First home buyers' $40K question: Can I do without a car park?

Demand for car parking and garaging is still strong in Auckland’s high-end suburbs but in first home buyer territory change is afoot.

Hayley Fitchett, Kainga Ora’s general manager of masterplanning and placemaking, says the organisation has started to notice a big shift in attitude away from needing a dedicated car park - and sometimes even a car.

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“It is quite marked and it’s something we’d theorised about but we are seeing people who are quite happy to forgo a garage or a car parking space because they see other benefits in picking a property,” she said.

“They’re looking for a location first and foremost and a location that’s easy access to the places they want to go and the things they want to do and car parking is sort of a secondary thing, particularly if the car parking is unbundled from the price of the unit so they can make a really clear decision when they go to buy a property about whether they do want to own a car or not, or want to use City Hop or any one of the other more innovative forms of mobility.

“They can go, ‘oh, this car park is going to cost me x amount of money, actually, can I do without a car park?’ and quite a few people also go, ‘yes I can.’”

And because the cost of car parking is not hidden in the price of the home, the home is cheaper – with apartments there are often dedicated car park floors which might cost an extra $40,000 for a spot.

“They’re in the tens of thousands of dollars so it’s a significant amount of money.”

People are also thinking about how many car parks they need and in smaller, more affordable terrace homes there is generally only one car parking space.

“Again, those are cheaper homes, because they are smaller so only have one car park, a lot of people will sell their second or third car to move into a terrace and quite happily, too. If the development is well located or well masterplanned with things within easy reach, and we know that a large proportion of journeys are less than 2km anyway, people are going on ‘hang on a minute, we could free up some cash that we could put into our deposit and just operate with one car.’”

Commuting by bike in Auckland has become easier with the increase in dedicated cycle paths. Photo / Getty Images

People are opting to walk or bike instead and Kainga Ora always makes sure there is bike parking.

“The lockdown has been amazing for converting people to the benefits of cycling so we’re getting some growing feedback that what people did during the lockdown has really shifted their perspective on how many cars they need to own.

“People discovered their neighbourhoods and realised there’s a great bunch of things to do, places to go, that you can do by bicycle instead of having to drive everywhere which is a really positive shift.”

When people give up a car altogether it not only saves them the car parking costs but the average $5000-$7000 a year running costs for a car.

“That’s a huge amount of money, particularly if it has been quite a stretch to get your first home.”

Kainga Ora’s Northcote development is seeing a lot of people moving in and deciding they don’t need a car and many are cycling, catching buses or walking.

There is still a demand for off-street parking to an extent and families will often have one car but the rise of car-sharing and Uber have impacted on people’s feelings about the need for a private car.

“It’s just so easy now to grab an Uber and they’ve run the numbers and have gone ‘actually, we would spend less if we dropped a car.’”

Garaging is less popular as well and the organisation always provides lots of storage after noticing when masterplanning Hobsonville Point people in other parts of Auckland were using their garages for storage and not for parking so cars were ending up on the driveway or the street.

Garages are to some extent being phased out because people would rather have more house for their money, she says.

“People at Hobsonville Point love their suburb and I don’t think they feel disadvantaged to the suburb over because they have less car parks, certainly less car parks in a suburb certainly would not be a reason for why it would fail to thrive or be a great place to live.”

Hobsonville Point in west Auckland was designed with future living in mind. Photo / Getty Images

While a lot of Kainga Ora customers are younger and might have an open attitude to not having cars, that attitude is also increasing with older people.

“We found, quite interestingly, quite a lot of baby boomers are downsizing their car fleet because they’ve gotten into electric bicycles, or they’ve got into sport cycling and they’ve also then purchased a bike for pootling around.

“We’re finding it’s happening at either end of the life spectrum. People are making sustainable choices around how many cars they own and therefore how many car parking spaces they need and are prepared to pay for.”

Rachel Dovey, Bayleys regional general manager for Auckland’s eastern bays, says car parking and garaging is still rated highly out her way.

“People want to obviously for security get their cars off roads and into secure spaces but it’s interesting across the suburb, so in places like Grey Lynn and some of those some suburbs, where there’s not a lot of parking on the properties but that’s not holding back people buying over there.”

Remuera, for example, sees families with multiple cars and buyers want somewhere safe for them.

“Because again, security, we all want to get our cars off the road or be in a secure spot and garaging for protection and it’s an additional storage space, and especially our market is very family focussed so you do like your garage to be able to put the skis, the surf boards, whatever it might be, in there.”

But while there is still that demand for parking, her agency has sold developments where there has been less parking with residents using other methods of transport, and she says even the mid to higher end developments all have bike parks.

“If I think of St Marks, when we sold that, it’s got an average sale price of that $1.8m to $2m so it’s that high end quality and they’ve got bike parks downstairs and there’s little Vesper parks, so that’s where you’re seeing the modern car parking. It’s more flexible.

“The council, the Government, is trying to make us be a little bit more green, if you like. Look at all those cycleways, so if people are getting out on those they’ve got to have somewhere to store those electric bikes.”

- This content was created in partnership with Kāinga Ora