Car parks, do not be oblivious to the obvious

Assuming a condo project is launched today and the sales person at the showroom told you that the price after discount is just RM550 psf and you think the location is still okay what should be your next question? I think it should be “how many car parks”. This is an important factor which many have often overlooked in their calculation for the overall price per sf. For example, if the size of the unit is 1,000sf and its RM550,000 with one car park, then the price per sf is NOT RM550 psf. Please add another RM40,000 as the price to buy another additional car park or whatever the price of the additional car park is. This means an additional RM40 psf is to be added into the final price psf. So, RM550 would become RM590 psf. Yes, RM590 psf is definitely not a low price for a secondary choice location under current circumstances.
What if the sales person tells you that you should not worry because that particular condo is within walking distance to the MRT station? Thus, one car park is sufficient? Should you still insist on buying an additional car park? My personal recommendation remain the same, all new condos today should have two car parks. Just look at those driving in the morning when you are on the way to work, there’s no way that each household would have just ONE (1) car even if we have MRT coming up soon.
These days, when we are driving in certain areas, no matter how many turns we do, empty car park space is hard to come by. Thus, please do not believe that in future car parks would be easier to find when you have more than one car and only one can be parked inside the condo. When you have intention to sell your unit for profit, it will be much easier to sell your condo with two car parks. In fact, it will also carry a premium over those with just one car park. In countries overseas, car parks can be even a few hundred thousands because there’s just no empty space available to park the car!
In Hong Kong’s CBD, you cannot even afford to buy a car park space. In 2014 as reported in CNN, one car space in Hong Kong was sold for HK$547,000 (RM270,000). This was in 2014. Just last month, a reader of kopiandproperty.my, Jason commented the following: :”My family just sold our parking slot for $1.4 million hkd last month (originally bought for $200k back in 2003) and guess what? I just checked the transaction records online and realised a parking slot in our neighbourhood has been sold for $1.6 million recently. Crazy right? I can’t wait for the bubble to burst :P”
Yes, I am asking everyone to factor in just RM40,000 for that extra car park space. What about Australia? Read here: RM348,000 for a 12-square metre car park slot  There has been little doubt that MRT would be operational in future. Soon and it would herald a new era of ridership. However, we must not be oblivious to the obvious. Car ownership is not about to go down anytime soon. Just have to be savvy about it and make our buying decisions wisely. Happy buying a condo with TWO (2) car parks.
written on 6 July 2015
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