Fewer Car Parks = Cheaper Housing

Reducing the number of car parks required in new developments could dramatically slash the price of new apartments.

Analysis by the Grattan Institute says more than $1 billion is wasted on building off-street car parks that go unused.

It says current rules require new housing developments to include off-street parking but about 40% of households in studio or one-bedroom apartments and 19% of households in two-bedroom apartments don’t own a car.

Off-street car parking accounts for 13% of the built floor space of apartments and as many as 40% of the car spaces are not being used regularly.

The analysis says parking spaces add $70,000 to the cost of building a typical two-bedroom apartment in Sydney, $62,000 in Melbourne, $113,000 in Brisbane, $137,000 in Perth, and $95,000 in Adelaide.

Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally says that although many people who live in apartments don’t want or need car parking, they are forced to pay for it anyway.

“This extra cost acts as a handbrake on new housing. State and local governments should remove parking requirements for new housing developments,” it says.