- As well as the houses, lucky winners of the prize draw are handed a cash buffer
Omaze house winners end up selling after less than a year of owning their mega mansions because the £100,000 given barely covers the annual cost of running the huge properties, an expert has told MailOnline.
As well as impressive houses, lucky winners of the prize draw are handed a cash buffer to help with the running costs.
But MailOnline found earlier this year that most of the Omaze house prizes are sold less than 12 months after being won.
Now an expert in high-end property has lifted the lid on the eye-watering bills winners must pay for electricity, staffing, security and maintenance which leave many quickly deciding to cash in the home.
David Adams, MD of David Adams Luxury Property, said: ‘The running cost of many of these properties can be £100,000 per year and with the cost of living these bills are rising.
‘If you are used to living in a normal home where you pay a couple of hundred pounds a month in electricity, maybe a few thousand a year in council tax it comes as a huge shock when they receive the first bill for £20,000 or £30,000. It is completely unsustainable and at that point a lot of people will decide it’s not for them.
‘Maintaining luxury properties is a massive industry. If it’s not your main house then you cannot leave it alone. Most homes will employ monitored security, they will run underfloor heating in winter and air conditioning in summer and systems will need servicing every year.
‘The more modern the house, the more expensive it is to run. Electronics are becoming more and more complicated and you need an IT technician to come around when it goes wrong.’
MailOnline reported in August that of the 14 stunning properties that had been won to date, just three are still lived in by the winners while another is rented out as an AirBnB.
Among those who decided to sell up is Uttam Parmar, 58, from Leicestershire, who put his stunning Cornish mansion up for sale within eight weeks of scooping the jackpot.
Mr Parmar said he and wife Raki, 53, decided to sell the prize property because they couldn’t afford the upkeep.
He said: ‘It is a fantastic house in a beautiful Cornish location but the price of it comes with a price to keep it and we can’t afford to. We are selling it and not keeping it as a holiday home.
‘If we could afford to keep it we would. It is beautiful. But we are looking to buy some land or a smaller property instead.’
The home no longer appears to be for sale but when asked whether it had sold Mr Parmar told MailOnline: ‘I’d prefer not to talk about it’.
Retired widower June Smith, 74, also put her stunning home on the market after visiting just once.
The Essex grandmother put the waterside home in Fowey, Cornwall, up for sale in the summer for £4.5million and it is now listed as sold subject to contract.
On the other side of the country, in Kingstown, near Deal in Kent, another cliff-top house was abandoned by its winners shortly after they scooped the £2.5million property.
The breathtaking seaside village property was won by a West Midlands couple – Jade and her unnamed partner – in Autumn last year.
Jade, who also scooped £50,000 in cash, described the win as ‘life-changing’ in interviews at the time.
But within months, the house, which boasts unrivalled views of the English Channel, was back on the market for £2.5 million.
In one case, the winner of a luxurious £3 million mansion overlooking a sweeping bay left his new home after just three days over claims the clifftop on which his property had been built was collapsing into the sea below.
The winner, foundry worker Glen Elmy, from Walsall, moved into the James Bond-style idyllic property in October 2021 and marvelled at the views across Combe Martin Bay on the north Devon coast.
But three days later, after learning of the coastal erosion threatening his property, he handed the keys to Stealth House back to Omaze and is understood to have demanded a cash pay-out equal to the property’s £3million price tag.
Mr Elmy has never returned to the five-bed property and it is believed the house lottery company met his demands and paid up.
In London’s Fulham, Marilyn Pratt, 70, won her £2.9million house in April 2021, then sold up eight months later – for £100,000 less – so she could help her two daughters and grandchildren financially.
She decided to remain with husband David in the two-bedroom house they have lived in for 40 years in south-east London.
But a number of winners have moved in and continue to enjoy life in their prize homes. In Islingon, north London, construction worker Kevin Johnson told how he has no plans to move out of his £3million Omaze dream home.
In Ascot, Berks, 33-year-old mum Becca Pott told how she moved into her £3.9million Omaze house to enjoy a brief taste of the high life – and liked it so much she decided to stay.
Finance analyst Mrs Pott won the five-bedroom mansion in February last year after buying a £10 ticket when husband Ben forget to enter.
While many winners have cashed in on their good fortune and sold up, the couple decided they wanted to see what life was like living among celebrities and members of the Royal Family who have homes nearby.
Mrs Pott said: ‘We always knew we were going to move in and enjoy it for at least that first summer, just to experience living in a place like this as a family.
‘But after a few weeks we realised we didn’t want to leave – so decided we should keep it.’
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
