People paying $1200 a month to rent Josef Fritzl's house

The property where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter locked up for 24 years is now being rented out. Photo / AP

The house where Austrian man Josef Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth as his sex slave for 24 years is being rented out, with some paying up to $1200 a month to live there.

The house in the Austrian town of Amstetten was purchased in 2016 for $250,000 by Herbert and Ingrid Houska.

The pair renovated the house in order to "bury the past" and now rent it out for between $610 and $1200, The Sun reports.

The front of a house that was the scene of a crime of incest and abuse. Photo / AP

Ten apartments have replaced the dull flats that Fritzl was the landlord of during his reign of terror over his daughter.

All ten flats have already been snapped up but the basement where Fritzl kept Elisabeth and the children is not in use.

The basement was filled in on order of Amstetten authorities to prevent it becoming a shrine.

The basement has been closed off to prevent people turning it into a shrine. Photo / AP

Herbert said many residents have congratulated him and are happy the property is being used.

"I think really something beautiful has emerged and the past has been buried.

"It is time to finally look forward," he said.

In 1984 when Elizabeth was 18 she was dragged into her father's lair where for the next 24 years she was raped over 3,000 times, bearing him seven incest children.

Three of the children were brought up in the basement with Elisabeth and wouldn't see sunlight until they were released in 2008.

The basement where Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years. Photo / AP

Fritzl was able to raise the three other children by lying to police claiming they were dumped on his doorstep by Elisabeth who had run off to join a cult.

One child died shortly after birth.

Over the 24 years of Elisabeth's imprisonment, no tenants realised what was going on beneath their homes.

The nightmare ended when Fritzl allowed one of the children to go to hospital after slipping into a coma.

Fritzl fathered seven children with Elisabeth while she was being held captive in the basement. Photo / AP

Horrified by the terrible state the girl was in, doctor's alerted police who arrested Elisabeth after Fritzl allowed her to visit.

In the interview room she revealed the truth to police.

Fritzl is serving life for murder and rape at Austria's most secure psychiatric prison.