Driveway rental service floated as possible solution to Sydney parking issue

People in certain areas could make easy money off their driveways, according to an idea supported by two key ministers.

People who live near hospitals or railway stations could earn easy money by renting out their driveways to people looking for a carpark.

The proposal to help solve Sydney‘s parking space problems by letting residents rent out their driveways Airbnb style received backing from two key ministers at a summit on Monday.

“I think that would be a beautiful thing,” NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello said.

“If you can rent out your driveway – and again, you've got to put some regulation on it and make sure it’s safe – why not?

Lack of parking spaces is a big problem in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

“If you live near a hospital and you can help get somebody to that hospital in a safe way, what's the problem there?”

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance was positive to the idea as well.

“If you think of some of those streets adjoining some of our busier railway stations in the suburbs, and the ability for locals to say, ‘I’m out all day and I don’t care if my driveway has a car in it, I can actually derive a revenue source’.

“And, you can stop me from having to spend billions of dollars on a commuter carpark? Happy days.”

The idea was floated at a summit aimed at solving Sydney’s parking space problem.

The scale of that problem was revealed by an NRMA study also released on Monday that showed Sydney CBD parking spaces had plummeted by 47 per cent since 2014.

“This report clearly demonstrates that the parking situation in Sydney has not improved and we need to take smart but necessary steps now to address this challenge, especially with more people reliant on their private vehicle due to COVID-19,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury presented the parking space report on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Part of the solution would be making parking “smarter” by allowing motorists to find parking spaces using a smartphone app in the same way Google Maps suggests which route to drive, according to the government’s vision.

That would involve using open data to allow drivers to find open parking spaces in real time and top up the meter with their phone.

“In a world where you can order food online and track it to your door in real time, there is no excuse for not having real-time availability in relation to parking,” Mr Dominello told the parking summit in Casula, NSW.

The idea for a service where people could rent out their driveways was floated as part of community feedback presented to the summit.

Originally published as Driveway rental service floated as possible solution to Sydney parking issue