Our Technical Director, Andy Henderson was interviewed by Steve Mills on the 6PR Breakfast Show.

Click on the link to the right for an MP3 : Spaceout on 6PR

Or see below for the transcript :

Steve : Now this is a great idea. We spotted this ad, it’s called ‘Spaceout’, and you might think ‘Ehh?’. Spaceout it means that if you’ve got a bit of excess capacity maybe a spare room or a parking bay that you’re not using or maybe a store room, people might want to actually hire it off you. Andy Henderson is the technical advisor of Spaceout and he joins us right now. Good morning to you.

Andy : Steve how are you doing?

Steve : Good mate! Tell us how Spaceout works.

Andy : Spaceout originally started as a concept for essentially private storage so you can store items that you might otherwise store in a commercial storage environment but you store it in someone’s home – might be in a shed might be in a garage might be in a spare bedroom.

The advantages are you get much cheaper rates. You can get access…negotiate as you need to with the homeowner, and from the homeowner’s perspective they’re making money out of empty space and literally making money out of thin air.

Steve : Alright, so if you jump on the Net you can register etc. Let’s say that I live in…I don’t know, Northbridge and I’ve got a parking bay, I don’t own a car but I do own a unit that’s got a parking bay, what you do is act as like the middle person in being able to rent that out is that how it works?

Andy : Yeah, we’re essentially a matchmaker. We hook people up that have a space with those that need space. Parking in particular in Perth is a big issue. We’ve seen a lot of interest in parking spaces and currently there’s none available to rent on our site. We allow people to rent spaces or advertise spaces for rent but also to say what they’re looking for, what they’re wanting. And parking space in Perth, there’s always people looking for parking spaces.

Steve : But storage…storage is also an area where people are demanding a little bit of extra space as well.

Andy : Sure…Australians are, as a whole great consumers  – we tend to accumulate stuff and we don’t like to throw it out,  so people with some spare space, a spare bedroom, a spare shed can capitalise on this by renting it out for storage… It works really well for empty nesters – the kids have left home you know they might have a family home with four/five bedrooms and they only need a couple. So those bedrooms, often gathering their own junk or gathering dust, if they can rent out a bedroom for 200 bucks a month, put someone’s stuff in it, shut the door and forget about it.

Steve : Mmm. From a business’s point of view that might choose to do that, how do they know that they’ll be…well the documents they keep there they’ll be kept safely?

Andy : Yeah we don’t actually get involved in the transaction but we certainly encourage people to negotiate…we hook people up, we get them to talk to each other, and they’ve got to be comfortable with each other…you know it works for the homeowner’s perspective as well – what are they storing there? So you’ve got to get a rapport you’ve got to trust and believe the person that’s there. So there’s an element of trust. Insurance is…is possible as well. But you know certainly that arrangement needs to be made between the space owner and the space renter.

Steve : Mmm. So how much could I make for example if I did have a car bay in Northbridge?

Andy : Prices really vary depending on demand. We get listings come up and go very quickly. You know, I couldn’t honestly say, depends on the access depends on the security, depends on…you know, what people need. So typically we’re looking anywhere between $100 and $300 a month but you know that can vary significantly.

Steve : …depending on what you’ve got.  What about if you’re a residential premise, and someone starts to come on to your property…and rents a particular part of maybe the dwelling or even the car bay one would have to look at their insurance policies too if someone was injured?

Andy : Yeah definitely you need to look at all those aspects of it. Certainly any income should be registered as income for tax purposes. Insurance-wise you should check with your insurer over what is covered and what isn’t. There are various options for the homeowner and for the person who owns the goods about how he can go about getting insurance.

Steve : Is it restricted to just being near the CBD or if someone…?

Andy : Not at all…

Steve : …If someone had spare capacity in the suburbs?

Andy : We have suburbs and even rural…we have rural listings people renting out paddocks for agistment for example and sheds…pretty much any type of space we’re trying to cater for.

Steve : Alright, it’s worth having a look at: spaceout.com.au. You got much competition Andy?

Andy : Not a lot actually there’s a few specialist parking areas but apart from that in Australia it’s pretty much us.

Steve : OK. And what got you into the idea?

Andy : Well one of the original partners was packing up and moving to Japan. He had a flat-load of furniture that he wanted to store, was horrified at the commercial rates, ended up leaving bits and pieces with mates all over the place and thought wouldn’t it be awesome if there was somewhere he could go to…that he could find someone who was able and willing to store his stuff for a period.

Steve : It’s a good idea.

Andy : Yeah well it’s…we love it and, you know, we’re getting lots of really positive support for it.

Steve : Alright, good on you Andy, appreciate your time this morning.  Take care.

Andy : Great. You too. Thanks Steve.

Steve : Andy Henderson there. If you want to check that out it’s called spaceout.com.au.