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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
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Iona Young

Amazing five-bedroom home offered rent-free for a year - but there's a catch

A five-bedroom house is being offered rent-free, but there is a small catch for keen tenants.

The home in Galway is being offered by a local school for a whole year, but residents will need to have children to apply.

Located in the Connemara Gaeltacht, the school is offering the property to a family so it can boost the number of pupils studying there, Galway Live reported.

READ MORE - Tributes to 'courageous' Edinburgh woman who dies following cancer misdiagnosis

If the Naomh Padraig school does not manage to increase its attendance it will lose a teacher. The school's principal said schools have a "community spirit" and it would be a shame to lose a teacher.

"Once the school goes, you lose that community spirit where everybody is together and it would be such a shame," Ms Uí Fhiric said.

"We have a beautiful school in a beautiful area with fantastic facilities. We have a pitch, a playground, yard games...an outdoor classroom in a beautiful scenic area."

The school was donated the property by a cooperative and local business and it isn't the first time rent-free accommodation has been offered in Galway.

Authorities on the Inis Meáin island announced a special initiative last summer.

A total of 1,600 families applied to live in the home and winners said they have "dreamt" of living in hope like the one they were given.

“It’s something we’ve dreamt of for years, to find a place in the Gaeltacht, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the advertisement," one of the winners said.

Innovative people have also found ways of living rent-free in homes.

A woman in Georgia, US, is paying absolutely no rent or mortgage after building a "luxury tiny home" in her back garden.

Precious Price would rent out the spare rooms in her three-bedroom home in Atlanta, but bookings dried up after the pandemic.

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The 26-year-old told CNBC: "I stared out the kitchen window into my huge backyard, something clicked: I could use that space to build a tiny home to live in, and fully rent out the main house."

After she gained planning permission, she rented out her main house during the build and rented a room in her neighbour's home.

Precious moved in permanently at the beginning of this year. She said all of her costs were "covered by the $2,725 I make from renting out the main house, which means I'm able to live in my tiny home for free".

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