Worried about interest rate rises? Rent out your driveway

If you’re a driver and a homeowner worried that interest rate rises could see the cost of your mortgage shooting up, you might be looking for ways to offset any additional cost.

One solution you might not have considered, is to make your empty driveway work for you.

If you drive to work the likelihood is your parking space will be sitting empty for most of the day – which, conveniently, is exactly when people working in the local area might be looking for somewhere to park their car while they tackle their own nine to five.

Or alternatively, if you have a double drive, but just one car you could consider longer-term lets – particularly if you live near an airport.

Offsetting interest rate hikes The current interest rate of 0.25 per cent is the lowest ever in the Bank of England’s history but just a 0.25 per cent increase on a 25-year £200,000 mortgage will mean almost an extra £300 a year in mortgage payments.

If rates shoot up by 1 per cent then this would be about an extra £1,100 over 12 months – a figure which could be offset by renting out your drive according to some websites providing driveway listing services. Harrison Woods, managing director of YourParkingSpace.co.uk, said: “Our research shows that empty driveway owners in more than 30 towns and cities using YourParkingSpace.co.uk are earning just over £1,000 on average a year which can really help the household budget and offset an increase in interest rate payments.

“People with empty driveways in Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Newcastle are earning over £900 a year on average with us, while in Bolton and Rotherham it’s more than £800 a year on average.”

Five of the best sites to rent out your drive

Your Parking Space doesn’t charge users to list their space, but charges a service fee of the tenant which you will need to factor into your rate to stay competitive. There are a number of sites providing similar services to YourParkingSpace.co.uk, including:

• Just Park – Just Park let you sign up for free, but charge three per cent commission on the figure you charge. For bookings of over two months, it takes 20% of your first month’s payment and 3% thereafter.

• Park Let – who charge 20 per cent commission plus VAT, and a one-off £25 plus VAT admin fee.

• ParkonMyDrive.com – Park on My Drive is another site that offers free listing, but you have to stump up an annual registration fee of £15

• Or you could take matters into your own hands and do it yourself via Gumtree. You have to pay to post in the appropriate section, and given the volume of listings on Gumtree you could wait a while before somebody bites.