Georgian mansion with own lake goes on the market for price of a raffle ticket

Dancers Hill House has a market price of £5.25m, but no-one on the market wanted it, so its owners, Nigel and Melanie Walsh – who blame a difficult property market, Brexit and stamp duty for the lack of interest – decided to raffle it off instead.

Mr Walsh, 65, said he had been inspired by similar competitions and his wife expressed the wish that the house would be won by someone “who will love it as much as we have”.

She added: “There is just the two of us now. 7,500 sq ft for two people We just don’t fill it any more. I got the feeling it needed a new family, a new chapter.”

The house, just inside the northern half of the M25, boasts two lounges, a cinema room, gym and a half-acre lake stocked with more than 2,000 fish.

The Walshes bought it in November 1992 and moved in the following July, having restored it from what they said was a “most derelict state”.

Before then, it had been used as a school and by the Army as Camp 33, whose grounds housed Italian prisoners of war.

It has also been a TV location for productions as diverse as Great Expectations and ChuckleVision.

Some 600,000 raffle tickets are available, subject to buyers answering a question first, with the draw on December 16 or sooner if the tickets are snapped up.