Fancy boosting your household income by hundreds of pounds a year? If you have a driveway and don’t use it, you could rent out the empty space as a parking place and watch the money roll in. New research highlights that households are earning more than £1,000 per year on average in 25 UK towns and cities by renting out their driveways, when not being used, to other motorists needing somewhere to park. Researchers found that out of more than 350,000 parking spaces on driveways across the UK, Londoners were making the most with £2,100 per year on average, while people living in Brighton and Edinburgh are earning £1,944 and £1,896 respectively. Significantly though, residents in 25 towns and cities across the UK, stretching from Aberdeen to Belfast to Bournemouth, are making more than £1,000 per year on average offering their unoccupied driveways to motorists searching for a pre-booked parking space. The top ten places to benefit from using empty driveways as parking spaces and how much householders get in return annually for doing so are: London - £2,100Brighton - £1,944Edinburgh - £1,896Bristol - £1,716Oxford - £1,656Cambridge - £1,596Reading - £1,464Leeds - £1,452Manchester - £1,440Liverpool - £1,380 Meanwhile, the league table shows that empty driveways in towns and cities further down the listing are still making a tidy sum. For instance, residents in Wigan in 50th spot can still make almost £650 per year on average from their driveway. Harrison Woods, managing director of YourParkingSpace.co.uk, the company that commissioned the research, said: “With lockdown restrictions being eased and more people returning to their workplace, plus being advised by the government to avoid public transport if possible, we expect a new surge in demand for empty driveways as motorists struggle to find places to park near their places of employment.” (photo: Shutterstock)
