My H and I are looking at an apartment building to develop. This specific building is all approved by the city and ready to go. Our question is how prospective tenants will feel about the parking situation. It is 40-45 1-2 bedroom apartments but just 17 parking spaces plus 2 handicapped parking spaces and a bike room. It’s downtown, walk to the train, walk to the courthouse, walk to shopping and restaurants, walk to an Ivy League university. We would rent the parking spaces separately from the apartments (as an add-on). There are sufficient monthly parking spaces in the neighborhood, some adjacent to our lot.
Is the limited on-site number of parking spaces a deal breaker for our tenants? Figure that we might charge $150/month for parking and the neighboring lots are charging $110-125. What do you think?
(This is probably not student housing – although it might be grad student housing.)
If it’s an urban area where most folks don’t own cars…it should be fine. You may lose some potential tenants because they can’t have parking spaces. As you know…off street parking is a great perk for apartments like yours.
I guess the big question is…do all of the other apartments in your area provide off street spaces…one per apartment for example, to everyone? If the answer is no…then you are fine. If everyone else does this, and you can’t…well…like I said, you could lose potential renters.
Just wondering why you would be charging your good tenants more for your lot than the neighboring lots charge? You may lose parking space “tenants” because of that.
Some buildings in the area are much bigger with a big garage, but the location is not as good. Other buildings have a similar or worse ratio. My question is really as a tenant or the parent of a tenant, what do you think?
Which may be fine; some tenants may prefer to park further away and save a few bucks. Additionally, since it appears to be an urban are, not all tenants may own cars.
Since the ratio seems to be comparable to neighboring buildings, it should be fine, IMO. My only concern as a prospective tenant is if there is a spot for quick drop-off for groceries, etc.
My thought is that if space in the building’s own lot is such a perk, then it’s worth a small premium. (BTW there is very limited street parking). It’s all subject to change and open for discussion right now and can be tweaked as necessary. I think we should have one 30 minute open parking spot for grocery drop offs and such. Have to see how the configuration works out.
Also, do you plan to limit rental of parking spaces to one per unit?
When my urban college kidmlived off campus, there was NO off street parking at his undergrad off campus housing. But he didn’t have a car. Most of the student housing actually didn’t have off street parking. Most people didn’t have cars.
But in grad school…off street parking was the deal breaker for both of my kids…included in their rent.
But my guess is there are plenty of renters in your apartment area who won’t care.
I was just apartment hunting in Alexandria, VA. The norm there in apartment high rises, vs the low rise 3 story more suburban looking places, was that you were charged $50/mo for general parking, and more for a guaranteed close spot. Where I saw trouble was visitor parking. They also had free shuttles to metros. My son will be working in Alexandria, so he has to have a car. I’m not sure if No Va is a place where people don’t have cars.
But yes, when I was looking with my son, having a place to park the car was a make or break for him. It had to be factored into the cost of rent as well for his budget, we kind of just lumped in the costs - parking, utilities, any fees, with the rent and consider it housing costs.
Can’t begin to answer without knowing what town you’re talking about. I’d view the lack of parking spots as a dealbreaker in Hanover and a non-issue in Cambridge.
One short term drop off space for that many apartments doesn’t seem like enough.
I’d want a guaranteed spot. I’d take a slightly less convenient location in trade for parking. Nothing spells PITA like finding parking in bad weather or at the end of a long day.
If I were the parent of a grad student, I’d want the total cost (apt and either parking option) to fit budget. If you’re thinking of top dollar in rent, based on the proximity, the parking charges could be a factor.
And I’d want to be comfortable that the “walking distance” is safe at all hours. I.e., worth a high rent.
I would have to think twice about renting a place that doesn’t have its own parking. It would be a hassle for guests of tenants, a pain to transfer things back and forth from the car if parked in another garage, and in bad weather even more of a challenge. For medical students that sometimes work late at night having to park elsewhere would be a hassle though some people may not mind it.
I had the option of purchasing a 3 bedroom condo with outside reserved parking or a 2 bedroom condo with a reserved garage space underneath for close to the same price. I picked the two bedroom with garage. For me having a reserved parking space is so worth it and I own so I am not paying any monthly fees on parking. The biggest complaint in our community is lack of parking especially for one bedroom unit owners since they have only one space but as a couple have two cars.
In the situation you described I would expect the rental price of the unit to be lower because of this inconvenience.
When my D rented in San Francisco her building had limited parking. The cost for a parking space was $150 a month. My D had a car and just got really lucky that she got a space. For her it was a deal breaker. For most of the other tenants it obviously wasn’t. I think most apartments in SF don’t have parking for every unit.
We own some apartments in another city where most apartments get 1 parking space. Some buildings the charge is extra others not. We own one building that some apartments don’t get any parking. It’s not been an issue but there is permit parking on the street.
As someone above mentioned I think it depends on what other buildings in the area offer. Also what is the vacancy rate in that city. If housing is tight it’s less of an issue. If apartments are sitting empty and incentives have to be offered I might pass.
I would put more parking spaces in especially if other buildings don’t have adequate parking. You never know down the road the parking lot adjacent to your building may be developed into another apt building so having the parking spaces will put your apt building at a premium.
Agree you should have one or two 30-minute parking spaces for loading and unloading.
Very few municipalities will approve an apartment project with such limited parking, but those that will generally have excellent public transportation. I would expect that Hanover, Providence, New Haven, Princeton, and Ithaca wouldn’t qualify, so I’ll assume your property is near Harvard, Columbia, or UPenn.
My daughter lives in Cambridge in an building with limited parking and she needs a car. Fortunately there’s sufficient on street parking so she does ok, but truly inadequate parking would be a deal killer for her.
My son recently relocated to Manhattan and had to get rid of his car, which I assume is fairly common there.
In the end it comes down to market forces. If you can keep your building full at sufficient rent to meet your financial objectives, then you’ll be fine.
The old adage of the three most important factors in real estate being “location, location, and location” is particularly applicable in this case.
Good luck! Developing a 40 unit high density urban property is quite a project.
I think I know which Ivy League uni and therefore which town cnp55 is talking about. But it doesn’t really matter, because this is the answer to the “problem”:
Seems to me that those spaces are almost as good as the spaces in the building. So it wouldn’t bother me at all.
You say you are going to develop/build. I cannot even imagine a City allowing a new build with limited parking unless it’s a huge metro area with lots of public transportation.
But I don’t know anything about the rent /parking place situation since my area of the country (So Cal) is very car and parking dependent.
Here in my neck of the woods folks fight such developments tooth and nail. Why? Because all these supposedly carless urbanites bring a car or two and then park in the neighborhoods. Seattle city streets are all lined up with cars!
In my “near an Ivy” area, the first issue seems to be affordability. On a few projects, everyone got hot about how the projected rents were so high they’d exclude most students except the wealthy.
I also can’t tell if OP means this is a new build or a rehab. And it’s approved, but I think you need an idea whether your target renters will have cars and can pay the rent you think you’ll charge. I think those demographics matter more than our opinions, not even knowing where this is.
Son had a car when he moved to Seattle. He has always walked to work ( in good shape- runner- and refuses to pay for parking at work) more or less a mile. With his first apartment he chose the management’s garage a few blocks away parking at half the price. Current apartment for a few years now has parking, he doesn’t use his car much but has it to go places if he wants to. He did check into places a bit further away but apparently didn’t like the public transit options.
Will potential tenants already own cars they want to keep? Having one spot for 1/2 hour parking will not work- likely to be used for longer. Having a way to stop in front of the entrance 15 minutes to drop off stuff or to be picked up is much better. Found out after parking some distance away that we could have used that empty space to pick up son one trip.