Meet our Mater Prize Home 276 winners

Imagine what it would be like to win a house!

Meet our Mater Prize Home winners below – for lottery No.276

It was just two days before Christmas when Ben, 29 and his partner Karina decided to sign up as a Mater Prize Home VIP at their local Gold Coast shopping centre. The festive season had them feeling both excited and generous. “At the time, it was an opportunity to support a good cause so we thought why not sign up as a VIP,” said Ben.

Ben’s Dad had recently shared his vision board philosophy. This was ‘what you think about, you bring about’ belief, so he and Karina placed the Mater Prize Home lottery No. 275 brochure on a wall along with a photo of them. Whenever they looked at their vision board they thought to themselves ‘We’ll win that!’ — imagining their new life in their new home.

Ben recalled a rather serendipitous conversation he had with a friend just two days before the draw.  “We had lunch on Anzac day with a friend, during which he pointed out the brochure on the wall and jokingly asked if we had won the home”. Ben, knowing the lottery No. 275 draw had already taken place notified his friend they’d missed out on winning the home.

Completely forgetting about the automatic entry perks of being a Mater Prize Home VIP, Ben hadn’t even considered the possibility of winning the next Mater Prize Home draw, lottery No. 276—a $1.6 million Gold Coast apartment package, including a whopping $550,000 worth of gold bullion. That is, until he received a phone call less than 48 hours later that would forever change his life.

A life changing phone call

The initial winning call was to Karina, because Ben had given her number at the point of VIP sign up. Whilst Karina wasn’t given the good news because the tickets were in Ben’s name, she noted that the call seemed different so she sent Ben a text message to let him know someone from the Mater Foundation lotteries team was trying to reach him.

Ben answered the follow-up call and was reminded of the details of his VIP sign. When Ben was finally told of his luck, he couldn’t believe it. He fondly recalled, “It all added up but I still wasn’t 100% convinced after the call!”

It was a Friday afternoon. Ben thought that perhaps his colleagues had decided to play a joke on him. It wasn’t until he received a follow-up email confirming his spectacular win that the reality of being the latest Mater Prize Home millionaire started to sink in.

“In the back of your mind there’s always the incentive of one day possibly winning something but never did we think we would win a home and the extra gold!,” Ben said.

Ben and Karina spent the day after the news with family, relishing in the life-changing win. The couple immediately knew they were going to hold onto the home. “It’s [the apartment] ours now so we want to enjoy it for our future—we want to use the opportunity to get ahead and set ourselves up.”

When asked if there was a favourite part of the prize package, Ben couldn’t pick a single object. “There’s no single item in the apartment or anything specific about the win, it’s more so the fact that we’ve won this incredible prize that will forever change our lives. This is the Australian dream,’ Karina said. Ben adding, ‘It’s so amazing for us as a young couple!”

Congratulations Ben and Karina. We are so excited about what this incredible win means to you both!

Will you be our next Mater Prize Home winner?

If you want the chance to win a house of your dreams then purchase your tickets today! You could be the next Mater millionaire!