I cannot tell you where I am, but I can guarantee that, come August 14, people will be talking about it up and down the country. That is when the next Omaze house draw will go live and entrants to the competition will be in with a chance of winning this home, where I spent a day with Anoushka Millard, Omaze’s vice-president of property and partnerships.
She is, crucially, the person charged with picking out these astonishing properties. Until then, the location is top secret.
Omaze is a competition where participants pay from £10 to enter a draw to win a multi-million-pound property, mortgage-free. All stamp duty and legal fees are paid and the winner is free to live in the property, rent it out or sell up and pocket the cash.
This is the 42nd property to be put into the draw in the UK. Each now raises an average of £4 million, with about one-third of ticket sales going to charity partners such as Age UK, Guide Dogs and Mencap.
You have seen the pictures – maybe you have even entered the draws. These houses are big, spectacular – the stuff of dreams.
Which is why I’m surprised that the entrance to this one, off a leafy country lane, is so discreet that I miss it entirely and drive past.
U-turn executed, I head up the steep, tree-shrouded gravel track and, at last, the house reveals itself: a modern, box-like design, with huge windows and a wraparound garden that blends seamlessly into the surrounding woodland. Best of all, it’s in an attractive destination, where most of us could only dream of living.
‘This is a location we have wanted for a while but it has been really challenging to find the sort of property that would be up to the Omaze standard,’ says Anoushka.
The Mail’s Holly Mead with Anoushka Millard, Omaze’s vice-president of property and partnerships, who is responsible for picking out the properties
Holly enjoys a hot drink at the latest house, which is the 42nd home Omaze has raffled off in the UK
‘When we found this, we knew there were elements that would work but that we would need to redo the interior, landscape the garden and add more features.
‘It’s not just about the house, the style has to be right – it needs to be what people expect of a dream property in that area.’
The front door opens on to an airy hallway with floor-to-ceiling windows, and then into the main space. There’s an enormous custom-made sofa, the must-have show-home kitchen and a dining table set for the perfect dinner party. The high ceilings and neutral decor in soothing shades of green create a feeling of space and calm.
It even smells great – I wasn’t expecting that. ‘There is no Omaze signature scent,’ says Anoushka. ‘We try to use different lotions and scents for each property.’
The candles dotted around the place make it smell as though I’ve entered a spa. Down the hall is a cinema room, where a screen takes up almost an entire wall, and upstairs there are four carefully curated bedrooms, two of which are en suite. The master opens on to a newly built roof terrace. Outside is a garden pod, swimming pool and stepping stones leading across the lawn to a sauna.
But the main thing I keep thinking, as we walk around the house, is that ‘it’s not that big – you could actually live here’. If Omaze has been accused of one thing, and particularly by winners who have sold up, it’s that the properties are too large and the running costs too high.
‘Some [of the houses] are huge,’ admits Anoushka. ‘But we’re conscious of customer feedback and that some of the others have been maybe a bit overwhelming.’
While the prize includes £250,000 to help with costs, which are always detailed on the website, this remains a common criticism.
The stunning £4.5million modern waterfront property in Cornwall won by June Smith, from Essex, with a £25 ticket in a 2023 draw
This home is clearly bigger than the average detached property (which is about 1,600 square feet, according to the latest Government English Housing Survey) but the additional cash would surely keep it going for years.
Others have sold up after winning homes that are hundreds of miles from their lives.
‘We are always thinking about where our customers are located. If we get more customers in London, for example, we can explore the Home Counties, where people might be looking for suburban, family homes,’ says Anoushka.
Born in New Zealand, and now living in Los Angeles, she joined Omaze in 2019 to help with the UK launch of the firm, which started in the US in 2012.
The first draw ran for about six months, while now there is one every month. And the initial house budget was about £1 million, whereas she now has about £5 million to play with for each property.
Anoushka splits her time between the UK and US. Does not being a native Brit make it harder to do her job?
She says: ‘I think it’s useful to have that objectivity. It means I’m not necessarily led by my own emotional ties.’
Like any budding property enthusiast, Anoushka enjoys browsing property website Rightmove for inspiration, but the process of nailing down an Omaze house is a little slicker than your average house search.
‘We work with different buying agents,’ she explains. ‘I give them details of locations we’re looking at, style of houses we might be interested in and any features, like a pool or cinema room or gym.
‘We often get first looks at off-market properties, so we’re not on Rightmove that much these days, although I’m still obsessed with property and like looking at what’s out there.’
Offers to buy the houses go through an agent just as with a standard property sale – that’s usually when the seller finds out who their potential buyer is.
Does that mean they hike the price? ‘Not that we know of,’ says Anoushka. ‘Mostly we are purchasing at and around the asking price. We’ve heard of sellers being excited to find out theirs is going to be an Omaze house, though.’
There is a long list of locations across the country that Anoushka wants to target. The Lake District is always popular but properties are hard to find. Recent Bath and Cotswolds houses were fan favourites, and she aims to have one Cornwall home every year.
Then there is the list of must-have features. A pool, of course, and large outdoor space, cinema rooms and garden rooms are popular, says Anoushka. People like having one formal living room plus a more relaxed snug, and being near to local amenities is important too. The renovation process takes anything from a few weeks to nine months for bigger projects or where planning applications are required. Initially, Anoushka enlisted interior designers to help with the decor but they could not work fast enough.
‘So we pulled in people from the TV and film world – set designers, decorators and production designers, people who were used to bringing a brief to life very quickly.’
Don’t expect to find the latest furniture ranges from John Lewis or Dunelm in these houses. Most high-street retailers have a lead time of 12 weeks or more on large furniture – not quick enough for Omaze. But nor is there a central storage facility packed with elegant sofas and dining tables – it is crucial that each property is individual and not an Omaze cookie-cutter home.
‘Everything is very bespoke, very curated,’ says Anoushka. ‘We look at the lifestyle we think someone would want in that area, and try to make sure the interiors reflect that.’
The total spend on furnishings is usually about £150,000.
‘Outdoor furniture is more expensive than you would think, and some of the custom sofas and beds,’ she adds. The Omaze projects are getting more ambitious and have moved from simple decorating work to larger-scale renovations. ‘One house last Christmas, we essentially gutted the entire property,’ she says.
‘We transformed a garage into a gym, sauna and spa, another outbuilding became a summer house and we completely relandscaped.’
Because it is not just finding a house – the style has to work.
In the Cotswolds, the draw for a modern property was not as popular as one for a sprawling 17th- Century manor home.
On the Cornish coast, contemporary vibes, neutral tones and sea views are a must.
‘Then we might have something in Yorkshire that would lean into a traditional farmhouse – more pattern, more colour,’ says Anoushka. ‘It’s fun to be able to explore different styles. It would be boring to do the exact same thing every time.’
So other than our nation’s obsession with property, what is the secret sauce that keeps this Omaze phenomenon growing?
Anoushka says: ‘Most people want their own home, that is the dream, and it is becoming harder and harder to make that a reality.
‘This is one way that people who might never have been able to get on the property ladder can win these homes, whether they live in them or not. What an amazing, life-changing opportunity.’
What’s next for Anoushka and her team?
In the future there could be more than one draw a month.
‘My team will hate me for saying that,’ she laughs.
‘Finding and spending time in these amazing properties is the best part of the job, transforming a property into something that people really love. The worst part, if you can call it that, is that we have created a certain standard of home, and there is a lot of pressure to keep delivering and surpassing that standard.’
