Is purchasing a parking space really worth it?

Q.  I am purchasing a brand new property off plan and although I don’t have a car myself I am wondering if it’s worth paying the extra fifty thousand pounds for a parking space as I intend to rent the property in two years’ time when I plan to go overseas for a couple of years. To be honest I question the need for this in the age of Uber and the world becoming so much more eco-friendly I wonder if it’s just an unnecessary expense?

A.  For sure the world is moving in a different direction altogether and whereas historically people have always considered having a car as a priority many are now attempting to ‘do their bit’ to protect our environment by selling their cars in favour of alternative methods of transportation such as Uber which obviously makes taxi’s more affordable or simply taking to riding a bike as the streets become more bike friendly. However, the fact remains that there are still many many car drivers on the road and there is still an absolute shortage of residents car parking within the London area to accommodate all of them. Many developments are now ‘car free zones’ meaning unless a resident has a private carpark space within the development they simply cannot park their car on the surrounding streets as they will not be eligible to obtain a local authority residents car parking permit. So my advice knowing there is a premium for parking is that it is actually now and always has been seen as a lucrative asset and if you can possibly stretch to buying one with the apartment I would still urge you to do so because in the future particularly if you are going to rent the apartment out for a while if your property has parking and another does not you should find that it helps to keep your property rented without the dreaded void periods that some may experience when there is something missing for a particular applicant, basically yours will go first if parking is required. Thinking ahead a few years you will inevitably want to sell the property at some point too and for all the same reasons we have already highlighted it would be highly beneficial for you to be able to market with parking. All in all it’s your decision and yes the world is changing but there will always remain a demand for good quality properties with parking so do carefully consider your decision so as not to have regrets later.