Sharing economy: how to make money from your home

There’s always been money in bricks and mortar.

However, to get your hands on any of that cash you generally have to do something pretty drastic like remortgage, rent it out, or sell up.

Not any more though.

Become a part of the ‘sharing economy’ and you could net yourself an extra paycheque each month.

The sharing economy is a way of making money by letting assets to other individuals or businesses - this could involve sub-letting an office as a co-working space, temporarily letting out a spare room in your house, or even offering up your driveway as a paid-for parking space.

So if your living room is rarely lived in until the evening, or your driveway is deserted during office hours, here’s how you can use them to earn a sizeable chunk of extra cash each month...

Potential earnings: up to £201 per month (£2,412 a year)

Parking is at a premium in the more congested parts of the country, so if you live near a busy town, city, or business area, you could make over £2,000 a year just by leasing your driveway to commuters.

Using the ParkLet Price Guide Tool, we found that renting out a driveway in an area around Cheshunt in Hertfordshire could net you between £164 and £201 a month, which adds up to between £1,968 and £2,412.

That’s not a bad little earner for doing nothing more than letting people park at your house.

Obviously, prices vary depending on the demand in your area and the part of the country you live in.

Letting a driveway in Liverpool Docklands, for instance, could pull in between £110 and £135 a month, which works out at £1,320 to £1,620, but it’s certainly worth considering if you live on a commuter route.

ParkLet isn’t your only option of course ‒ there are plenty of other sites that offer driveway rental services, including JustPark, ParkonMyDrive and YourParkingSpace.

Fees: 20% commission + VAT, and a one-off £25 + VAT admin fee deducted from your earnings for monthly contracts with ParkLet. 

Potential earnings: up to £7,500 per year before paying tax

Airbnb is the site that really kicked off the sharing economy culture, and is aimed at anyone who has the capability to let out their home to anyone who needs a room for a few nights and doesn’t want to pay the premium rate for a hotel.

Ideal if you live in or around a busy city centre or any tourist attractions, or within easy reach of a major sporting or cultural event, the family holiday could essentially pay for itself while you’re away from home.

You can get an estimate of how much you could earn here.

For example, letting out a room in Manchester Piccadilly would currently bring in an average of £52 a night, while in Crawley you could get £41 a night. 

Read: How to maximise your income from Airbnb

If you don't mind someone living with you on a more permanent basis you could, of course, take in a lodger.

You can advertise the room on a site like Spareroom.com or Gumtree.

An added benefit to taking in a lodger is that you can make the most of the Government’s Rent a Room scheme, allowing you to earn £7,500 a year before having to pay tax on that rental income. 

Fees - For Airbnb, there is a host fee of around 3%. This includes a Host Guarantee with up to £790,000 ($1 million) worth of insurance cover.

If you want to rent out a room on Spareroom.com or Gumtree, placing an ad is technically free but you're far more likely to succeed with a paid placement. 

Potential earnings: up to £150 per month (£1,800 a year)

If you’ve got any empty space in the loft, cellar or garage, you can rent it out as storage space and easily net yourself in the region of £1,000 a year, for doing nothing more than ensuring it remains dry and rodent-free.

The main site here is Storemates, where you can earn £150 plus a month from a garage or £75 a month plus from a loft. Another option is Stashbee.

Fees - It’s free to rent out your space through Storemates ‒ the storage seeker pays a 17% fee on top of the rent you’re looking for. It’s free to list on Stashbee, though you will pay a 5% commission on your bookings.

Potential earnings: starting at £15 per night

If you’ve not got an entire house, or even a spare room to rent out as accommodation - or maybe you just don’t fancy having strangers in your house - you could rent out your garden as a camping space.

Again, this is ideal if you live in or around a busy city centre or any tourist attractions, or within easy reach of a major sporting or cultural event.

Campspace allows you to list your garden space for free. You can set your own price, which is paid by the tenants in advance, though looking at garden spaces in the UK, prices start at around £15 a night. 

You can rent your garden out the whole year if you want, but if we work on Airbnb’s 33 night typical annual letting time, letting people camp at the back of your house could pull in around £500 a year

Fees - no fees are charged to the host.

The first thing to factor in is the tax implications of making money from your home. The good news is there are a number of tax breaks for so-called ‘micro-entrepreneurs’.

The Rent a Room scheme lets anyone earn up to £7,500 tax-free from renting out furnished accommodation in their home via the Rent a Room scheme.

In addition, since April 2017, homeowners in the UK no longer need to declare the first £1,000 they earn from property-related income each year.

However, it’s important that you don’t forget about the potential insurance implications.

If you’re letting out your house for business use, you’ll not only need to make changes to your home insurance policy, but you’ll most likely need to also take out public liability insurance as well in case anyone you're renting space to injure themselves while working there. 

Take the pain out of your tax return: let Simply Tax sort it for £115 (affiliate link)

*This article contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission on any sales of products or services we write about. This article was written completely independently.