Packhood Research · Open data · CC-BY 4.0 · Q2 2026
Garage Income Map: what unused space earns across Ireland, the UK & the Netherlands
How much is the unused space in your home actually worth? Packhood Research maps indicative monthly and annual host earnings for six space types — garage, driveway, spare room, attic, basement and shed — across Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. All figures are host take-home after Packhood’s 5% commission, drawn from our published reference rate card (the marketplace is pre-launch, so these are indicative list prices, not realised bookings).
The finding: A spare room is the highest-earning unused space in all three markets — up to €1,710/yr net in the UK on Packhood’s reference rates.
Published 2026-06-01 · Free to reuse with attribution
About these numbers: Packhood is a new marketplace, so this study contains estimates composited from real public sources — not realised booking data. Peer-to-peer figures are Packhood’s published reference rate card; commercial, rent and dwelling figures are drawn from the public sources named below. See the shared methodology and the limitations on this page before citing.
Press angle A spare room used for storage out-earns a garage in every market we model — and a UK garage still clears more per year than a Dublin one once you net off the platform fee.
Indicative host earnings by space type and market (host take-home, after the 5% Packhood fee)
| Space type | Market | List price /mo | You keep /mo | You keep /yr | List vs net /mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garage | Ireland | €120 | €114 | €1,368 | |
| Garage | United Kingdom | £130 | £124 | £1,488 | |
| Garage | Netherlands | €115 | €109 | €1,308 | |
| Driveway | Ireland | €75 | €71 | €852 | |
| Driveway | United Kingdom | £95 | £90 | £1,080 | |
| Driveway | Netherlands | €80 | €76 | €912 | |
| Spare room | Ireland | €140 | €133 | €1,596 | |
| Spare room | United Kingdom | £150 | £143 | £1,716 | |
| Spare room | Netherlands | €135 | €128 | €1,536 | |
| Attic / loft | Ireland | €60 | €57 | €684 | |
| Attic / loft | United Kingdom | £65 | £62 | £744 | |
| Attic / loft | Netherlands | €58 | €55 | €660 | |
| Basement | Ireland | €95 | €90 | €1,080 | |
| Basement | United Kingdom | £110 | £105 | £1,260 | |
| Basement | Netherlands | €100 | €95 | €1,140 | |
| Shed | Ireland | €45 | €43 | €516 | |
| Shed | United Kingdom | £50 | £48 | £576 | |
| Shed | Netherlands | €48 | €46 | €552 |
List price Host keeps (after 5% fee)
Download the data
This dataset is open under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0). Reuse it in articles, charts or research — just credit Packhood Research and link back.
A permanent DOI for this dataset is being registered with Zenodo — until then, cite the URL below.
Methodology
For each of six space types we take Packhood’s published reference monthly list price in each market (the ASSET_EARNINGS reference table that also powers the embeddable garage-earnings widget), subtract Packhood’s 5% host commission to get host take-home, and multiply by 12 for the annual figure. The reference list prices are anchored to residential rent references — Daft.ie (IE), Rightmove (UK), Funda/CBS (NL) — converted to a storage-equivalent rate. Because Packhood is pre-launch, these are indicative list prices for the kind of space a host offers, not realised booking data; realised host earnings depend on occupancy, location and listing quality.
Full shared method (sampling, normalisation, audit): packhood.com/state-of-storage/methodology.
Limitations
- Pre-launch: figures are indicative list prices from Packhood’s reference rate card, NOT realised bookings or a sample of live listings (there are none yet).
- A single reference price per market is used; real prices vary widely by city, neighbourhood, condition, access and demand. City-level variation is covered in the State of Storage price index.
- Annual figures assume 12 months of continuous occupancy at the list price, which overstates realised income for seasonally-let or partially-occupied space.
- Host take-home reflects only Packhood’s 5% commission; it does not deduct any tax due. Tax-free allowances differ by market — see the tax-allowance sources.
Sources
- Packhood reference rate card (host earnings) & 5% commission — methodology
- Residential rent anchors: Daft.ie (IE), Rightmove (UK), Funda / CBS (NL)
- Revenue.ie — Rent-a-Room relief (IE tax context) ↗
- gov.uk — Property Allowance & Rent-a-Room scheme (UK tax context) ↗
- Belastingdienst — KOR small-business scheme (NL tax context) ↗
Questions journalists ask
- How much can you earn renting out a garage for storage in the UK or Ireland?
- On Packhood’s reference rates, a garage lists at about £130/month in the UK and €120/month in Ireland. After the 5% host commission a host keeps roughly £1,482/year (UK) or €1,368/year (Ireland). These are indicative list prices from the reference rate card, not realised bookings — the marketplace is pre-launch.
- Which unused space earns the most?
- Across all three markets a lockable spare room is the highest-earning space type in this model (about £150/mo UK, €140/mo IE, €135/mo NL list), ahead of a garage, basement, driveway, attic and shed. A shed earns the least. Figures are host take-home after the 5% fee.
- Can I reuse this data?
- Yes. The full table is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0). Download the CSV or JSON on the page and cite as "Packhood Research, Garage Income Map, packhood.com/research/garage-income-map".
Cite this study
For journalists, researchers and bloggers. Licensed CC-BY 4.0 — reuse freely with credit.
Packhood Research, "Garage Income Map" (Q2 2026), packhood.com/research/garage-income-map. Released under CC-BY 4.0.
Embed codes & dataPress / media kit
Questions, a custom cut of the data, or an interview? Email press@packhood.com — we reply within 4 hours on weekdays.