We have obtained deep near-infrared images in J and K filters of four fields in the Sculptor Group spiral galaxy NGC 247 with the ESO VLT and ISAAC camera .
For a sample of ten Cepheids in these fields , previously discovered by García-Varela et al .
from optical wide-field images , we have determined mean J and K magnitudes and have constructed the period-luminosity ( PL ) relations in these bands .
Using the near-infrared PL relations together with those in the optical V and I bands , we have determined a true distance modulus for NGC 247 of 27.64 mag , with a random uncertainty of \pm 2 % and a systematic uncertainty of \sim 4 % which is dominated by the effect of unresolved stars on the Cepheid photometry .
The mean reddening affecting the NGC 247 Cepheids of E ( B-V ) = 0.18 \pm 0.02 mag is mostly produced in the host galaxy itself and is significantly higher than what was found in the previous optical Cepheid studies in NGC 247 of our own group , and Madore et al. , leading to a 7 % decrease in the previous optical Cepheid distance .
As in other studies of our project , the distance modulus of NGC 247 we report is tied to an assumed LMC distance modulus of 18.50 .
Comparison with other distance measurements to NGC 247 shows that the present IR-based Cepheid distance is the most accurate among these determinations .

With a distance of 3.4 Mpc , NGC 247 is about 1.5 Mpc more distant than NGC 55 and NGC 300 , two other Sculptor Group spirals analyzed before with the same technique by our group .