A FARM owner is attracting world-wide interest after deciding to sell his property through a raffle.

Barns Farm, near Saltburn, has been the family home of John Bennett for the last 25 years.

But after deciding it was time to set up a new life in Majorca with his wife Antoinette, the 63-year-old has spent six months unable to sell his £1.3m farm.

Mr Bennett therefore decided to raffle his luxury farm for £50 a ticket - and it has already received interest from Hong Kong, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The 18.6-acre site has a three-bedroom stone farmhouse, eight stables, a tack room, feed room, six-car garage, barn and workshop.

"I put it up for sale six months ago and there was several people interested, but nobody wanted to close the deal," said Mr Bennett

"For a lot of people it is too much money, so I said if I hadn't sold it by the end of September I will do a raffle."

The competition is also offering two Samsung curved televisions as a runners-up prize.

The draw will be made seven days after the final entry has been sold, and the farm will be available to move into six weeks after the winner is announced.

The competition will close in March or until 28,000 entries have been received, and Mr Bennett is confident of reaching that target.

"It was non stop in the first 24 hours, and we are now averaging 150 entries an hour," he said.

“The best thing about the farm is the views. From the window, you’ve got both country and sea views - and lots of peace and quiet."

Mr Bennett is not the first person to attempt to sell a house this way.

Back in 2008, Vicky and Simon Brown raffled off a six-bedroomed mansion which they built from scratch.

The couple spent two years building the property in Ingelby Barwick, near Stockton, but ten months later, it hadn't been sold.

But months later, the couple said "if we could turn back the clock" they would, after selling only 4,000 tickets,

Anyone interested in entering the competition should visit www.winbarnsfarm.life.