What to Do With Your Office Parking Space During a Lockdown

Over the past year, we’ve all been spending a lot of time at home. Sad, it’s true, but spare a thought for your office’s poor, neglected car park. Once packed with the cars of employees and visitors, it now stands empty and forlorn. But dry your eyes! Stashbee is here to help you once again find value in your office car park.

For starters, did you know that you can rent your office parking space while it’s not being used by your employees? Now is the ideal time to repurpose or rent out your office parking space for other people to use, especially while lockdown measures are still in place. Whether you have tonnes of unused bays or just a few outside your building, here are a few tips on how to make extra money from them.

 

Rent Out Your Parking Spaces

The easiest short-term solution to an abundance of unused parking spaces is to rent them out. You never know, your empty space could be someone’s lucky find.

If you’re wondering, Who’s going to rent my parking space?, you should know lots of people are on the hunt for convenient parking. Perhaps they’ve just moved to town and found the perfect pad, albeit one that lacks reliable parking. Maybe they live close by, but need to use their garage for storage instead. Or perhaps they’re going through a change in circumstances, and simply need an interim space to park their car.

Whatever the reason, they’re all looking for the same thing, and you’re perfectly placed to help them out. Here are some tips for renting your parking spaces.
 

1. Make money from your parking space

Parking is in high demand, and people are willing to pay good money for around-the-clock access to secure parking. Lucky for them, if your employees are all working remotely and you have the space, you could be their saviour. Meanwhile, you get to make some extra cash. In fact, if you’re renting out enough spaces, you could even cover the costs of your office building.

2. Location, location, location

Having parking spaces for rent in a city centre is a great little earner, and if your business is near a train station or airport? That’s even better. Parking at public transportation hubs is notoriously expensive — there’s a reason people get up in arms when their parking ends up costing more than their airfare! So spare a thought for the masses of drivers who would gladly choose your lock-up garage over ‘Costa del Car Park’. Secure off-road parking is at a premium too, so a sheltered car park, driveway, or garage shouldn’t go to waste during lockdown. Plus, you’d be helping people avoid parking tickets!

3. Find the right platform to list your space

Of course, you want your available parking space to be seen by the right people. You need to advertise through a reputable platform. After all, time is money, and Stashbee can help you save the former while increasing the latter. We’ll list your space for free, verify Guests, take care of the booking terms, and pay you securely every month. Think of us as the fairy godmother of parking space rentals.
 

4. Don’t forget the paperwork

Legally speaking, renting out your parking spaces is seen as a 'change of use' for your land, which means you might have to stump up a planning application fee... so be sure to check with your local council. If it’s just one parking space, however, you should be exempt. You’re also liable to pay tax on any income from car parking that exceeds £1,000. And it’s worth keeping in mind, especially after the last year, that life is unpredictable to say the least, so check your insurance covers liability.
 

Other Ways to Get Use Out of Your Empty Office Parking Space

If renting your car park spaces out isn’t for you, there are plenty of other innovative ways to transform your space. Here are a few other car park repurposing ideas for business owners with extra space.

1. Turn the space into a garden

No matter the size of your car park, you can transform it into an urban green space. For example, a rooftop car park can become an ideal chill-out area with great views of your surroundings. As well as sounding cute, ‘parklets’ are a recent and popular way of reusing smaller parking spaces, as well as the perfect place to reconnect with smaller groups of employees as lockdown measures ease. They can also be easily dismantled – just in time for the full-scale return to the office.

2. Create a community space

For the socially minded, why not use your empty car parking spaces as the ultimate community hub? Whether you focus on wellbeing, fitness, art, or other activities, an outside space can safely bring people together.
 

3. Commercialise your car park

As warmer weather approaches, you can transform your unused car park into a commercial space. Cafes, pubs, food markets, play areas, pop-up fashion stalls, food trucks surrounded by street art… the entrepreneurial options are only limited by your imagination.
 

We hope we’ve given you some ideas about how to use your spare car park spaces during lockdown. If monetising your car park sounds like your thing, list your parking space for free and enjoy a quick and easy route to making some extra cash.