Students and ferry-riding professionals are renting out unneeded parking spots for up to $550 a month.

Money Out of Thin Air

Brisbane has long been a hot spot for SpaceOut members and ordinary Australians with unused space in their home or business are making good money by renting it out for storage, office use as well as parking – and are literally making money out of thin air.

In Brisbane (and many other Australian capital cities), demand for inner-city carpark in space has created a mini property boom as spare parking bays in city highrises and apartment blocks become prime rental spaces.

The average cost of renting a park in Brisbane now stands at $435 a month – or $43.50 a square metre – after growing 30 per cent a year since 2005.

One great advantage of renting your own parking space is that you get 24×7 access and can come and go as you please. Although more than $400 a month may seem light a lot to pay for parking, it is actually a bargain when compared to casual parking rates which are charged every time come or go.

Last year SpaceOut Highlighted in our City drive-in robbery – Brisbane carpark costs soar post that Brisbane drivers wishing to park in the city were  paying on average $45 a day (that’s over $200 a week), and the rates have continued to rise…. currently  Brisbane casual parking can cost up to $70 a day.

Collaborative Consumption

Renting out your unused parking space – or a spare bedroom for storage – or an unused corner or room at your workplace is a great example of the increasingly popular collaborative consumption movement, where people “share” resources.  For the space owner, it is a great way to earn some extra income, and for the space renter it is a great way to find a rental space that is cheap and convenient, and to save money on commercial rental rates.

SpaceOut provides a service which makes it easy for people with spare or unused space, to list and rent it out to those who need the space.

After London, Oslo and Tokyo, Sydney was already the world’s fourth dearest city to park, but now the cost of meter parking in the city is set to rise even higher – to $7 an hour.

The NSW Government levy (which was doubled by the state labour government in 2009) forces hotels, councils and commercial carparks to pay up to $2040 a space every year.  The tax was supposed to discourage daily commuter traffic congestion in the Sydney CBD, however, because it is only imposed on offsite parking, it tends to encourage commuters to drive around until they find a kerbside park, which actually adds to the congestion.

Parking meter costs

At $7 per hour Sydney on street parking fees are the highest of all other major cities in Australia.  The next most expensive cities are Melbourne and Brisbane (at a maximum rate of $4 per hour), with Perth a little lower at $3.30 per hour, and Adelaide the cheapest at just 2.40 per hour for CBD parking.

So for on-street parking in Australian major city CBD’s (assuming you are actually allowed to park for more than an hour) you are looking at paying anywhere between $20 and $60 for the day.

Parking Station Fees

For off-street parking, or parking in commercial parking stations you can expect to pay significantly more (even in many cases at “early bird” rates), with Sydney CBD parking station rates costing up to $35 and hour or $142 per day. If you want the luxury of being able to come and go from, your parking spot as you please, you would normally expect to pay many hundreds of dollars a month.

The huge increase in costs associated with parking in Australian CBDs is fueling the demand for Private parking services like that being offered BY SpaceOut.  Spaecout provides a service that allows individuals and businesses with a spare parking space in areas of high demand, to rent it out to those desperately needing parking, but unable to justify the ever increasing costs of commercial parking services.  The parking space owner, turns their unused parking space into a regular income, and the commuter gets convenient and cheaper parking – often with 24×7 access.

See what’s currently available right now by clicking one of the links below :

• Sydney Parking Spaces for rent
• Melbourne Parking Spaces for Rent
• Brisbane Parking Spaces for rent
• Perth Parking Spaces for Rent

Park Circa coordinates a community of members who are either looking for a parking space or have parking facilities available. Members are able to list their driveway parking space as available when it’s not in use — earning cash when someone uses their spot. The payment method is on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system, where drivers top-up credit on their Park Circa account. This is then transferred to the owner of the parking space the driver selects, with the hourly rates decided by the spaces’ owners. Members are able to view available parking spaces and complete payment via the Park Circa mobile app.

The service is currently running as a beta program in San Francisco, but has plans to expand globally.

Qld Justice Department figures for August indicate that lenders lodged nearly 200 claims to repossess  homes & businesses as record numbers of owners default on mortgage payments.  The figure of 193 repossession claims, is the highest monthly total since the early 1990s when records began.

And this figure is considered to be just a portion of the repossessions actually taking place as many cases don’t appear before court, with many property owners negotiating with banks to put their property up for sale to repay the debt.

With the recent increase in the official cash rate (the RBA increased if from 4.5 to 4.75% on Tuesday), and banks jumping to increase their rates (CBA shocked mortgage holders by increasing their rate by 0.45%), and with rates expected to increase in the coming months, the repossession rate is likely to get a whole lot worse.

Mortgage Holders struggling to meet repayments should organise hardship arrangements with their lender and consider contacting a financial advisor or counsellor for help.

Another option to keep the banks at bay, supplement your income, and help you to meet your mortgage repayments might be to consider renting out spare or unused space in your home or business.  If you have a spare bedroom, garage or shed, you may be able to rent it out and earn a couple of hundred extra dollars a month.

“Parking in Brisbane has become more than a headache, with some motorists slugged over $20 an hour for parking in the city”

As part of a nationwide investigation it has become clear that Brisbane parking rates are amongst the worst in Australia.  Brisbane drivers wishing to park in the city pay on average $45 a day (that’s over $200 a week).  Brisbane parking station fees are on a par with Melbourne (also $45 a day), and are more expensive than other Capital cities, except for Sydney where you can expect to pay up to $72 a day for parking.  Darwin, is the cheapest capital city to park, with fees as low as $2.40 per day at some inner city carparks.

The table below provides an overview of the parking fees for some of Brisbane’s largest commercial carparks (as of Sep 2010) :

Another big “money grab”  used by some of the commercial carpark operators is the policy of applying an extra fee if a motorist loses their ticket. In Brisbane you should expect to pay up to $66 for to park your car for the day if you can’t find your parking ticket.

Jim Kershaw a spokesman from the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ)  suggested that because of the high parking costs, many people parked outside the CBD and caught public transport, and said :

“In a perfect world there would be cheap parking for everyone”

SpaceOut – offers a cheap and convenient solution to motorists looking for alternatives to the high cost parking offered by commercial operators in city CBDs.  People can often find a much cheaper parking option by renting an unused private parking space or garage.  People living or working in (or near) the CBD, who have a parking space but no car, can also make a bit of extra cash by renting out their space .

In Sydney, the asking price for prestigious office space that is currently under construction is rumoured to be up to $1400 a square metre.

The anticipated rise in the costs of office space is typical of a market coming out of a recession and reflects the fact that relatively few new development projects have been started in the past couple of years.

Melbourne’s premium rent is more like $550 per sq m, but independent adviser Urbis has predicted a rise of about 10-12 per cent over the next two years.

Australia’s major cities remain among the most expensive in the world for parking space fees and office accommodation – a reflection in the lack of supply and the expected rise in demand for office space as numbers of white-collar workers rise.

DTZ’s 13th annual Global Occupancy Costs report, highlights six Australian cities that are among the world’s 100 most expensive.

According to the report, Sydney’s ranking has increased from position 45 in 2009 to 23 in the latest data – putting it well ahead of many international business precincts including downtown New York, Brussels and Berlin.

Melbourne jumped from rank 86 in 2009 to 53 in 2010. Brisbane is ranked 29, followed by Perth (32), Canberra (73) and Adelaide (80).

SpaceOut continues to offer a realistic alternative for people searching for cheap and convenient office space to rent.

Data released yesterday by Commsec shows that over the last 20 years, the average size of a home in Australia has increased by more than 30%.

The houses are emptier too, with the number of people in each home gradually declining over the last 100 years because of a trend towards smaller families.  This trend has only just started to change, with the number of people to a dwelling rising slightly last year – the first time it has done so in over a century.

However, with the increase in house sizes, there appears to be a corresponding increase  in rental costs.  A report from BIS Shrapnel has  also forecast that rents are expected to spiral – with increased rents of 5% a year in most capital cities over the next few years.

So, if you (like many Aussies apparently) are living in a large home  and have more space than you know what to do with, now is a prime opportunity to cash in on it.  You can convert that empty,  unused, or spare  space into a regular extra income – simply advertise your space for rent, make some extra cash, and provide an opportunity for someone else in your community to save money on storage costs.

Brisbane inner city suburbs including Herston, Kelvin Grove, Bowen Hills, Teneriffe and Newstead are to be targeted.  The overhaul would see the number of parking meters increase by 240% from 3750 to 9000.

The council’s Labor Opposition has labelled the expansion plan a “grab for cash”.  Labor’s Cr David Hinchliffe said :

“What is unstated is that this is about parking meter revenue and reducing the number of parking permits that will exempt residents from having to pay for meters. That is what it is all about“.

In the 2008-2009 financial year, 2900 Brisbane parking meters earned $7.5 million. Since July, about 800 more meters have been installed in the inner-city. About 5200 new meters would be added under the changes.

Residential Parking Permit  rules change

There is also expected to be a tightening of the current residential parking permit scheme, which gives exemptions to city fringe residents who do not have access to off-street parking.

Currently, about 19,000 parking permits are issued to residents, most of them in the suburbs of Woolloongabba, Dutton Park, West End, Bowen Hills, Fortitude Valley, Kangaroo Point and St Lucia.  Residents can apply for one residential parking permit and one additional permit.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said the current permit system – which allow residents to park on inner-city streets without having to pay parking meters or pay parking fines – was being abused, with some permits were being photocopied, given to neighbours and sold for up to $10 each.

The council is also facing pressure in a number of inner-city suburbs with commuters from outer suburbs driving into the inner-city before catching public transport to the CBD.

Under the suggested changes, residents of inner-city Brisbane will need to prove that they the homeowner or renter with a tenancy agreement of more than six  months. They will also have to provide a current vehicle registration certificate and  need to demonstrate that they do not have enough room to park off the street.

A Golden Opportunity for SpaceOut Members

The proposed increase in parking meters and changes to the rules for residential parking permits are certain to make it much more difficult to find parking spots close to Brisbane city.  This presents a fabulous opportunity for residents with a parking space that they are not using – to rent it out and turn their unused space into cash.

A new Australian Government report released yesterday, reveals that a frightening number of Australians suffered financial pain in the first six months of this year.

The survey of over 1600 families found more than a third considered themselves financially worse off in the six months to June 2009.

• 1 in five families reported levels of hardship that meant that made it hard for them to pay their utility bills.
• Of the families unable to pay their rent or mortgage on time, nearly 80 per cent were suffering this way for the first time.
• Of those who had gone without food, 70 per cent had not experienced this before.

Coincidentally, the government survey was released on the same day Anglicare Australia released its annual State of the Family report. The Anglicare report also highlights that Families have been under increasing pressure because of rising costs.

Families are using a variety of strategies to save money and reduce their costs including :

• One in 10 is putting off plans for a new job
• Five per cent have put off having a child until the economy improves
• Five per cent have postponed their wedding celebrations in order to save money
• One in three is travelling less
• One in four is spending more time with the family
• One in five is planning to grow their own vegetables

Obviously SpaceOut also offers a great option for many struggling families – to either make money by renting out unused space in their homes – or to save money on self storage costs.

Here’s some of what people are saying about SpaceOut recently (in fact all these comments have been received withn the last 7 days). My personal favourites are in green , and my thoughts are at the end.

• ”a fabulous idea in todays hard times!!”
• ”well set out”
• ”what a fab idea”
• ‘Luv your site anyway……………………………keep it up
• ”very easy and fast”
• “Great website! I am a software tester for a living and I really liked.
• “Dear Friends, you are wonderful, this is a genius type of an idea. God Bless you your website looks great although I did not explored it in detail. but what counts is an idea! Well done! Hopefully your clients will multiply like mushrooms after the rain soon”
• ”Very well setup and easy site to navigate. Good luck and I hope it takes off?”
• ”I have just placed up my ad… so easy and can not wait to hear from potential clients… yea ha ”
• ”i think it is a great idea”
• ”great idea ”
• ‘Terrific”
• ”All the questions I wanted to know have been answered. Thankyou.”
• ”A great idea and one I’ll use to hopefully store someone’s stuff in a way which will benefit both parties.”
• ”Great concept, have been thinking about renting out spare space for a long time, now i can do it easily”
• ”What a fantastic idea! I read about this in the Sunday Times. I have a large home with plenty of space and did not even think about renting out the space I have.”
• ”What a fabulous idea! Wish we knew of this before we put our house up for Auction. A great little cash flow earner!”
• ”Provides a useful service”
• ”wonderful, awesome words are not enough……..”
• ”It was easy to find what I was searching for.”
• ”I think this is a great idea, as I am about to take time off work to have a baby. Some extra cash would be wonderful.”
• ”- great! easy to use..”
• ”excellent idea, and now we know what to do with the spare space…thanx’
• ”Great idea, will be interested to see if it works for us. Good luck and I hope you business is a success”
• ”Just read about Spaceout in the Sunday Times. What a great idea, am now checking out your site with a view to listing some spare space I have.”

Damon’s comments.

From the moment of conception, I loved SpaceOut. I loved the concept, its simplicity, and I loved the potential this gives to average people to make or save significant money. But it was not until we started asking for user’s thoughts that I knew that I wasn’t alone.

We have had such wonderful feedback from our customers that I felt compelled to share it. But what I really sensed from our customer base is that SpaceOut brings out the nicest in people. We have created a genuine community based revolution and I hope that you can experience this too.