Your home is probably your biggest single asset, but are you ‘sweating that asset’ enough? NMTBP shows you 10 ways to generate extra cash from your home

1. Rent your home to film makers

You don’t have to live in an ancient castle or a stately mansion to rent your home out as a film set. You just might find Sir Michael Caine in your kitchen, and get paid £5,000 per day for the honour. Film and TV production companies are always on the lookout for new locations to shoot. Many producers just want somewhere interesting or unique, but don’t despair, there is also a market out there for ‘ordinary’ houses. Depending on the production company, the pay can be between £1,000 and £5,000 a day for somewhere really nice!

An added bonus is that if you hang around during the filming, you just might just end up sipping tea with Keira Knightley or playing pool with Guy Ritchie (if you have a pool table, of course)

Another thing in your favour is that production companies have been gradually switching in the past few years to filming in ‘authentic’ private properties rather than studios. So now is as good a time as ever to rent out your home. Try The Location Department, Amazing Space, and Location Works

2. Open a home restaurant

Think you’re a great cook? Think people will pay to eat your food? Have some decent space at home? Then why not open a home restaurant?

They’re the hottest foodie trend of the recession. Come Dine With Me (and maybe a bit of Kitchen Nightmares) with knobs on. In the US, they call them supper clubs; in Cuba paladares; here they are underground restaurants. They’re a cross between a restaurant and a dinner party – like a restaurant, in the sense that you pay; like a dinner party, in the sense that you are in someone’s house, with a regular someone cooking. Oh, and there’s the counter-cultural buzz that they operate on the edges of legality

So, how do you go about setting one up yourself? Find out more here

3. Open a micropub

Ever wanted to own and run a pub? Depending on your location and waht the neighbours think it’s something you can set up relatively easily. The banning of smoking in pubs, introduced in 2007, may have contributed to the demise of the pub, but it was another piece of legislation that has proved vital in helping the rise of the micropub. In 2003, the Licensing Act (which took effect in 2005) was passed. It made it far easier to open a pub

There are now only four reasons why someone can object to you getting a license to run a pub: health and safety, law and order, protection of children and you’ve got to have been a good boy in the past. Find out more about setting up a micropub here

4. Take in a lodger

The government’s Rent a Room scheme encourages you to take in a lodger, allowing you to earn £7,500 a year, or £625 a month, tax free, though there is nothing to stop homeowners charging more and paying tax on the extra. By using the rent received from a lodger to make over payments on an offset mortgage, First Direct bank reckons a typical homeowner could shave 29 months off the mortgage term and save over £1,000 in payments over five years

5. Run an informal B&B

If you have a nice drum and can provide a simple supper and breakfast, you can earn money by hosting guests in your home. The website Bedandfed.co.uk promotes homestays for business commuters and holidaymakers who prefer to stay in a home environment rather than a conventional B&B or hotel. Letting rooms in this way gives you more flexibility over which dates to accept guests without the commitment of taking on a longer term lodger

6. Rent out your home

If you spend periods of time away from home and/or are lucky enough to have a second home you visit often, rent out your home. This works particularly well if you live close to, and can decamp for, major sporting events such as Wimbledon, Henley Regatta, Royal Ascot etc. There are also one off opportunities such as this year’s Olympics. Market your home through websites such as VRBO, hometogo, and airbnb.com

7. Don’t forget the garden!

You can rent ground to gardeners for use as allotments and by setting up a mini-campsite. Spareground.co.uk lets you list your space for free. As well as land you can list storage space if you have unused garage space, a basement or outbuildings.

8. And the contents of your shed!

Your garage or shed is probably stuffed with things you use rarely or very occasionally, such as bicycles, power washers, gardening equipment and tools. Use ebay, gumtree or decluttr to list anything and everything other people may want to use

9. Rent out your driveway

Renting out your garage or driveway may not sound like a money spinner, but websites Parklet and Park at my House say you could make up to £10 a day or over £200 a month in London, and over £100 in many other cities less their 15% commission