The key to the door of a rent-free penthouse is up for grabs this week.

Tension will be running high on Thursday when six competition finalists find out who will win a luxury penthouse competition.

The Telegraph & Argus teamed up with Asquith Properties to offer someone the chance to live in a furnished two-bedroom apartment rent-free for a year.

The finalists will battle it out on stage before Bradford's Christmas lights are switched on by soap stars Samia Smith and Ben Freeman.

Each of the six will choose a numbered golden envelope, one of which will hold the key to the door of the penthouse flat of the modern Gatehaus complex.

The first phase of the complex, which consists of a ten-storey glass tower and sits at the entrance to Bradford's historic Little Germany quarter, will be available early next year.

And the six finalists know exactly what is in store for the winner, having been given a tour around the show apartment.

Senior recruitment consultant Sharon Tempest, 28, of Shelf Moor Road, Halifax, said her boyfriend, Nick Collins, barely believed her when she told him she had made the final. She said to win the competition would be a dream come true as the couple have moved back in with their parents in a bid to save for a house.

"We have already been saving up for a deposit. It would be brilliant if I won, we could save it up," she said.

Lyndsay Beckford, 41, of Wyre Close in Wibsey, said she and her husband Devon would have a lot of decisions to make if they won. The senior auditor, who owns her own home, said she had entered the competition on a whim.

"I kind of feel like somebody else should win it because we have somewhere to live already," she said, adding that if she did win the couple would decide what to do with their house and enjoy the time spent at the luxury apartment.

Self-employed window cleaner Robert Middlebrook, 26, already lives in a city centre apartment with his wife Kormal.

He said his small one-bedroom flat on Broad Street was nothing in comparison to the luxury apartment. "We have thought about how great it would be to be able to save rent for a year,'' he said. "If I do win, I think I will be the only window cleaner with a penthouse!"

The calibre of the prize caught the eye of engineer Adrian Gill, 37, of Beverley Drive, Wyke, who said: "It is just a fantastic prize really, an apartment for a year.'' Dietician Helen Morgan, 34, of Whitechapel Road, Scholes, said she would love to win as she recently moved back in with her parents after returning from a job in the south.

"I'm really desperate to move out. I would save up a bit that year," she said.

Lucy Askew, 23, of Old Hall Way, Glusburn, near Keighley, said her mum had entered the competition for both her and her sister.

"My sister didn't get through, but she's got somewhere to live already," said the teaching assistant.

e-mail: rebecca.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk