Yahoo Finance This is where you can rent a house for $1 a week
How far are you willing to go to avoid the eye-watering rental prices in most of Australia’s capital cities?
How about Cumnock, with a population of 443, that lies midway between Dubbo and Orange in NSW’s central west?
In a bid to save the local primary school to keep teaching jobs and the bus service going, desperate farmers are renting out their houses for cheaper than a cup of coffee, according to the Daily Mail.
Regional Development Australia Central West chairwoman and Cumnock local Christine Weston set up a website ten years ago to match families with farmhouses for a dollar a week.
In return for the barely-there weekly rent price, tenants are requested to help out on farms, assist with the harvest, and try their hand at renovating.
Some tenants have used money they otherwise would have spent on higher rent to create an online business, taking advantage of the NBN, the Daily Mail reported.
The low rental prices have also helped other vulnerable families out of tight spots, with one homeless family with four children now able to afford a roof over their heads.
The ploy to attract new locals is also so that the primary school, which currently has 48 students, can bump up to 52 so the Department of Education allows the three teachers to stay at the school.
According to the Daily Mail, a western Sydney father has since relocated his seven children and now runs the local pub, while a woman who was studying teaching by correspondence has found a job as a local principal.
“They're looking for an affordable lifestyle,” Weston told the Daily Mail.
“There's certainly plenty of jobs out here; it's just that we need skilled people.”
New locals enjoy the farm lifestyle for its simplicity – but it isn’t without its downsides, like living on tank water and a septic system, so a bit of research is involved, Weston said.
“People get quite romantically inclined thinking, "How lovely moving out to the countryside and only paying a dollar a week’.”
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