<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/20/car-parking-unwanted-new-spaces-grattan-report>
"Australia risks squandering $5.2bn by building 86,000 unwanted car parking
spaces in the next five years, according to research by the Grattan Institute.
The report recommends urgent reform to planning rules, including scrapping a
requirement for a minimum number of car parking spaces per bedroom for new
builds.
For instance, in Sydney, a new one-bedroom apartment is required to come with
an average of 0.6 car spaces. But about 40% of Australian households in a
studio or one-bedroom apartment don’t have a car, and those who do might not
need off-street parking.
Dominic Behrens, one of the authors of the report, said Australia already had
far too much off-street parking because of state and local requirements for new
developments.
“We’ve required too many parking spaces for a long time, and as a result, we’ve
got a lot more than we want, need, or use, particularly under apartment
buildings,” said Behrens, a housing researcher. That means hundreds of
thousands of people are paying for more parking than they need, with about 40%
of the parking spaces under apartment buildings in Australia sitting empty
every night, he said.
Grattan estimated that the rules add $70,000 to the cost of building a typical
two-bedroom apartment in Sydney, $62,000 in Melbourne, $113,000 in Brisbane,
$137,000 in Perth and $95,000 in Adelaide."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
