appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

London car parking spaces are rising in value faster than homes. According to estate agents, there has been a four-fold increase in the value of parking bays in the British capital's city centre over the past 10 years, while property prices have trebled.

'Ten years ago the price of a parking bay was GBP15,000 [HK$208,475],' said DTZ Residential director Adam Gaymer.

'Since then, prices for parking bays in central London have increased steadily, and today a parking bay can often cost up to GBP60,000 - a significant quadrupling in price.

'This is due to the lack of space in London, the rising cost of engineering and building basement parking, and the fact that both developers and authorities are focused on increasing housing densities and providing additional housing.'

Values would continue rising because the government and local authorities were limiting the number of parking spaces that could be created at new projects and some were being built without any at all, he said.

'Parking provision at new developments is actually decreasing despite the fact that car ownership is on the increase,' Mr Gaymer said. 'Whereas five years ago a scheme would  deliver a minimum ratio of one unit to one parking bay, today this figure has increased to two or three units to each parking bay.

'What is clear is that both the values of the parking spaces themselves and the properties they are linked to can only rise relative to schemes without parking provision.'

While the supply of parking bay contracts, demand will increase because there will be more car users in future, the agency forecasts. Polls show many Londoners are unhappy with public transport, and demographic projections from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics)  show the city's population will rise above 8million by 2015, many of whom will want to drive.

According to a mobility study  by the Royal College of Art, car ownership will rise by 10 per cent in London by 2011.

These factors, combined with increasingly stringent restrictions on street parking in central London, means that garages, parking bays and parking permits are becoming commodities in their own right.

Kensington garages can cost up to GBP150,000. Parking spaces at some  swankier developments in central London are as valuable as small flats in the city's suburbs.



Parking bays dearer than many homes