Meet the man who gave away a three-bedroom house for free

Earlier this year, Marco Robinson announced that he would give away a house.

The self-made British entrepreneur - who has an estimated worth of £25 million - said he would dip into his 150-wide property portfolio, and donate a £120,000 three-bedroom flat in Preston, Lancashire, to whoever he felt deserved it.

Eight months and 8,000 applicants later, the 49 year-old has done just that. And tonight, his journey to find someone to benefit from his unusual act of philanthropy will be featured in a Channel 4 documentary, Get a House for Free. It sees the multi-millionaire meet some of the poorest families in Britain, with the aim of giving one of them “the kind of lucky break you just dream about” - as one applicant put it.

“I wanted to give back,” explains Robinson, who has previously done something similar in America.

“Very few people can afford to own anymore, with rents and house prices going up. Social housing is a huge issue. There’s very little Government help, it’s near impossible to get a mortgage and even people working full time can’t buy. It’s a mess.”

(Marco Robinson revisits the park where he once slept rough)

His mother left the turbulent family home when he was just two and, although she worked multiple jobs to support herself and her young son, the pair often had to sleep rough across Derbyshire and London, as she struggled to pay rent.

By the age of 10, Robinson had been to more than 20 schools, and was homeless on-and-off into his teens.

“Being homeless was one of the reasons I wanted to to give people a home in a way I didn’t have myself,” admits Robinson, who had a heart attack aged 29 as a result of his high-pressure lifestyle, and is now a clean eating convert. “Going through that hardship means I know what it’s like.”

His journey to find the most deserving applicant sees him meet the likes of 18 year-old single mother Holly (“I feel like I’m stuck in the bottom of the pit and I can’t climb out”) and a family of Syrian refugees (“We’re homeless. We have nowhere to go but the street”).

“It was overwhelming,” says Robinson, quietly. “Choosing who to give it to was the most difficult decision of my life.”

(Marco Robinson in front of his flat)

He also changed his children’s attitudes to money.

Paige, 20, and Saul, 17, accompanied him on some of the quest and Robinson credits it with helping them to accept his decision not to leave them a financial inheritance, or buy them property. “When I die, I don’t want anything left at all in my bank account. I help my kids but I don’t give them money.

Robinson can’t reveal the winner but says he is confident he made the right decision.

“I felt the people I gave it to were the most deserving. They had a lot going for them but through no fault of their own were in very sticky circumstances. My goal was always to give it to people who had a fantastic work ethic - a way out of a situation they’d stumbled into. [I wanted] to know they’d actually turn their lives around.”

Ref: Meet the man who gave away a three-bedroom house for free (telegraph)

Photo Credit: Channel 4