The mountain region of Tyrol in Austria in 2008. An Austrian businessman is raffling¹ off his luxury home and will use the proceeds to help fund microcredits in the Third World, the daily Der Standard reported on Monday.

An Austrian businessman is raffling off his luxury home and will use the proceeds to help fund microcredits in the Third World, the daily Der Standard reported on Monday.

Karl Rabeder, 47, is selling his luxury 321-square metre (3,455-square feet) villa² with swimming pool, sauna and spectacular mountain views in Tyrol, valued at 1.6 million euros (2.2 million dollars), via a lottery³, he told the newspaper.

Some 21,999 lottery tickets priced at just 99 euros apiece are on sale.

Rabeder will then invest the proceeds in his own non-profit organisation⁴, MyMicroCredit, which he set up a few months ago.

The businessman, who made his fortune from interior furnishings and accessories, already sold his business in 2004.

"For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness. Now it's time to sell my house, so I can be 'free' for my new life," he told the newspaper.

From now on, he would live and work from a modest rented apartment in Innsbruck, he said.

A number of Austrians have raffled⁵ off their homes recently, as they see it as a way of securing their desired asking price if they fail to find a buyer by more traditional methods.

据奥地利日报《标准报》本周一报道，该国一位商人将抽彩出售他的豪宅，并将所得款项用于在第三世界国家设立小额信贷。

现年47岁的卡尔•拉伯德尔在接受报纸采访时称，他将要抽彩出售的豪宅位于蒂罗尔，是一座面积达321平方米（合3455平方英尺）并带有游泳池和桑拿浴室的别墅，从那里还可以观赏到引人入胜的山间风光。该别墅价值160万欧元（合220万美元）。

此次共设立有21999张彩票，每张仅售99欧元，目前部分彩票已经开始出售。

之后拉伯德尔将把所得款项捐给他自己在几个月前设立的非盈利组织“我的小额信贷”。

靠经营室内家具陈设及相关用品发家致富的这位商人已于2004年将生意出售。

他在接受报纸采访时说：“我曾经一度认为更多的财富和奢华的生活当然可以令人更快乐，但现在是时候卖掉我的房子了，这样我才可以‘自由’地享受我的新生活。”

他在因斯布鲁克租赁了一套条件一般的公寓，并表示以后将在那里生活和工作。

最近有很多奥地利人抽彩出售房屋，因为他们认为如果无法通过更传统的方式找到买主，抽彩出售可以确保自己得到理想要价。

Vocabulary:

raffle off: to dispose of by a raffle（抽彩出售）

proceed：the total amount derived from a sale or other transaction（所得，收益）