Do you live in a particularly prime transport location? Do you have a garage or driveway sitting unoccupied and begging to be used? Why not turn it into a money-spinner by renting it out?
Thousands of people in the UK rent out parking spaces and if you live in a big city or near an airport you could make as much as £17,000 a year! Who wouldn’t want that? We here to help you figure out if it’s the way to go for you:
- What’s the deal?
- How do you do it?
- A closer look at the parking sites
- How much can you make?
- Is it for me?
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What’s the deal?
Don’t ignore the possibilities of other people parking on your land, especially if you live close to a station or in a busy, urban area with little parking but lots of businesses.
If you have a garage but no car, you could potentially rent it out for others to park in. For many people who live in popular, big-city destinations, demand for parking can be huge meaning you’ll never be short of people looking to use your driveway or garage.
But the utility doesn’t stop there, particularly if you have a garage. What about letting bands use it as a rehearsal room? Who knows, you might be one of the first to discover the next Coldplay or The 1975.
How do you do it?
There are many ways to go about renting out a space. You can let your garage through a property-letting agent, particularly in major cities where hiring a garage can cost the same as a small flat! For Londoners, there are also websites like London Garages that deal solely in garage rental if you want to work through an agent.
Renting out your driveway is even simpler. You might think it sounds archaic but you can put ads in local papers, in the local newsagent or even on your front gate to bring in customers. If you live near a station, see if they will let you put a notice up there then see how much the station car park charges per day and try to undercut them: legitimate but crafty!
Renting out your driveway is even simpler. Put ads in local papers or in the local newsagent or even on your front gate. If you live near a station, see if they will let you put a notice up there. Then see how much the station car park charges per day and try to undercut them – crafty!
Even better, register with sites such as Park Let or JustPark and let thousands of people know about your available space. Various websites offer you the chance to advertise your space for free but these are two of the most established sites and both offer a comprehensive service. Compare various websites below if you want to advertise online.
Alternatively, you can cut out online agents by putting an ad on Gumtree but remember that you’ll have to do a lot of the legwork yourself including working out contracts and payments.
Plus, make money renting out your electricity
Anyone I know who has an electric car, or has hired one, complains bitterly about how difficult it is to charge it. Apparently there can be miles and miles between charging stations, many of them don’t work and if they do you have to have the right app to use them. Nightmare!
However, if you have an electric car, and therefore have an EV charging point in your drive, you could make thousands over the year by renting it out to other electric vehicle owners. There are over 780,000 fully electric cars on the road in the UK, according to ZapMap, which means that there are a lot of other drivers looking for charging points as they travel.
Typically, an electric vehicle only need charging twice a week, depending on how often you use it, so that means the charging point is free for most of the time. According to LeaseElectricCar.co.uk, it costs, on average, £17 to charge an electric vehicle from ‘empty’ to 100pc at home. The rest of the time that charging point is sitting there not being used. However, if you rent the parking space (with charger) out to two motorists a week for £25 you could make £2,600 a year.
You can offer your EV charging space through Just Park and also at CoCharger and Book My Charge.
A closer look at the parking sites
JustPark: It’s free to advertise your space, but they do charge a 3% commission on every successful booking. Also, be aware that for longer bookings (more than two months), they deduct 20% from your first month’s payment, but after that it goes back to 3%.
Their service includes a professionally drafted contract to download (there are actually six to choose from) and a completely flexible rental arrangement – you decide exactly when and for how long you rent your space for.
EasyParking: This app hooks up parking spaces with those looking for them. Payment is made upfront so you receive payment for the space before your buyer has even arrived. They charge 10% commission on each of your bookings.
Renters can book a space with just a couple of clicks, so it’s a straightforward process for both you and the buyer.
Park Let: This is the most restrictive option as it deals only with five or seven-day contracts. While it’s free to advertise your space, they do charge a 20% commission on your monthly rental earnings as well as an additional admin fee of £25 (+ VAT) for the first month.
Again, however, for this price they deal with all the contracts and processing payments and put in the extra work by negotiating with tenants on your behalf, collecting all monthly rental amounts using Direct Debit and helping out should any problems arise during the tenancy period, which makes life just that little bit easier.
YourParkingSpace: Renting out your driveway on this site is absolutely free and you won’t have to pay a service fee, as a 20% charge is added to your price automatically. They also provide users with places to park by the hour, rather than for the extended periods Park Let offer.
How much can you make?
Depending on where you live, you can earn from £40 to £350 a month.
I know, amazing right? Aside from the costs of advertising (if you’ve taken out an ad, or used one of the parking websites that charges commission), and perhaps new locks and some extra keys, there should be few other costs or burden on your time.
How much you can earn will depend on both the location and the length of time you’re renting out spaces for.
JustPark says that most people letting out their driveway can expect to earn around £30 a week. However, if you live near major public transport route or in a city centre you could make over £3,000 a year and if you only want to rent out your space every now and then and you’re near a popular sports or entertainment venue your space could be worth £10 per day!
Clean Air Zones
If you live near a ‘Clean Air Zone’, you could potentially make £1,000 a year.
Those living near a proposed Clean Air Zone, where certain vehicles will pay a penalty charge to enter, could earn more than £1,000 per year by renting out their driveways as parking spaces for drivers looking to avoid the daily driving charge.
Birmingham will have one of the first Clear Air Zones in 2020, but other cities under discussion include Edinburgh, Cambridge and Aberdeen, with 60 local authorities having either considered, or considering, clean air measures.
According to YourParkingSpace, many of the areas being considered are already rented driveway parking hotspots, so the new zones will only add to the value of your driveway.
On top of that, renting out your driveway helps the environment by reducing the need for cars to drive around looking for empty parking spaces.
Is it for me?
This is an easy and non-intrusive way of making some regular money.
The best thing about this money-maker is that you decide how flexible you want to be – if you don’t want to rent out your driveway or garage all the time, there’s no obligation to do so. On most of the sites, there are availability calendars so you can simply select the times your space is available whether it’s half an hour here and there, or a whole year!
However, you could find that having someone else’s car in your driveway causes too much noise, dirt and nuisance in the long-term. For band rehearsals, you would obviously have to have fairly distant neighbours and be able to put up with it yourself.
Check your insurance
You will need to check with your home insurance provider to ensure that renting out your driveway or garage doesn’t affect your policy, and any extra cash you make must be declared to the Inland Revenue on your tax return.
If you like the sound of renting out your driveway or garage, we think you’ll love our articles Rent a room for tax-free cash and Your home as a film set.
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