Finding space for a car in the city is becoming as much of a challenge as finding office space, as demand outweighs supply in both public and office car parks.
Finding space for a car in the city is becoming as much of a challenge as finding office space, as demand outweighs supply in both public and office car parks.
To add to the frustration, the City of Perth has announced another parking fee hike in its latest budget, an increase of 30 cents a day in the cost of off-street and kerbside parking.
Parking at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre is also set to increase, from $11 to $12 per hour.
Yellow Dog Recruitment managing director Cliff Epton is among the lucky few to have managed to buy a car parking bay outright, effectively securing the smallest patch of real estate in Perth and ensuring he never has to feed a meter again.
Mr Epton bought a 14 square metre car parking bay in Northbridge last month for $23,500, and with it came the certificate of land title and more than $800 a year in associated rates for land and water.
Mr Epton said he and his business partner, Heidi Madeley, bought the car bay in James Street to secure reliable parking close to their office and expect the investment to appreciate with time.
“It’s the smallest slice of real estate I’ve ever bought, but well worth it,” he said. “When it came up it was too good an opportunity to pass, because it will more than pay for itself.”
The strata-titled car bay was a lucky find for Mr Epton. Car bays are usually attached directly to a property on the same title, but in this instance, the original owner of the car bay bought an apartment under two strata plans, with an additional car bay under the second plan.
Coldwell Banker Pro Property senior sales agent Joanne Fotakis said the previous owner sought to capitalise on the car bay’s value by selling it separately to his property.
Ms Fotakis, who sold the car bay to Mr Epton, said the monthly permanent fees for parking in Northbridge were between $160 and $300, meaning the money Mr Epton saved in parking fees would more than cover the cost of his investment within seven years.
“In Sydney and Melbourne, whole car parks are strata-titled but this is unlikely to happen here as permanent and casual parking fees are too lucrative for councils and private operators,” she said.
CB Richard Ellis property analyst Michael Olsen said parking fees were rising at similar pace to rents for office space and were currently averaging $480 a month for premium and grade A-plus car bays.
According to Property Council WA executive director Joe Lenzo, the rise of parking fees can be partially attributed to the government’s parking levy, which had increased by 164 per cent since its inception in 1998.
This was adding $195.50 a year to the cost of a car bay in the city, he said. “The actual reasoning behind the levy was to fund the operation of the CAT buses but we’ve found out that $500,000 of that revenue is actually going to administration at the Department of Planning and Infrastructure,” Mr Lenzo said.
“It’s having an impact on the people who have no choice but to bring their cars into the city, because those costs are being passed on.”
Since the levy was introduced, Mr Lenzo said, rather than a reduction in the number of cars coming into the city each day, there had been an increase in traffic.
It seems commuters will have to rise earlier and fight harder next week when 600 bays come off-line at the site of the former entertainment centre on June 17.
The race to secure the 10,809 off-street car bays and the 6,000 kerbside bays registered with the city of Perth is on.
