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THEY used to sell for as little as $5000 but efforts by local councils to push vehicles out of cities have triggered a surge in the price of car parking spaces across Australia.

There are expectations that a recent $240,000 record sale for a space at Sydney's Bondi will be closely followed by other transactions in the same price range.

Real estate agents say the councils' attempts to reduce congestion are not working and car parking spaces in Sydney, once worth $5000 to $10,000, were now selling for between $40,000 and $140,000 each.

Ric Serrao of Raine & Horne Double Bay sold the 16sq m single lock-up at Brighton Boulevard, North Bondi, where parking is scarce.

Syd Walker, who owns the management rights to a carpark in central Brisbane, said parking rentals had fallen because of a glut during the global financial crisis, but CBD parking space prices had increased on average over the past few years by about $10,000, to $45,000.

As Brisbane City Council tightened rules to reduce parking in buildings over recent years, the number of carpark spaces had been reduced by 50 per cent, he said.

With more parking restrictions in Brisbane, casual parking picked up. As an operator he was pleased about the council policy, Mr Walker said.

Small business owners relocating offices at home, and owners of units occupied by students, were renting out parking spaces to cash in on council policy changes.

Under a yet-to-be-approved proposal by the City of Melbourne, only one car park space per dwelling will be allowed in new developments at inner-suburban Carlton and Southbank, and in parts of the northwest and east of the city.

The number of dwellings in the Melbourne CBD has rocketed from 400 in 1992 to 17,000. Ray White Real Estate chairman Brian White said it would be a brave developer that would build an office building without parking.

"In New York, you would not expect parking, but it has not happened in Australia," he said.

At a luxury development at Bondi in Sydney's east, the local council was allowing only one carpark space for some apartments priced at $6m each, McGrath Estate Agents chief executive John McGrath said.

"In the real world, these people are going to have a couple of cars at least, and it will just push cars on to the street," he said. "Sydney is not New York, it is a car city."

Caryn Kakas of the Residential Development Council of Australia said councils had moved over the past three years to introduce parking restrictions, not just to reduce congestion but to boost housing affordability.

On average, 20 per cent of those living in state capitals worked in the central business districts and increasing density and building duplexes was the best way to tackle affordability and congestion.

"They are trying to address two very difficult issues . . . there are better ways to do it," Ms Kakas said.

Raine and Horne chief executive Angus Raine said parking added a $150,000 premium to central Sydney properties in locations such as Paddington.

City buildings such as Sydney's Grosvenor Place has twice the amount of parking required for the size of the building, whereas a more modern office tower such as Deutsche Place has room only for two cars.

"In the days of old all (management) would get a carpark," Mr Raine said.

Among those who cannot do without parking in central Sydney is Lydia Moles, who lives in a two-bedroom terrace at Newtown with her housemate.

The local council will provide just one street parking permit for her household, forcing her housemate to leave her car at her nearby place of work.

" It does bother me not having parking because I have a new car," she said.

For a house with parking in the same area the housemates would have to pay about 10 per cent more than their current rental of $550 a week. This premium was typical of most parts of Sydney.

TRADING ROOM: Bridget Carter  

From: The Australian

March 11, 2010