A Scottish couple who hit on the idea of renting their driveway made £1,500 – and booked a holiday to Spain!
“The vast majority of people who use the space are people visiting Edinburgh for a few days,” said Edinburgh based Ruth Lewis.
Nutritional and massage therapist Ruth was pondering on how to make some money and had the idea of utilising her empty driveway.
She said that neither her or husband Ross use it – and after seeing other people use the website, Your Parking Space, followed suit.
“They do everything and when someone books, you get a message with their details,” said Ruth.
Initially they charged a paltry £5 a day fee, increased to £9, having seen the price of other peoples spare spaces in the area. The website adds a fee to the price.
Sole owners of the driveway, they don’t have a barrier dividing drives.
However, she said: “Someone once got the address wrong, got confused and parked in someone else’s driveway.
“We didn’t know them and when they got home, they found someone else’s car in their driveway and phoned the police!
“The police, through talking to neighbours, found out we rented out our driveway and turned up at our door. Luckily the owner of the car wasn’t too far away.”
Simply Paving analysed the price of private parking spaces on Parkopedia across 50 locations in the UK, revealing the potential profit in different parts of the country.
Edinburgh is the seventh most profitable location in the UK, with London boroughs having a higher average price, per hour.
“People who rent the driveway might be staying in an AirBnB, that doesn’t have parking, or seeing family. And they book for a whole week or a weekend,” said Ruth, having cashed in with a holiday to Malaga.
