A NORTH-EAST family who are raffling off their £170,000 home for £2.50 a ticket have said they are nearing the half way point of the competition.

Paul and Christine McDonald, who are raffling off their four-bedroom home in Sunderland, have said they have now sold more than 45,000 tickets.

The Northern Echo previously reported that the pair, who are parents to Luke, 16, and Evan, 13, were hoping to fulfil their dream move to Australia.

SEE MORE: North-East family raffle home to make TV dream come true

After appearing on the BBCs Wanted Down Under three years ago, which gives Brits keen on emigrations a real taste of Aussie life, the family decided to move for good.

But after being unable to find a buyer for their Tunstall home due to the Covid outbreak, the family last month took to a raffle site in a bid to "make their dream come true."

The Northern Echo:

At the time, they said: "We’d seen that people have done this before quite successfully and we thought this could be a great solution for us.

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“But now we have try and sell as many tickets as possible so we can make the move.” 

The family said they had already secured their visas needed to get immigration status once on the other side of the world. 

They said: “It’s taken a long time to get our visas because you have to apply to an area where they need your particular skills.

The Northern Echo:

"It’s all done on a point system and we’ve finally been able to get visas to move to Adelaide - but only if we can sell the house.” 

But in an update, Ms McDonald said: "We've now sold 45,000 tickets and have more than 5,000 followers on our Facebook page.

"We just want people to get behind us so we can reach our target."

The McDonald's also vowed to donate 5 per cent of the funds raised to The Bradley Lowery Foundation if they can sell all 100,000 tickets.

The competition is set to end at 3pm on Sunday, December 6.

To view the competition - visit raffall.com/121721/enter-raffle-to-win-4-bedroom-semi-detached-house-hosted-by-christine-mcdonald