Parking fees climbing

By MoneySense Staff on July 21, 2010
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Parking spots in Canadian cities rise nearly 12% in price over past two years; only 10 garages to be added in next two years.

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Oil and insurance aren’t the only automobile-related fees that are increasing. A survey of 12 major Canadian cities showed that the median monthly parking rate has raised 2% in the last 12 months to $224.10. The median daily parking rate also raised 2% to $14.83, according to Colliers International’s 10th annual parking rate survey, which was released earlier today. This represents a modest increase in comparison to the 2008/2009 survey, which found the average national increase to be 9.9%. “Parking garages are one of the only commercial real estate sub-sectors that seemed to remain stable even during an economic turmoil,” says Wayne Duong, director of research with Colliers International in Canada. Only 10 new parking garages are expected to be built in major Canadian cities over the next two years. This will create 1,800 spots. As the economic climate improves, Colliers anticipates parking rates to increase because more people will be on the road and the limited supply will make the spots more desirable. Of the 12 major Canadian cities surveyed this year, Calgary’s parking was ranked most expensive, with a median unreserved monthly parking cost of $453.38. Toronto ($336.25) was ranked the second most expensive, Montreal ($280.62) was third, Edmonton ($275.00) was fourth, and Vancouver ($266.81) ranked fifth. Calgary is the only city that made it onto Colliers list for the most expensive places to park in the world, ranking 14^th.