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Austrian house on sale for 99 euros via online lottery
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-11 11:24

VIENNA -- A 400-square-metre house on the banks of the swanky Woerthersee lake in southern Austria could soon change hands for just 99 euros (127 dollars).


Bundled euro banknotes. A 400-square-metre house on the banks of the swanky Woerthersee lake in southern Austria could soon change hands for just 99 euros (127 dollars). [Agencies] 
The Austrian owners put the house up for sale via an online lottery, for just 99 euros per ticket, drawing thousands of requests from all over the world, after they failed to find a buyer by more traditional means.

The Internet site even had to close down registration prematurely over the weekend after some 16,000 people expressed interest in the house.

"We have to wait and see now how many people actually make a payment," owner Traude Daniel said Tuesday.

A total 9,999 tickets were up for sale -- putting the house at just under one million euros -- and as soon as they have been sold, the lottery will begin, she added.

If it appeared that fewer than 9,999 lots had been sold for the house and the 1408-square-metre (0.35-acre) piece of land near Klagenfurt, in southern Carinthia, registration may re-open.

The sale, which was overseen by a notary, who was handling the payments and potential reimbursements, was to run until May 5, 2009.

If all lots have not been sold by that date, the bidders will get their money back, according to the website.