House price growth has slowed to zero nationally and prices in many regions are now falling outright.

Estate agents blame the election for paralysing the market at an otherwise usually busy time of year, but other commentators say longer-term factors are at work. These include the dampening effect of higher rates of stamp duty and anxieties about Brexit, job security and rising living costs.

One solution for some desperate sellers – a strategy that was last seen during the dark years of the financial crisis – is to raffle their homes via the sale of hundreds of thousands of tickets.

By selling tickets to the lottery for a nominal amount, vendors hope to generate a total sum higher than the price they could obtain through a straightforward sale.

Dunstan Low is one frustrated home seller who has turned his back on traditional sales routes in favour of a raffle.

The decision followed months of battling to sell his six-bedroom manor house in Lancashire, where it was most recently listed for £845,000 in December 2016.

Having failed to find a buyer he and his wife are now in arrears with their mortgage. They need to raise the greatest possible sum as soon as they can.