Homeowners across the UK are boosting their household income by more than £1,000 by renting out their empty driveways as parking spaces.

New research by online parking portal YourParkingSpace.co.uk reveals that residents in more than 25 towns and cities are breaking the £1,000 average per year threshold as motorists look for alternative places to park their cars.

In Oxford, people are earning an average of £1,528 a year from renting out their driveways. The top three earning cities for driveway rental in the last year were London, Brighton and Edinburgh, where homeowners made £2,212, £2,059 and £1,941 respectively per year on average.

These driveway incomes are actually more than the previous year despite lockdown restrictions.

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Oxford joins include Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Cambridge, Birmingham and Reading, for sought after parking spaces. In these cities the average annual income from driveway parking with YourParkingSpace.co.uk were all above £1,300.

In Scotland, the second two highest earning cities for driveway income were Aberdeen and Glasgow, earning residents £1,298 and £1,129 respectively, and in Wales the top two were Cardiff and Newport with £1,203 and £681 respectively.

Harrison Woods, CEO of YourParkingSpace.co.uk, said: “Despite an unprecedented year, the demand for rented driveway parking remained high. This is most likely because many people abandoned public transport and, where allowed, chose to drive and park as close as possible to their place of work, which more often than not was on a pre-bookable empty driveway.

“As the economy reopens there will be more-and-more money-making opportunities for driveway owners as sport and music venues welcome back fans and holidaymakers jet away – all needing somewhere to park.”