Most Irish buy-to-let landlords have one tenancy income per property and assume that's the ceiling. They rent out the living space, the tenant uses it, the rent comes in, the property fills the role. The garage, the attic, the basement — these are bundled into the tenancy by default whether the tenant uses them or not.
In ~70% of Irish BTL tenancies, the residential tenant doesn't actively use the garage at all. It just sits there, included in the lease, contributing nothing extra. That space, listed separately as storage on Packhood (with the residential tenant's agreement and a small revenue-share), can add €1,200-€1,800/yr per property to the landlord's income — pure cashflow with no additional capital, no additional tenancies under RTB, no incremental management overhead worth the name.
It's the cleanest yield-uplift trick Irish BTL landlords are missing in 2026.
The "garage isn't in the lease" trick
Standard Irish residential leases bundle the entire property by default — including the garage. But that's a default, not a requirement. A landlord and tenant can carve out the garage at signing or at renewal and treat it as a separate non-residential storage space.
Mechanics: in the lease, explicitly state "the property includes [main dwelling]; the detached garage is excluded from this tenancy and is rented separately on a non-residential basis." The tenant's residential rights and protections under the RTA are unchanged for the dwelling. The garage is legally outside the residential tenancy and can be rented to anyone, including a different person, on storage terms.
The tenant doesn't lose anything material — they weren't using the garage to live in. They might gain via revenue-share (some landlords split the storage income €X/€Y with the tenant in exchange for managing local key-handovers).
The numbers per property type
2-bed apartment (Dublin) with no garage but with a basement storage cage: €40-€70/mo if listable. Modest but pure upside.
3-bed semi with garage (Dublin/Cork suburbs): €100-€140/mo storage rent → €1,200-€1,680/yr per property.
3-bed semi with attached garage AND a usable attic (or basement): Both can list separately. €130/mo garage + €60/mo attic = €190/mo combined → €2,280/yr per property.
Detached property with garage + shed: €130/mo garage + €40/mo shed = €170/mo combined → €2,040/yr.
Holiday let / Airbnb second-home: Garage and shed listable year-round even when the property is vacant between guests. €100-€160/mo year-round.
How the tenancy keeps everyone aligned
The standard structure: landlord lists the storage space, tenant gets a small monthly cut (~€20-€30/mo, or ~20% of net) for being on-site to receive the storage renter at move-in and to coordinate access. Tenant has no other obligation. The storage renter is screened and ID-verified by Packhood, paid through Stripe, with the Host Guarantee in place.
For the tenant, this is a small reduction in their effective monthly housing cost (~€240/yr) for ~30 minutes of work spread across a year. Most tenants happily agree.
For the landlord, the gross rent uplift is €1,000-€1,500/yr per property after the tenant share — pure additional income. On a 5-property BTL portfolio, that's €5,000-€7,500/yr of supplementary cashflow against zero additional capital.
Compatibility with Irish RTB regulations
Three things to know about how this fits with the Residential Tenancies Board:
(1) The garage / shed / detached storage space is not "the dwelling" under the RTA. It's not subject to RPZ rent caps. The storage rent isn't part of the residential rent figure registered with the RTB.
(2) The residential tenant's rights are unchanged. They have full security of tenure, full Part 4 protections, full rent-cap protections on the dwelling. The carve-out only affects the garage / non-living-space.
(3) Document the carve-out at lease start or renewal. A one-paragraph addendum to the lease clarifies the garage is excluded. This protects both sides if anything goes to RTB later.
Talk to your accountant + property solicitor on the first property. After that, you've got the template and roll it into every subsequent BTL acquisition.
The portfolio compounding
Most Irish BTL landlords own 1-4 properties; the median is ~2. Adding a Packhood storage listing on each property, even at modest €100/mo per garage, compounds: 1 property = €1,200/yr extra; 2 = €2,400; 4 = €4,800. The marginal effort is near-zero per property after the first one — same lease template, same listing template, same access pattern.
Effectively a 4-7% gross yield uplift on the property's value, achieved by listing space the tenant wasn't using anyway. Most landlords won't get that improvement from anything else they could do to a BTL property in 2026.
List one property's garage as a test
Pick the BTL property where you have the easiest tenant relationship. Discuss the storage carve-out with them at the next renewal point (or now, if they're agreeable). Add the lease addendum. List the garage on Packhood.
Six months in, you'll have proven the model works on one property. Then roll it across the entire portfolio at next-renewal. By the time most other Irish BTL landlords notice, you've added a quiet €5,000+/yr to your portfolio's cashflow.