Throughout capital cities in Australia carparks are limited and often can demand excessive rents for hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly periods. For car park owners and landlords, the issue has always been how to monetise this as there is no formal mechanism to recognise and rent these car parks. This has all now changed due to a new online venture Rentmy Carpark allowing property owners, landlords and property managers to rent out carparks. Their concept is simple…..if you can park a car on it then it is a carpark. Only rent the carpark out when it is convenient to do so. From their website:
The idea for our site was conceived several years ago when one of us walked past an empty driveway in the city and thought “hmmm……if only I could park there!”. Needless to say two years later we had launched our first website.
Our goal is a simple one – To provide you with a fun, quick and easy way to advertise and rent out your carspace, driveway or storage space.
Rentmy Carpark is a very clean website which utilizes map search for carparks across Australia. Carpark seekers are able to submit an enquiry for carparks they are interested in or save them to their favourites list. The website also users social networking through a blog for the website & individual blogs for each car park, along with publishing an advertiser’s ad to their Facebook profile.
The only shortcoming I see with this website, is that it offers no facility for owners to offer their carpark for sale. Perhaps this will come in the form of another website further down the track.
As a property manager or agent, you can now offer an alternative service to your vendors. If they have a car park available where they live or in an investment property where the tenants do not have a car, then here is an opportunity for you to generate additional income for them. Also, Rentmy Carpark has an entire section dedicated to Parking Stations which provides Commercial Property Manager’s with a great resource to help them manage/lease commercial carparks.
Disclaimer: Rentmy Carpark was designed and developed by Agentpoint Pty Ltd which is owned and operated by Peter Ricci.
9 Comments
Peter Ricci
Insider. Thanks for that nice article. Yes, I do love the idea. I know there are some little hurdles to overcome and some people might not be happy that this is out there. But this is a business that goes on everyday. A formal approach to it might help. In my complex there are 4 spots that are rented out (possibly without the landlords knowledge).
If there can be a standard set for this – then it may be another avenue for agencies across Australia to manage these.
Glenn Batten
Geez thats thinking outside of the box Peter.. !!
I for one dont know how you could lease out this sort of thing formally but I suppose it can be done for property owners.
I cant see this being possible “officially” for tenants because I thought normal residential leases forbid sub-leasing the premises?
I don’t live inner city, so can someone enlighten me how much one of this well placed carparks would rent for… I know I am going to be surprised 🙂
The Insider
Glenn, in highly populated areas with a lot of apartments like in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, a carpark would demand around $40 a week and a garage (any enclosed carpark) would be above $60 a week.
In the CBD where your audience are workers rather than fellow tenants, it wouldn’t be uncommon to pay $150 a week.
The angle I’m looking at, is why don’t property managers give tenants the option of a carpark included/excluded from their lease. If it is included the tenant pays full rent, if it is excluded the tenant gets a $20 discount per week, the property manager then leases the carpark out for $50 a week.
It’s a win for the tenant, property manager and landlord. But saying this there could be issues with Strata if it is a secure carpark.
Chris Hinds
Hi Glenn,
In the Brisbane CBD area car spaces generally rent out anywhere from $60.00 and up to $120.00 per week.
There is a similar website that has been operational for some time – findacarpark.com.au. Here you will find many residents of residential properties who do not use their car parks renting them out to earn some extra $$$.
The Body Corporate By-Laws of buildings can prohibit who rents out a car space from a property owner, normally it must be rented out to another person who resides within the same building for security reasons.
From a residential perspective the sale or transfer of a car space from the owner of one lot to another would require approval from the Body Corporate and in most cases the local council also. I have had many clients who have attempted to do this in the past but have been put off by the red tape.
If anyone has car spaces in the Brisbane CBD area for sale let me know!! The last sale of one (in a new development) sold for $86,000 and I have a list as long as my arm of clients who would like one 🙂
Kevin Huff
You all seem to be missing the obvious point that not all properties are subject to body corporate by-laws. Thankfully we don’t all live in units controlled by inflexible rules. Some of us live in houses, and whether we own them or rent them, we can control the who/where/when of parking on the property.
The problem with most people is that they can only see the obvious. They say to themselves
Glenn Batten
The $50 -$60 I expected.. the $120 to $150 I didnt.. No wonder I have to pay so much when I have to park in the city!!
Not a bad return either at (52*1200) 6240 / 86,000 = 7.02% for Brisbane
Sal Espro
Hi Chris,
I remember a friend strata’ing the first car park in Melbourne in the 80’s for $12,500 ea. We couldn’t believe people paid that much! However, it is an inexpensive buy-in investment with good return and capital growth.
Sal
Dean
Hi All,
There is no boubt that this is a growing market place and one worth getting into. check out http://www.parkingaustralia.com.au and you will get an indication of what people are asking for and appear to be getting for car spaces.
Kelly
Hi Guys,
There is no doubt in my mind that this market is set to explode even further. car parking and its associated costs are getting out of hand. This option of renting out parking space solves two issues. 1. It saves commuters time and money as these spots are generally cheaper than commercial parking stations. 2. It puts some additional income into the pockets of thoes with spare space to lease out. check out this new site to see whats available http://www.carparkingrentals.com.au/
Good luck!