Parking mad Author: Susan Wellings Date: 16/08/2008 Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Go on, live a little - splash out and secure four walls and a roof for that special piece of metal in your life.
Secure, spacious and airy and a bargain for $150,000. An old three-bedroom home in Lethbridge Park in Sydney's west? A two-bedroom house in need of some TLC in Miller in the south-west? A studio apartment in Marrickville in the inner west?
No, it was a garage in the eastern suburbs. And even that was a bargain, says Craig Hamilton of MVS Valuers. "If that had gone to auction, it's likely there would have been a bidding frenzy ... who knows what the price would have gone up to?" he says.
"I saw people once buy a unit in a building for $280,000 just because it had a car space attached and they had nowhere to put their car. They ended up parking their car there and just renting the unit out. It was worth it to them."
Even if parking is at a premium, we still ain't seen nothing yet. Traffic levels in our cities are due to rise by 37 per cent by 2023, says the Council of Australian Governments' congestion report, and Sydney's population will hit 5.3 million - from about 4 million today - in 2028, says RTA chief executive Les Wielinga.
So with residents in metropolitan Sydney still owning an average of 1.4 cars a household, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, it all points to a future where garages will be locking up small fortunes.
A PLACE TO PARK CASH
When graphic designer Phoebe Joseph bought a slightly bigger house in the same North Sydney street, one of the main lures wasn't even a garage - but an approved development application attached that would some day allow her to build one.
"You can't always get an all-day park on the street, so to have somewhere to park your car at home would take that frustration away," says Joseph, 27. Her McGrath agent, Nigel Mukhi, says it might cost $50,000 to build it but it would add a cool $100,000 to the house's value.
The value in other suburbs tends to depend on the availability and security - or otherwise - of street parking. Around the eastern beaches, GoodyerDonnelley agent Debbie Donnelley says an undercover space - in suburbs such as Bondi and Bronte - can be worth $100,000 or more.
"They're so valuable because of the salt air rusting cars and it can be a nightmare to park on the street here in the summer," she says. "You see parking all the time on people's must-have lists." In some areas with little parking, the sky can be the only limit to price. LJHooker agent Poh Ling Ee says many years ago, there had been one street in Paddington where, on one side, houses sold for $800,000. On the other, they were $1 million. "The difference, even back then, was parking," she says.
Even further out in Newtown, where she works now, she says parking can make a big difference to price. "If you buy a million-dollar home, you then don't want to leave your car on the street. You need the convenience: you might have kids and shopping you need to bring in or if you go out you don't want to walk four streets home at 1am."
There is ample public transport in the area but people are still wedded to their cars. "They might take public transport to work every day but they still need a garage for their car to go out at weekends," Ee says.
In Burwood, it's a similar tale. It might not be that people are desperate for a place to park their cars, says agent Nick Begetis. They might be tradespeople needing security for their tools or people simply needing more storage space. "Many people are happy to park on their driveway or on the street but use their garage for storing all their kids' stuff or hoarding old furniture and appliances," he says. "Others like to use them as their sheds, as a workspace. A garage can make a $40,000 to $60,000 difference to a house price."
Spencer & Servi First National agent David Servi says when local councils put strict limits on the number of car spaces in apartment blocks, it inflates their value. In areas such as his, Surry Hills, a garage probably adds $100,000. "A lot of it is about resale value," he says.
People are increasingly using rear-lane access to their houses for parking, forgoing entertainment spaces in their gardens or courtyards.
"As house prices go up, people tend to have better cars, so parking is more sought after."
In the city, the cost of street parking makes home parking priceless, says Mathew Tiller, PRDnationwide NSW research analyst. "In the CBD, it would be worth even more than other suburbs," he says. "It's in very high demand."
NEW HOUSES AND PARKING
Garages drive house prices up often because they're simply more marketable and then attract many more potential buyers, says Kris Cviker of Egan National Valuers. "They bring a much wider market spectrum to the property," he says.
For new homes, too, developers are eager to add as much parking as they can. Tom Makdessi of Meridian Developments & Construction likes to attach three-car garages, where possible, to his boutique houses.
"People see the garage and their eyes grow wider," says Makdessi, who recently sold a house in Baltic Street, Newtown, with a three-car garage for $1.22 million.
"They might not even want to use them for three cars - they could be adapted for a home office, storage, a place to fix bikes or even a home gym. They just like extra space."
But even further out, where space is not at such a premium, developers are always determined to include garages. Bill Hawie of Eden Brae Homes, which builds a lot of homes in Stockland's residential communities, such as Bridgewater in Camden and Waterside in Penrith, says they're among the must-haves.
"A lot of people away from the CBD use their cars to get to work often as there's little public transport so they demand garages and, 95 per cent of the time, double garages," he says. "We've also had quite a bit of demand for triple garages, as most households there have at least two cars, possibly three."
A house price might fall by as much as $30,000 to $40,000 with only a single garage, even up to 40 kilometres outside the inner city, he says.
COLLAROY CAR YARD
Looking for the ultimate garage? Chris Douglas has just the thing. The former semi-professional racing driver has no fewer than five garages and parking for eight or more cars, plus a storage room, at his Collaroy home.
"It looks like an ordinary house until you walk about the back and people say, 'Oh shit,"' says Douglas, 47. "I've got about 20 cars in and around the workshop."
It's quite a set of cars, too, including an Alfa Romeo GTV 105, a BMW Z3 and a yellow 1932 "Donald Duck" Ford - understood to be the only one of its type in Australia. And yes, the house has a state-of-the-art security system, too.
"I drive them all, so I had to have somewhere to store them," says Douglas, who lives there with wife Kylie, 39. "Down the back is the toyshop where we build them, too. It's a labour of love, a hobby. But it's time to downsize. We've had a wonderful time living here with the kids but it's too big for us now."
The double-brick, four-bedroom house on 697 sq m in Cumberland Street is for sale through McGrath Estate Agents (Lauren Collins, 0425 336 060) for $1,595,000. It is close to the beach and has a heated pool (with a deck for entertaining) and a self-contained lower level with a private entrance.
And all those garages. "There's so much potential," Douglas says.
HOME SWEET GARAGE
Living in a house without a garage in Randwick was gradually driving Monica Nakata around the bend - literally. Every day, it seemed to take longer to find a place to park around her home, especially when she was loaded with shopping or had any of her four dogs with her.
"I endured it for a few years but it seemed to be getting harder, with more cars on the road, more development and more people," she says. "So when I was looking for another house, one of the main priorities was to have a garage."
Finally, Nakata, 38, the founder of Oyster fashion magazine, settled on a house in Clovelly, paying $2,225,000 for a four-bedroom home with lock-up garage in March, opposite the cemetery. Ironically, she soon discovered her four-wheel-drive didn't fit inside and certainly not if she wanted to open the doors.
Luckily, the street outside always has plenty of parking and there's space in front of the garage to park, too.
"So now I'm mostly using my garage as a storage space," laughs Nakata, who's putting a development application into the local council to extend it. "But it's a fantastic opportunity to put more junk in there. It also has floorboards, so one day it could potentially be a studio, too, or a place to put unwanted guests."