostich, known for his main role in the TVN TV series “El Señor de la Querencia”, has joined the practice: he draws lots for his house in Ñuñoa, estimated at $ 280,000,000. When asked why they chose this mechanism, Milostich admits that they were not in a hurry with his family, and “to investigate here and there, we were presented with the problem of the draw”. “It caught our attention because it was actually a faster and more convenient way to go economically,” he says. Then they positively contacted a person who had already made a draw and, with his advice, in addition to that of a lawyer, they continued. The legal vacuum surrounding this type of competition does not worry him, because it is something that has been done on other occasions, and he does not see why his case should be the exception. Neither Lotohome nor Sesortea are gambling operators and do not need a special license to operate. Both are intermediaries who advise the real organizer of the draw: the owner (here you can see the basics of the draw of the House of Alcocéber, advised by Lotohome to get an idea of the operation). The law does not allow the draw to be cancelled under any circumstances, but it does not allow there to be no winner if the number that comes out has not been sold. Draws can be made between all numbers issued (not necessarily the numbers sold), so it can happen that the organizer collects ballots by selling ballots, no one wins and the house belongs to them. According to his own calculations – and taking inflation into account – the commercial valuation of his property today is close to $500,000,000. And although he sells all the tickets, which would represent $ 450,000,000, he assures that he only has about $ 320,000,000 left, because of marketing costs, legal proceedings and a percentage that he will deliver to the Alma Animal Peumayen Foundation.

For example, if we go back to the case of the house of Peñalolén, he says: “If the minimum number of tickets is not sold, the draw will not be carried out and allows ticket buyers to request a refund of 96.5% of the money paid for the purchase of the ticket. The 3.5% retained corresponds exclusively to the commission charged by the ticket payment channel. Aside from how attractive everything seems, the truth is that this new formula floats in legal limbo. And while there are positive experiences, with people who managed to win a house for $10,000, we also know about the raffles that were declared free and the number of tickets that were never returned. With the end of summer, the idea of renting the beach house during the winter months flies over our heads. For this, it is important to be clear about the motivations that make us think. So, is this a good option? And most importantly, will I be able to go back whenever I want? From a criminal point of view, the lawyer warns, the problem would be related to the provisions of Article 276 of the Penal Code, which stipulates that the authors of legally unauthorized lotteries will be fined 11 to 20 UTM and will lose the movable objects placed in the lottery. If the objects placed in the lottery are real estate, the penalty is a fine of 21 to 30 UTM. Five years ago, a house was drawn for the first time in Spain.

They were 140 square meters spread over three floors and were located in the historic center of Segorbe, a small municipality of Castellón. The owners, Pepe Bolumar and his family, had inherited it from his grandmother, they did not place it because the banks did not grant mortgages and tried to draw it among all those who bought ballots in default at ten euros. The draw took place, the family raised nearly €300,000 and the winner was announced on a website, but never appeared. In 2014, Valencian Pepe Bolumar drew lots for his grandmother`s house in Segorbe (Castellón) and sold 32,000 of the 40,000 ballots for 10 euros that made up the draw. Although the prize was dropped on this occasion, it was the seed for the creation of the company LotoHome, one of the first in Spain dedicated to the drawing of lots of houses and the only one to have the approval of the Ministry of Finance. “We keep moving forward,” says Angel, who doesn`t think about deadlines and is willing to extend it to reach the goal. In any case, he thinks that it will not be a “big deal” for him, but that he is already “married” with the obligation. It is increasingly common to encounter social and morning networks with raffles for homes and properties worth millionaires. You buy a ticket – which usually fluctuates between $10,000 and $20,000 – and immediately enter the competition.

However, the system is not within the limits of the law, and compliance with the obligation between the organizers and those who buy numbers is ultimately based on good faith. Can you imagine what it would be like to sleep and live under the roof of a hobbit house? Buy or build your own hobbit home, which is currently in fashion. If you intend to buy a hobbit house, we have examples like that of the American company Green Magic Home, which designed a copy of the houses in the village where Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings lived and whose price is about 15,000 euros. Thus, it is the person who owns the property who receives personal permission to conduct the draw (sporadically) of the house whose tickets are sold via the website. The company that manages this website acts simply as the provider of the electronic platform, without participating in the competition itself. In this sense, Albert Agustinoy, partner of Cuatrecasasas, says that in the absence of regulatory development, “this gap in regulation makes it possible to develop this economic model that can be understood, at least formally, according to gambling regulations”. However, a number of conditions must be met for the final draw to take place, which hardly vary from case to case and which are laid down in the legal bases published by each organiser – signed by a notary. For example, you always set a minimum number of tickets that must be sold to enter the draw phase. A floor that, when you take out the accounts, usually goes far beyond the commercial valuation of the property itself. Returning to the question of legal bases, lawyer Renzo Munita points out: “It is not surprising that there are bases – self-proclaimed `legal` – that are approved before a notary to imbue the gambling contract in question with apparent legality.” The business model can be summarized as follows: “Of the income generated during the first draw, 20% will be used for the valuation value of the house, 40% for the investment necessary for the generation of the draw (marketing, communication, team, legal procedures…) and 20% to the state as taxes on gambling.

From the remaining 20% comes the commission of Sesortea, the additional benefit that the owner can receive and some of the costs that arise from the operation, such as: notary, register or transfer tax. “There are many examples of this type of raffle. In Peñalolén, to name a few, a four-bedroom house is being built on 120 m2. To participate, interested parties must purchase a number for only 20,000 pesos. For some time now, people and some companies have chosen to draw lots or draw lots for their products before selling them in the traditional way. How does it work? Here is a manual. When asked about these “administrative costs,” Pilar says that to launch the contest, she had to spend about $10,000,000 on legal proceedings and, most importantly, advertising. It`s a multimillion-dollar investment, he says, to position his sweepstakes on social media and pump money into platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

The combination of social and health crises has not helped the real estate market. Given this reality, the option of selling a ticket and winning a house, car or land as a prize is an increasingly popular alternative. In Lotohome, says Bolumar, the first draw was made only among the ballots sold – that is, after the gracious 42,196, there was only one person. In Sesortea, they will do it like once. If the winning number was not purchased by anyone, they keep the money collected. Everything goes to the homeowner until you reach 85% of the value of your home; From there, they start covering the rest of the costs. If the product does not reach 85%, Sesortea takes it out of its pocket (out of the pocket of its investors for now). This real estate lottery model is very rare and unknown to Spanish consumers, but it is widely used in other countries such as Canada, Australia or the United Kingdom.