The giveaway — organised in partnership with Development Finance Today — saw people working in the property sector guess how much LDS will have guaranteed in instant proposals in £’s since launch.

The prizes for the top three winners consisted of donations to their nominated charities, totalling £10,000.

The first place was won by Nina Whalley, senior sales manager at Persimmon Homes, who chose to donate the £5,000 prize to The Joshua Tree, a charity which helps support families across the North West and north Wales affected by childhood cancers.

Thomas Cushnahan, business development manager at Clique Energy, placed second, with the £3,000 prize donated to WHYSUP, an organisation dedicated to reducing and resolving the impacts that addiction and mental illness have on individuals, organisations and communities.

In third place, David Hodgson, sales and marketing director at Persimmon Homes, also chose to donate the £2,000 prize to The Joshua Tree.

Mark Hawthorn, CEO at LDS, said: “It was brilliant to see so many people across the property sector getting involved in our Not-So-Secret-Santa charity giveaway.

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“Supporting charities is something we are very passionate about, and we know from the many causes we work with that the pandemic has meant a significant drop in charity funding in the past two years.

“Our aim for this competition was to give everyone the chance to win some much-needed funding for any charity of their choice.  

“Well done to the three winners, who most closely guessed the total value of sales guarantees issued by LDS (over £1.898bn as of 17th December 2021) and won a share of £10,000 for their chosen charities, The Joshua Tree and WHYSUP Ltd.

“Our thanks go to everyone who took part and to the team at Development Finance Today for helping us to share the news of the competition. 

“We’re looking forward to supporting more charities in 2022 and beyond.”

Helen Ritchie, corporate partnership officer at The Joshua Tree, commented: “Thank you again to LDS for this amazing news. 

"£7,000 will make such a huge difference to the charity and the families that we support, especially right now as the number of referrals that we are receiving is on the increase. 

“It costs on average £4,000 per year to support one family, so this donation will support two families, providing them with all the support they need.”