A NOVEL IDEA
Mike Walsh

With property sales in the doldrums sellers are turning to creative selling techniques to attract buyers. Because of the health costs associated with their son?s serious road accident, an Ardechois couple set up an on-line tombola game, selling raffle tickets at ?50 each.
It had to be withdrawn as it fell foul of gambling laws. It is illegal to sell property by lottery in France. The offence carries a maximum of two years imprisonment.
Now, novelist Jules Ambroziak has ingeniously discovered a way to get around the law. The enterprising writer has set up a competition by which entrants buy a PDF copy of his latest short story, Le Voisin de la rue des Eclarlartes for ?50. The prize is his 80m2 apartment on the fringes of Paris, valued at ?425,000.
To win, entrants must answer three questions on the story. The first person to answer the answers correctly, after midnight on the 30th September, is to be declared the winner.
When interviewed by La Figaro magazine, Jules said: ?I launched the competition website on Tuesday after I read about the plight of the couple from Ardeche. Apparently they had already sold 6,000 tickets when their tombola competition had to be pulled.