A thrifty wife who rents out her driveway for £9 a day earned enough money to take her husband on holiday to Spain.
Ruth Lewis, 41, a nutritional and massage therapist from Bonnington, Edinburgh, and her husband Ross have been renting out their driveway since 2018.
She explained how on one New Year’s Day, the pair were thinking about how to make some more cash and it occurred to them they could use the empty driveway, which neither of them use.
After learning of the Your Parking Space website, which takes a cut, the couple took the plunge and advertised the space online.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Ruth said: ‘It was really straightforward. They do everything and when someone books, you get a message with their details.’
When they first listed the space, the couple charged a humble £5 a day, wanting to offer an affordable price to visitors.
They raised the fee to £9 a day after seeing the price of other people’s spare spaces in the area.
Last year Ruth and Ross banked a healthy £1,500 from renting out the parking space, and the pair jetted off to Malaga with the proceeds.
With it being her own driveway, Ruth doesn’t have any barrier. While it is smooth sailing the majority of the time, she has encountered a couple of issues.
Ruth said: ‘Someone got the address wrong, they 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. They phoned the police.
‘The police, through talking to all the neighbours, found out that we rented our driveway and turned up at our door. Luckily the owner of the car wasn’t too far away.’
Ruth explained that the ‘vast majority’ of people who use the space are people visiting Edinburgh for ‘a few days’.
Ruth added: ‘They might be staying in an Airbnb that doesn’t have parking, or seeing family. And they book for a whole week or a weekend.’
Simply Paving analysed the price of private parking spaces on Parkopedia across 50 locations in the UK. Edinburgh is the seventh most profitable location in the UK, with only London boroughs having a higher average price per hour.
The Netherlands is now the most expensive country for monthly off-street parking at an average of £279.91 (previously 2nd place in 2019), whilst its capital Amsterdam, continues to be one of the most expensive cities to park in the world, ranking as the most expensive city for 2-hour on-street parking with an average of £10.82
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