Extra car parking spaces

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Trent

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Has anyone had positive / negative experiences with buying an extra car parking space in an apartment complex? I've been offered a second space with my 2 bed apartment (c. 5 miles from the city centre) for €15k.

Parking is likely to be limited on roads nearby (not pay and display at the moment), and would possibly involve a 5 minute walk to the car. Unsure as to how many visitor spaces will exist. In general, are visitor spaces taken by those who chance their arm by not buying an additional space for a second car?

I expect I could rent the space out to someone else if I didn't need it, or sell it with the apartment or separately if / when I'm moving on.

I'd appreciate any views on the matter.
 
Thanks redo,

On what basis would you buy it?

I suppose it comes down to whether or not there'll be a rental demand for it and / or whether I'll get my €15k (plus interest) back on it in the future.

A big factor will be how well parking is policed in the development. If people are only allowed to park in their own space and there aren't many visitor spaces, then it should increase demand.

Do you know how efficiently parking is managed in these developments?
 
Hi Trent, you should buy it, especially if there is not many visitor spaces. My development has only 3 visitor spaces for 300+ apt's! So I decided to buy a second space. It's handy for when friends & family come to visit. My development recently introduced clamping, so you can rat on someone who is in your space and they will be clamped, justice!
 
I used to visit my girlfriend at her apt. Never any parking and had to run out in the morning to put into the meter. Plus, you can rent it out for around 150-200 pm.
 
belasco6 said:
Hi Trent, you should buy it, especially if there is not many visitor spaces. My development has only 3 visitor spaces for 300+ apt's! So I decided to buy a second space. It's handy for when friends & family come to visit. My development recently introduced clamping, so you can rat on someone who is in your space and they will be clamped, justice!
Click to expand...

In contrast, this AAMer's experience has been totally different.
 
redo said:
Plus, you can rent it out for around 150-200 pm.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the OP could clarify, is the development 0.5 miles, or 5 miles from the city centre?

The reason I ask is that I can't see there being much demand for a parking space 5 miles from the city centre, unless the development is adjacent to a DART/train station.

If you feel you can use the space yourself, or that it will appeal to commuters , then maybe it will be worth €15,000.
 
Thanks for the advice so far guys....some good food for thought. The development is 5 miles (not 0.5 miles) from the city centre. Near a dart station, but not close enough to rent to a commuter, or indeed for the immediate vicinity to be affected by commuters parking and using the dart.

€15k will probably cost me an additional €70 per month on my mortgage.

What I propose to do is as follows:

1. Ask how many spaces there are in total.
2. Ask how many are allocated to visitors.
3. Figure out how many rooms are in the development (No of apts * 2 bed average). I reckon it's reasonable to assume that there'll be demand for one car per room. Do you think this is reasonably accurate?
4. Figure out how much excess demand there'll be based on this.
5. Take a drive around the immediate area at 9 o'clock at night to see if there's ample street parking for the excess demand.

I'm not sure if a tenant would be willing to pay an extra €70 or €80 a month just to have parking under the building when he / she could chance their arm on a visitor space or park within a couple of minutes walk of the development.

Spoke to a shrewd investor who suggested that I might be better to leave a tenant to worry about parking themselves and use the €15k to invest in another property or in shares.
 
Trent said:
Thanks for the advice so far guys....some good food for thought. The development is 5 miles (not 0.5 miles) from the city centre. Near a dart station, but not close enough to rent to a commuter, or indeed for the immediate vicinity to be affected by commuters parking and using the dart.

€15k will probably cost me an additional €70 per month on my mortgage.

What I propose to do is as follows:

1. Ask how many spaces there are in total.
2. Ask how many are allocated to visitors.
3. Figure out how many rooms are in the development (No of apts * 2 bed average). I reckon it's reasonable to assume that there'll be demand for one car per room. Do you think this is reasonably accurate?
4. Figure out how much excess demand there'll be based on this.
5. Take a drive around the immediate area at 9 o'clock at night to see if there's ample street parking for the excess demand.

I'm not sure if a tenant would be willing to pay an extra €70 or €80 a month just to have parking under the building when he / she could chance their arm on a visitor space or park within a couple of minutes walk of the development.

Spoke to a shrewd investor who suggested that I might be better to leave a tenant to worry about parking themselves and use the €15k to invest in another property or in shares.
Click to expand...

No necessarily renting it out to your tennant, but to someone else in the development. Other people (like yourself) will be debating whether they need one or not, may decide against it. Come 2 years, your/other tennants may want to rent it from you. The WILL be demand for parking at some time and they are ZERO maintanance.
 
redo said:
The WILL be demand for parking at some time and they are ZERO maintanance.
Click to expand...

Thats' pretty much crystal ball territory. Zero maintenance-ok, but SHOUTING about future demand doesn't mean it will materialise.


I think the OP is following a sensible process in coming to their decision.
 
CCOVICH said:
future demand doesn't mean it will materialise.
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Yes, you're right. I cannot foresee the future. I suppose I'm a bit biased in my view. My girlfriend (wife now) bought a apt in windmill lane a decided against buying a car parking space as see couldn't (fore)see the need for one as she was in town. At the time she said "I couldn't justify spending 2 grand (i think) on a car parking space that I don't need".

I know Trents' situation is different in that the apt is not located in town and that he has already secured a car parking space. Again, if it was me, and I could get the extra 15 grand, I would buy it. Down the line if Trent ever comes to selling it, it may just sell ahead of the other apt with only 1 car parking space.

PS:sorry for shouting
 
redo said:
Yes, you're right. I cannot foresee the future. I suppose I'm a bit biased in my view. My girlfriend (wife now) bought a apt in windmill lane a decided against buying a car parking space as see couldn't (fore)see the need for one as she was in town. At the time she said "I couldn't justify spending 2 grand (i think) on a car parking space that I don't need".

I know Trents' situation is different in that the apt is not located in town and that he has already secured a car parking space. Again, if it was me, and I could get the extra 15 grand, I would buy it. Down the line if Trent ever comes to selling it, it may just sell ahead of the other apt with only 1 car parking space.

PS:sorry for shouting
Click to expand...

Fair enough, it's all a matter of opinion at the end of the day-I would certainly buy one space if it was extra, but I would find it hard to justify paying €10k/€15k/€20k for an extra space.

I know of someone who bought an apartment in Ringsend around 2 years ago. One parking space was €10k/€15k, but she didn't bother. 2 years later and she wants to buy a car-she doesn't qualify for a disc, so it's pay and display or else fight the clampers! There's foresight for you!

I guess if you live in a development where a lot of people can't/won't stretch to a space initially, there may very well be demand for spaces in future years.

But it's hard to say what these would be worth, especially if you are paying €15k now.
 
I can't see the area becoming 'pay and display' any time soon. It's not quite close enough to a village and there are a couple of mature residential estates around it. I wonder whether the neighbouring residents will become irritated by people parking on the roads around the area and introduce some sort of clamping.

Again, this wouldn't affect me directly as I have a space for myself, but could affect my tenant if he / she has a car.
 
I just got offered the same, in the Watermill apt scheme in Raheny, i think its a bit of a scam, there should be allowances for vistor car parking in these schemes. There is loads of on street parking around st annes, and this won't change in the near future - i can't see it being possible to rent the space. I could understand the pricetag if it was in the city centre, but a car sized rectangle of tarmac in Raheny!! I am hoping the uptake wont be too much, that way there will be a few free spaces around for visitors...the estate agent would flog every spare patch of grass if they thought they would get a few quid for it!
 
I tend to agree van der hoop. I'm in the same development, albeit a later phase than you by the looks of things. €15k may not cost much extra per month, but it can be invested wisely elsewhere. If uptake is low, then there should be plenty of space for people to park in (well, until everyone moves in, gets tenants etc.). May not be easy to rent this if there's a good chance that people can park in the area.

Have you any idea when you're likely to move in?
 
Also I reckon calculating demand of 1 car per room in Apt complex would be way off.. especially if it only 5 miles from city and beside the dart. ! space free with each apt (not all may have a car!), i'd say a more reasonable assesment would be 30% of 2 beds would have 2 cars and desire a second space and 60% of 3 beds.

Also i'd beware of the figure the EA gives you for the total no of spaces available..there job is to create demand!
 
Still no idea of the date Trent, been told late sept or early Oct. Looks like they are coming along nicely though, most of the exteriors seem complete, so fingers crossed!
 
The attached suggests 295 spaces in total, but includes those for the 2 existing blocks. Also, the attached assumes 177 new apartments, they only went ahead with 144. Think the remaining 33 were initially proposed to replace the existing 2 blocks (later rejected by existing residents).

So, in total, probably 295 spaces to service 354 rooms (avg 2 bed, possibly on the conservative side, would say it's closer to 1.8 rooms on average). That's 0.83 spaces per room. Would suggest it's close to being enough.

Even if it's not, there is parking on surrounding streets as you say.

Let's see what the EA says.

[broken link removed]
 
Never seen the plan before..cheers for that! Will keep you posted of any info I pick up.. good to have a fellow purchaser on AAM!
 
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