A lucky Austrian man won a villa on Tuesday
after buying a 99-euro (131-dollar) ticket in the country's first real estate
sale by lottery, but notaries and real estate brokers expressed concern about
this new trend, dpa reported.
Traude Daniel sold 9,999 tickets for her 400-square-metre villa in Klagenfurt in southern Austria, as the house had become too big for her, she told Austrian
news agency APA.
Walter Egger, 50, the winner from the village of Sankt Andrae im Gurktal, was
informed about his new home while undergoing treatment at his dentist.
"That's crazy!" is all he could say under the circumstances.
The Finance Ministry has told Daniel that selling her home that way was legal,
but notaries have warned the owners of some 50 other houses who are planning to
follow suit that they might violate the criminal code, which forbids any form
of gambling.
"Besides the evaluation regarding criminal law, one should look at
regulations against money laundering," warned Klaus Woschnak, the head of Austria's notary organization.
Real estate brokers are warning some houses to be sold through a lottery were
being advertised for amounts far larger than the real values. Broker Ewald
Neuhold told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that one house he had appraised
recently at 300,000 euros was now being sold by lottery instead, advertised for
a value of 620,000 euros.
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