Public car park fees to rise by 20% from Dec 1

SINGAPORE — It will cost 20 per cent more to park your car at public car parks from Dec 1, with half-hourly rates increased to 60 cents for white lots and S$1.20 for the yellow lots in the restricted zones. 

Season parking rates for HDB car parks will also be raised by between 17.9 and 40 per cent, depending on the type and location of the car park, and whether your family has more than one car. For multi-storey car parks, for instance, residents will have to pay S$110 a month for a lot, up from S$90. 

To manage demand, the cost for a second or subsequent car will be S$120, with even higher charges levied at car parks located within or near the city centre. The concessionary rate for Family Season Parking Ticket holders — half of season parking rate — will go up in tandem.

The hikes, the first in 14 years, were announced by the Housing and Development Board and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Thursday (June 30), which cited higher costs — of building, operating and managing car parks — because of inflation and the need to “ensure proper cost recovery”.

Previously, the URA had said the price changes were to “reduce the gap between the fees charged by private and public carparks”. 

Last Sunday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong also cited another reason: Avoiding a scenario where non-car owners are subsidising parking costs for car owners. There are 31,500 HDB households here with two or more cars.
Motorcyclists are not affected by the fee hikes because changes were last made in July 2014 and January last year. 

New coupons will be issued reflecting the revised rates, and from October, motorists can exchange their unused old parking coupons for the new ones by topping up the difference in value. 

The hikes did not sit well with some motorists. A healthcare professional, who only wants to be known as Ms Ng, said the increase in season parking charges was rather steep given the current economic climate. “If it’s meant to deter car ownership, then maybe (the authorities can) look into improving public transport first,” said the 27-year-old, adding that car parks do not appear to require much maintenance. 

On the difference in season parking charges for the first and second lots, Ms Jessica Khong, 26, felt that the differentiation should only apply to areas where there are insufficient car park lots. “That’s a reasonable thing if let’s say there are insufficient lots and they will have to make some discrepancy between people with one and two cars,” added the dentist. 

While the authorities have stated rising costs as their rationale for raising the car park charges, private car park operator Metro Parking, which operates 45 car parks here, said they have no immediate plans to increase their rates. They will only do so for the government-owned car parks that they are managing. 

Responding to queries from TODAY, Metro Parking’s managing director Tyrone Lopez also said it would be “interesting” to see if the Government will adjust the rates in response to demand and supply at each car park compared to the current policy of having the same rates across the board.

Ms Ariana Abdul Rahman, who helps out at a lontong stall at Bedok Food Centre does not think the changes to the short-term parking prices will affect the stall’s business. Most of her customers do not use the car parks in the area as they live nearby or order take-aways, she said.

As for whether delivery businesses might be hit by higher costs, grocery delivery service honestbee said that they do not expect much impact, given their deliveries are usually made within the 10-minute grace period in public car parks. 
Foodpanda managing director Emma Heap concurred, adding that the company taps technology to reduce costs, and will be able to manage any increases.