Public car park rates to rise in first revision after 14 years

SINGAPORE – The parking rates at all public car parks are set to be raised following an ongoing government review of both short-term and season parking schemes.

The price revision will be the first in 14 years.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) told TODAY that the aim of the review is to “reduce the gap between the fees charged by private and public car parks” and appropriately price “public car park charges”.

“Since (2002), the costs of managing and operating car parks have increased substantially,” the URA spokesperson added. “This is reflected in the current fees charged by most private car parks, which are substantially higher than public car parks.”

The Housing Development Board (HDB), which manages most of the public car park spaces (about 607,000 lots), is also studying parking schemes as part of its regular policy review.

“While car park charges have not changed since 2002, the provisions within old and new HDB car parks have evolved and improved over the years, to bring convenience to residents,” said a spokesperson for HDB.

She cites improvements like better-designed car parks with landscaped decks, the implementation of the Electronic Parking System and the addition of lifts at multi-storey car parks where feasible.

In addition to the revision of car park charges, the HDB is looking to put in place differentiated parking charges for non-residents who use HDB car parks, and those who require multiple parking lots because they own more than one car. This is so that the parking demand can be better managed, with priority accorded to the parking needs of residents’ primary car, the spokesperson said.

The review came two months after National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in Parliament that his Ministry may have to look at raising car park charges if Singapore wants to move in the direction of a car-lite society.

The amount of increase will be announced when the review concludes, the URA spokesperson said.