Rent out your car spot as Sydney's blackmarket of carparks grows

Parking will become more expensive due to limits being placed on the number of parking spaces by councils and the state government making them more expensive. Parramatta resident Milica Duric and her sons Stefan, 2, and Peter, 4 months.

THE demand for privately let car parks is tipped to boom as councils across Sydney cap the numbers of spots allocated to new developments.

Owners are already making as much as $500 a month by renting their unused spots to office workers.

Adding to car owners' woes, State Government levies on commercial off-street parking in Sydney's seven biggest business districts were lifted again yesterday, adding to the $100 million raised last year.

Parramatta City Council is the next Sydney council proposing to limit parking spots in new residential developments to one per unit.

The move outraged Urban Taskforce CEO Aaron Gadiel who described similar decisions as a "disaster".

"You can't go around banning car parking," he said.

"The car, for families, is indispensable. You can't and shouldn't be passing any laws that end up prohibiting motor vehicle ownership.

"It has been a disaster everywhere this parking cap has been introduced. North Sydney is a classic case where it did not stop people using cars but forced people to park on the street."

Parramatta Council documents said imposing a parking cap - like those imposed in Sydney City, Chatswood and North Sydney - was a "tool that encourages travellers to consider other transport".

"The idea of having multiple car parking spaces per apartment in the city centre directly counters councils' efforts to lobby other levels of government for better public transport," the report said.

"Allowing excessive parking provision in any location where traffic capacity is limited leads to congestion."

Motorists pay up to $26 an hour for commercial car parks in the Sydney CBD. Private rentals have jumped 18 per cent from $447 a month in 2009 to $527 this year.

Findacarpark.com, a website that allows CBD residents to rent their car parks to office workers, said limiting spaces would not work because public transport was bad.

"People drive because they have to. Sydney is not New York or Tokyo where there is pubic transport everywhere," managing director Frances Armstrong said.

"This is purely revenue raising. If councils do not provide car parks, and block developers from building them, people are not going to use public transport; they just have to choose a more expensive parking option.

"It's supply and demand that forces prices up."