Private car park operators are discussing whether or not to raise their fees, after the government’s announcement of the increase of car park rates for public car park services that will be effective by the end of the year.
On Thursday (June 30), it was announced that the public car park rates will be raised by 20 per cent. The hike will be effective on December 1, 2016.
There is a great chance that private car park operators such as Wilson Parking, Secure Parking, G Tech and Top Parking will raise their rates in tandem with the upcoming escalation. In 2002, the private car park operators also took the opportunity to raise their car park rates along with the public car park raise.
In the city area, outside of the restricted zone (RZ), parking fee will cost $0,60 per half an hour, up from $0,50. While within the restricted zone, parking fee will cost $1,20 per half an hour, up from $1,00.
This raise will bring the rates between public and private car park in line.
In Ang Mo Kio hub, parking costs $0,65 per half an hour, only $0,05 more than the upcoming public rates. While the private car park rates at Raffles City shopping mall located in the restricted zone costs only $1,10, even cheaper than the upcoming public car park services’ rates.
A source at major carpark operator said to The Straits Time that they would match the escalation because if it is too cheap then the private carpark spaces will be overloaded since they provide better services. Most of their spaces are indoors and motorists do not have to worry about their parking time and being fined.
Another operator source said that they were waiting for the public reaction, “But if the Housing Board goes ahead with the increase, we will just follow the leader.”
HBD and URA announced that they need to raise their rates because the current parking fee cannot recover the increasing costs over the years, such as building expenses, operating and managing costs for car parks.
A spokesman of URA said the aim of the review is to “right price” public car park charges and they need to decrease the gap between the charging fees of public and private car parks. “The last island wide revision of car park charges was done 14 years ago in 2002. Since then, the cost of managing and operating car parks have increased substantially. This is reflected in the current fees charged by most private car parks, which are substantially higher than public car parks,” it said.
