Workers turn to renting out vans, attics to beat cost crunch
By John Collett
Australians looking for extra income to help pay the mortgage or school fees are increasingly turning to unused and unusual assets – such as storage spaces and campervans – by renting them out to others via sharing economy platforms.
This ability to earn “passive” income is appealing to professional musician and music producer Delaney Stewart and his wife, Lyndall Wallace, who rent out their campervan.
Delaney Stewart and his wife Lyndall Wallace, children Matilda and Lilah in their campervan.Credit: Eddie Jim
The Melbourne couple’s mortgage repayments are about double what they were before interest rates started to rise and, with two young children, every extra dollar helps. They converted their transit van to a campervan during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, while Stewart’s music studio was closed.
During the financial year just ended, the couple rented out their campervan more than 40 times on the sharing economy platform Camplify for a total income of about $35,000.
Stewart says the extra $600 or so a week from renting out the campervan really helps to manage the sharp rise in mortgage repayments on their Brunswick East home.
“The interest rate increase is extreme, and the extra money helps us stay level [financially] and also provides us with a vehicle to do short trips in,” Stewart says. “It helps us continue to be able to live in an area that we like living in.”
Stewart and Wallace spend about two hours with each booking showing those renting the campervan its features, including the time spent cleaning it.
Once dominated by Silicon Valley startups such as Uber and Airbnb, the sharing economy has moved beyond just sharing cars and accommodation.
While reliable figures on the size of the industry are difficult to come by, there are now platforms in Australia that allow the sharing of spaces, like attics, bedrooms, garages and parking spaces. There are even platforms for fashion, where people can hire clothes, such as dresses suited to formal occasions.
Mike Rosenbaum, the chief executive of Spacer Technologies – a business that owns the storage and parking space marketplaces Spacer and Parkhound – says the number of users of both platforms is growing strongly.
Once dominated by Silicon Valley startups such as Uber and Airbnb, the sharing economy has moved beyond just sharing cars and accommodation.Credit: Josh Robenstone
He says the rise in the cost of living is seeing homeowners seeking to earn extra cash by renting spare spaces in their homes, garages, warehouses and renting out their spare parking spaces.
Anyone thinking of renting out a spare asset should factor in that income from a sharing economy platform is taxable income, just like any other form of income, and must be declared in tax returns.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) can already request transaction data from sharing economy platforms. It employs increasingly sophisticated data matching protocols to match those transactions with income tax returns.
This financial year is the first in which platforms offering ride-sourcing, such as Uber, and short-term accommodation platforms, such as Airbnb, are required to report all their transactions to the ATO automatically.
From July 1, 2024, the requirement will be extended to other types of platforms, such as those where hosts can hire out storage spaces or hire people to deliver food. The ATO says the information from platforms will be matched against what is reported in tax returns.
“This isn’t a game of Guess Who, as our sophisticated data-matching programs provide us with all the clues we need to track down taxpayers with incorrect information in their tax return,” says Tim Loh, ATO assistant commissioner.
“While the ATO has received data from a number of digital platforms in the past, this legislative change means more platforms will be required to regularly report into the future.”
Each sharing platform has its own terms and conditions, including “guarantees” of varying degrees of coverage, that platforms say protect users from some types of incidents, such as damage and theft.
Those who hire through a platform and those who trade or host through a platform have the same rights and responsibilities under Australian consumer law as if the transactions were occurring in-store.
- Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.
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