How To Make Money From Your Home

If you are a millennial, the idea of multiple streams of income won’t be new to you. Income in the UK has stagnated. Consequently, millennials are the first generation to have a lower income in their 30s than the previous generation did. This, combined with the rising cost of living, has created a generation forced to think entrepreneurially in order to sustain their lifestyles.

While it is now fairly common to start a side hustle in order to generate extra income, had you ever considered your home could be a way to earn extra cash? Creating space for your home business, letting out part of your home and generating renewable electricity are all ways you could turn your home into an additional income stream. If you are interested in learning more about these methods of using your home to earn extra income, read on. 

Home Working 

According to ‘Beyond Live/Work’ by Frances Hollis, most businesses in the UK start up at home to reduce overheads. Many of us are now working from home in some capacity - whether starting a home business or making a permanent switch to hybrid working in the wake of the pandemic. Having a dedicated workspace allows you to focus, reduces distractions, and helps create mental separation between your work and home life. These benefits can boost your productivity and increase your long term earning potential. 

While it is preferable to have a space to work separate from where you relax, eat or sleep: such as an office or a garden room, being short on space shouldn’t put you off creating a dedicated work area. Our key tips for creating a productive workspace are:

• Have everything you need to hand.
  This will minimise the opportunity for distraction as you hunt around the house for a pen!

• Make sure it’s comfortable.
  Good lighting, being a comfortable temperature and ensuring your desk, screen and chair are at the correct height, will keep you healthy and productive for the long term.

• Get the infrastructure right
  Plenty of sockets and a good internet connection are crucial to modern home-working.

• Close it away
  Whether behind a door or in well-planned storage, having your work paraphernalia out of sight at the end of a work day is crucial to maintain the balance between work and life.

Renting Out Space

With the rise of the staycation, Airbnb is now more popular than ever and most are already aware of the potential to let out space within your home on a short term basis. However, taking on a longer term tenant could also be a great way to make money. The Rent a Room Scheme allows you to earn up to £7,500 a year tax free from letting out furnished accommodation in your home and sites such as spareroom.com can streamline the process of finding a lodger.

If you don’t like the idea of having unknown people in your home, there are still ways you can earn extra income from your spare space. Websites, such as justpark.com or yourparkingspace.co.uk, make renting out spare parking spaces easy. The location of your property will impact your spaces earning potential - but you could earn hundreds of pounds per month.

In addition to parking, Stashbee provide a similar solution for spare storage - giving households the opportunity to let spare space to verified users for storage purposes. Listings include:

• Garages

• Spare rooms

• Outbuildings

• Lofts

They estimate a loft could earn you over £800 per year.

Remember, letting out any part of your home may require consent from your mortgage provider and could also have implications for any insurance policies you may have in place.

Selling Energy

There are numerous government schemes aimed at incentivising the domestic use of renewable energy, including grants that can be used to install renewable technologies or make improvements that will boost your homes efficiency. More information on these can be found at gov.uk. Here we discuss the Smart Export Guarantee and how it could put cash in your pocket.

The Smart Export Guarantee pays households for the excess renewable electricity they generate, using any of the following renewable technologies:

• anaerobic digestion

• hydro 

• micro combined heat and power 

• solar panels (pv) 

• wind

Of these, solar panels are currently the most common form of domestic renewable electricity generation.

In order to benefit from the guaranteed payments, you have to sign up to a SEG tariff with a company. Fail to do this and any excess electricity you generate will be exported to the National Grid for free.

Energy providers are free to set their own tariffs but based on currently available tariffs, Which? suggest you could earn up to £217.25 a year. This is in addition to any savings you may make on your energy bill by producing your own energy. Solar is definitely a long term investment but, taking into account both SEG payments and savings on your energy bill, your solar panels may pay for themselves in just over 10 years. 

While selling energy requires a large initial investment and will likely take some time before you start to see a return, utilising unloved space within your home – either to create a home office or to rent to someone else – could require minimal investment. Renting space has the potential to earn you thousands of pounds each year and there a number of tax free allowances you may be able to benefit from. 

Any of the steps discussed, taken alone, are unlikely to earn you vast amounts of income. But, in combination, you could add thousands to your annual household income as well as reducing your expenses. If financial freedom is your goal, these are steps worth considering.