The Ray White Group report noted “modest but steady” growth in parking rates in the Civic area. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Canberra appears to buck the trend suggested in new research, which indicates that the correlation between office market health and parking fees can be used as an economic indicator of “CBD vibrancy”.
A paper from the Ray White Group has noted that limited parking supply, coupled with stronger office attendance (or limited office vacancy), leads to higher parking prices and competitive discounts as operators try to attract commuters to their carparks.
Research head Vanessa Rader wrote Canberra was an “interesting case” as there had been “modest but steady growth” in parking rates, despite decentralisation of government departments away from the “traditional Civic centre”.
“The reducing pool of facilities in the capital offers minimal discounting compared to other markets, with online rates discounted just 9.9 per cent and early bird options at 13.8 per cent, suggesting less pressure to fill capacity despite the 9.2 per cent office vacancy rate,” she said.
“The direct correlation between office market health and parking rates provides a valuable economic indicator of CBD vibrancy, with discounting strategies offering additional insights into competitive pressures facing operators across Australian cities.”
This compares to Brisbane, for example, with a vacancy rate of 10.2 per cent against discounts of 55.5 per cent for online bookings and 57.9 per cent for early bird parkers.
By contrast, Hobart has the country’s lowest capital city office vacancy rate at 3.6 per cent, with online discounts of 20.4 per cent and no early bird options.
The research collected primary data across all private operators. Photo: Supplied/Ray White Group.
Ms Rader explained that historically, high office occupancy and carparking occupancy had moved “hand in hand”; however, the COVID-19 pandemic had changed this trend.
“Greater working from home [arrangements] has been a factor contributing to prolonged high vacancy, limited take up of space and, unsurprisingly, parking occupancy has been up, resulting in low parking costs such as what you see in Melbourne and Sydney,” she said.
“[But Canberra’s office market health] is tough – while headline vacancy and take up look better than other markets, prolonged WFH and office decentralisation out of Civic has reduced vibrancy in our city centre.
“This is most notable with high retail vacancy.”
Ms Rader said a “high” contributing factor to rising parking costs in Canberra was the disappearance of parking spaces as part of construction works and their sale to developers.
“Reduced bays, together with reluctance of the local market to utilise public transport, have seen higher occupancy in parking and a slight uptick in daily rates.”
The Canberra Business Chamber believes a lack of “affordable and available” carparking, along with public transport options that “often don’t meet customer needs” are significant issues for the CBD.
CEO Greg Harford said this not only discouraged people from coming to the city, but also disincentivised employment in Civic.
“There are a range of issues underpinning the office vacancy rate in Civic. This includes people working from home, changing business needs, and barriers that prevent redevelopment of city centre buildings,” he said.
“We want the city centre to be a vibrant and exciting place to live, work and play … [but] the bottom line is that we need more carparking in the city, along with vastly improved public transport.”
