MONTREAL – The transformation of downtown outdoor parking lots into condo towers has sent indoor garage prices soaring almost 12 per cent in Montreal, year over year, the highest leap in the country, a report by Colliers International said Tuesday.
The median rate for an unreserved parking spot in Montreal’s garages was $330.96 a month, second only to booming Calgary, with a monthly median rate of $456.75.
The most expensive place in North America to park a car at a garage is in midtown Manhattan, where it costs $562 a month, up 3.9 per cent compared to 2011.
The Colliers’ parking rate survey compares the costs of covered or underground parking in 56 central business districts in North America, including 44 in the United States and 12 in Canada.
In Canada, the median price for a monthly parking spot rose 2.7 per cent to $241.72, almost half the cost of a spot in Calgary.
Yet while the cost of monthly garage parking in Calgary grew only two per cent year over year, Montreal prices are rising at a faster pace because of exploding demand.
And with fewer outdoor lots because of condo developments and limited new downtown office construction providing alternative sources of parking, prices are expected to keep rising, said Andrew Maravita, managing director in Colliers’s Montreal bureau.
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“Outdoor lots would be the alternative but with that option decreasing, it’s going to put more pressure on prices,” Maravita said.
“Companies are going to have to take this cost into account when they are renewing their leases, or deciding to move downtown.”
The median cost of parking in a reserved spot per month in a downtown office tower – a luxury usually reserved for company management – rose by just under 12 per cent to $471.50 in Montreal, year over year.
At $528.84 a month, up 10 per cent compared to 2011, Toronto had the highest median rate for reserved parking in the country.
According to the survey, about 15 per cent of Montreal garages now have waiting lists, with five months the typical time it will take a motorist to nab an unreserved spot.
While rising parking prices could promote increased public transit use among some downtown office workers, they would also become an increased cost of doing business for companies who pay for their employees’ garage spots.
Data for the third quarter of 2012 suggests higher parking costs haven’t driven companies to the suburbs.
According to recent CBRE Ltd. data, Montreal had an overall 6.4-per-cent downtown office vacancy rate.
During the third quarter, downtown Montreal had the second-highest level of absorption in the country – an indicator that rentable space is being filled.
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